Drug Metabolomics Laboratory inaugurated at Pharmacy Department in TU

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, February 6, 2023

This is the first time in North Eastern state Tripura where the Drug Metabolomics Laboratory was established for the benefit of the pharmaceutical industry. The laboratory was inaugurated by Prof Ganga Prasad Prasain, Vice Chancellor of Tripura University today.

Dr. Pratap Chandra Acharya, HoD of Pharmacy Department has informed that the Drug Metabolomics laboratory has established with the help of grant received from Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, New Delhi under the “Research Resources Services Facility and Platforms” “Scientific Infrastructure Access for Harnessing Academia University Research Joint Collaboration” programme.

It has also informed that the major objective of this programme is to establish a drug metabolomics lab for north-eastern states of India for testing various drugs and their metabolites. Research at the laboratory is primarily focused on developing the LC/MS method for detection of narcotics, steroids and other drugs of abuse in any given biospecimens.

The Drug Metabolomics Laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like UPLC-QToF HRMS/MS instruments that allow both targeted and non-targeted metabolomics assays to be conducted on a wide array of samples including plasma, blood spots, tissue, urine, cerebral spinal fluid, and cell culture. For targeted analyses, the lab deploys above instruments to measure specific metabolites of Narcotics and other drugs of abuse.

The lab also have all the necessary sophisticated equipment such as semi-preparative HPLC with fraction collector, ultra-low temperature freezer, high volume cold storage cabinets, high speed refrigerated centrifuge, ultra-pure (Type-1) water purifier, analytical balance, lyophilizer, vacuum concentrator, probe and bath sonicator, laminar clean bench, parallel reaction station and extractor, particle size analyser and Real Time-PCR.

The Registrar of Tripura University Dr. Deepak Sharma as well as other important dignitaries has attended the inauguration programme.

“It is really a remarkable job that was done by Dr. Pratap Chandra Acharya for the benefit of research for higher professional achievements in pharmaceutical industry, entrepreneurship as well as academic sector.”, said Prof Ganga Prasad Prasain, Vice Chancellor.