Our Mission Is to
- …develop microextraction (sample preparation) concepts for next generation analytical chemistry.
- …stimulate and train young scientist in conceptual research.
Strategy
- Small, creative, effective, and with strong international recognition.
- Focused on international dissemination and collaboration.
Our research is:
- Focused on development of new analytical microextraction concepts, for extraction of drugs and endogenous substances from biological fluids (such as blood).
- Currently devoted to electromembrane extraction (EME) and liquid-phase microextraction (LPME).
- Motivated by the expectation that next generation analytical chemistry will largely rely on microextraction technologies for sample preparation.
- Conceptual, and balanced between
(a) fundamental science (theoretical understanding),
(b) applied science (technical formats, forefront pharmaceutical and biomedical applications), and
(c) commercialization. - Anchored in teaching, thereby stimulating the students in direction of pharmaceutical analytical chemistry.
- Read more about our research here.
- A day in a creative, humoristic and kind atmosphere.
- A day with new experiments.
- Our concepts are used by routine laboratories, or
- Our concepts have inspired other scientists into conceptual research, or
- Students trained in our group are successful outside the university.
Research News
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Generic methods for EME of basic analytes Mar. 5, 2024 12:30 PM
Looking back into research papers on electromembrane extraction (EME), a jungle of different liquid membranes has been used, and they have been developed more or less by trial-and-error type of experiments. The last year, we have put a lot of efforts into standardizing stable and efficient liquid membranes, to propose generic extraction conditions to bases and acids of different polarity. A recent paper is one contribution in a series of papers, where we have optimized generic conditions for basic substances with low and moderate polarity
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EME of peptides Mar. 5, 2024 12:28 PM
We have for long time been investigating electromembrane extraction (EME) of peptides, in a large research project funded by the Research Council of Norway. Peptides are difficult because they have very poor partition into the liquid membrane. However, by testing a large number of liquid membrane compositions, we have learned that deep eutectic solvents show great potential. The deep eutectic solvents we prepare by mixing two solid substances together, and with a magical touch, we have a liquid that works superbly for peptide extraction!
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Generic conditions for electromembrane extraction of polar bases Sep. 26, 2023 12:00 PM
Generic conditions for electromembrane extraction (EME) of polar bases were developed. Now that prototype equipment is available to other research laboratories, generic conditions are highly relevant to harmonize method implementation and further development. A suitable supported liquid membrane was created by mixing 2-undecanone with deep eutectic solvents and ionic carries to extract compounds in the range -2.0 < logP < 4.5.
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High-throughput quantification of emerging “nitazene” benzimidazole opioids by microextraction Sep. 26, 2023 11:57 AM
Nitazenes are resurfacing on the black market after more than 70 years hiding in the cupboards of drug development laboratories. These highly potent synthetic opioids are partially unregulated and generally not included in toxicology screenings. In this work, liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) was used to develop a quantitative method for rapid determination of nine nitazene analogs from whole blood.
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Conductive vial electromembrane extraction –Principles and practical operation Sep. 26, 2023 11:54 AM
Want to learn about the basics of electromembrane extraction (EME)? This tutorial discusses the fundamental theory behind EME, how the prototype equipment is constructed, common obstacles encountered with EME and walks you through some relevant applications.
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Electromembrane extraction of peptides based on hydrogen bond interactions Sep. 26, 2023 11:52 AM
Peptides are considered highly polar substances and therefore not inherently ideal for extraction in EME. Previously, this has been overcome by introducing ionic carriers into the supported liquid membrane, however at the expense of EME system stability due to high currents. This paper, for the first time, demonstrates the use of pure phosphate solvents for extraction of peptides using EME. Read more about the interesting findings in the link below.
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Conductive vial electromembrane extraction from oral fluid Sep. 26, 2023 11:50 AM
Electromembrane extraction has been considered a novel extraction technique for many years, and the lack of commercial equipment has limited its use to research laboratories. Now that commercial prototype equipment is available, the interest for routine applications is steadily increasing. This paper presents an EME method for extraction of 13 opioids from oral fluid.
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Generic Liquid Membranes for Electromembrane Extraction Sep. 26, 2023 11:44 AM
It should be easy for someone interested in EME to simply “have a go at it”. In reality, method development is often cumbersome and dependent on many factors such as analyte characteristics and extraction conditions. Finding generic extraction conditions which are applicable for a wide variety of analytes has therefore been an intensive research area at our group. This paper investigates the behavior of 96 basic substances in different extraction system to find the best generic liquid membranes for EME.
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Determination of amphetamine enantiomers in urine by conductive vial electromembrane Sep. 26, 2023 11:42 AM
Amphetamines are commonly used for managing ADHD and narcolepsy, but are unfortunately also the most common drugs of abuse world-wide. During synthesis, a racemic mixture is produced, where in illicit preparations, both enantiomers are present, while the most pharmacologically active enantiomer is isolated in medicinal products. This creates an avenue for identifying recreational users through the detection of both enantiomers in urine. In this work, a validated EME method was developed for the extraction of both amphetamine enantiomers and compared to the routine method used at St. Olav University Hospital. This paper is an engaging read for both newcomers and experienced EME users.
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Determination of tryptamine analogs in whole blood by 96-well electromembrane extraction and UHPLC-MS/MS Mar. 7, 2023 10:57 AM
A high-throughput method with electromembrane extraction and UHPLC-MS/MS was developed for the simultaneous determination of 20 tryptamine analogs in whole blood. Tryptamines are psychoactive substances, and may not be discovered in routine toxicology screening due to the diversity in structural analogs. We here present a single-step green sample preparation procedure which solves this issue.
