Skip Navigation
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document
Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document

Your Environment. Your Health.

Final Progress Reports: Duke University: Analytical Chemistry Core

Superfund Research Program

Analytical Chemistry Core

Project Leader: P. Lee Ferguson
Co-Investigators: Heather M. Stapleton, Heileen Hsu-Kim
Grant Number: P42ES010356
Funding Period: 2011-2022

Project-Specific Links

Final Progress Reports

Year:   2016 

The function of the Analytical Chemistry Core (ACC) is to provide routine sample analysis and monitoring of Superfund contaminants examined in individual biomedical and non-biomedical projects. Furthermore the Core provides analytical expertise in identifying degradation products and/or metabolites of these Superfund contaminants using high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques.

The Analytical Chemistry Core is an essential resource for Duke’s SRC. In the past year’s funding cycle, capabilities have grown to include non-targeted mass spectrometric analysis of contaminants in consumer products and household foam samples and enhanced HPLC-MS methods for project analytes. The ACC is integral in providing high-quality chemical analyses to all projects of Duke’s SRC. This analytical support has allowed researchers to explore new research questions, work with new Superfund contaminants and interact more readily with other projects. Specifically, researchers have successfully developed highly sensitive quantitative and qualitative methods for measuring Superfund-target compounds such as PAHs, halogenated flame retardants, organophosphate pesticides, and chlorophenols, along with their transformation products, in a variety of biological and environmental sample types. With the support of the ACC, Duke SRC researchers now have access to highly sensitive and specific mass spectrometry techniques, which expand the number of compounds under study as well as the range of concentrations that can be explored. Finally, over the past year they have continued to provide training for SRC researchers and students in analytical chemistry principles and practice. To date, the ACC has analyzed over 100 target analytes over 4,200 samples for Duke SRC researchers, across all four projects.

Back
to Top