King's College London joins Centres of Innovation Programme

Waters has announced that the Drug Control Centre within the Department of Forensic Science and Drug Monitoring at King's College London is joining its Centres of Innovation Programme. The company recognized researchers Professor David Cowan and Dr Norman Smith for their ongoing work in the area of sports medicine and separation science.

"Professor Cowan and Dr Norman Smith are doing exemplary research. Their application of separations science combined with mass spectrometry is not only innovative, their test methods are setting new standards of performance for sports drug testing. We believe our Centres of Innovation Partnership with them will lead to significant improvements in drug monitoring methodology," said Tim Riley of Waters.

Under the direction of Professor Cowan, The King's College London Drug Control Centre will be responsible for all drug testing of athletes at the 2012 Olympic Games. Professor Cowan's laboratory uses a Waters ACQUITY UPLC system combined with a tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer.

"Our ongoing collaboration with Waters has helped us develop faster and more sensitive analytical methods for sports drug testing. With their innovation in LC–MS–MS, Waters has been a valuable partner in our efforts to deter athletes from using drugs to enhance their performance," said Professor Cowan.

In addition to performing research into Sports Drug Testing, Professor Cowan's laboratory has taken a lead role in developing methods of analysing so-called "date rape drugs" that are typically undetectable in a victim's blood as soon as 24 hours after administration. The LC–MS–MS methods his lab has developed can now confirm the presence of previously unknown metabolites for many days after the event, enhancing law enforcement efforts to establish evidence of a crime.

For more information on the programme visit www.waters.com/coi