Interdisciplinary research team to develop novel drug detection technology using software that acts like a robotic scientist
By Vanderbilt University
November 9, 2009
Every time a person snorts cocaine, it doesn’t just go to his or her head: It also provokes a response in the immune system, creating special biomolecules that may serve as a permanent record of each exposure.
With the support of a $2.7 million Recovery Act grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), an interdisciplinary team headed by Vanderbilt chemist John McLean and physicist John Wikswo will attempt to determine whether an individual’s white blood cells retain chemical memories of exposure to drugs like cocaine and alcohol that can be read reliably and unambiguously.
The capability to characterize an individual’s history of drug abuse should allow physicians to tailor treatment strategies on a case-by-case basis, and the technology could provide new insights into the biological pathways that control addictive behavior, which is a first step toward identifying effective new treatments.
If successful, it might also provide the basis for a new technology for drug testing that could be more difficult to beat or evade than current tests that detect the presence of specific drugs or their metabolites in the body.
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