Established in 2012, the Gerona Lab is primarily focused on new psychoactive substances (NPS) analysis and surveillance, and environmental chemical biomonitoring. The laboratory pioneered the use of high-resolution mass spectrometry in suspect screening and non-targeted analysis applications to NPS analysis and endocrine disrupting chemicals biomonitoring.
In 2015, the laboratory expanded its work to the analysis of antiretrovirals and tuberculostatic drugs in hair to support drug adherence monitoring projects of the San Francisco General Hospital’s Positive Health Program. In the same year, the Gerona Lab also adopted its official name as the UCSF Clinical Toxicology and Environmental Biomonitoring Lab. Currently, the laboratory maintains this three research focus- NPS analysis and surveillance, MDR-TB drug hair analysis, and biomonitoring- as it also expands into other areas of small molecule analysis to provide mass spectrometry-based methods for UCSF researchers and their collaborators. One such application involves the investigation on the interaction between the microbiome and antineoplastic agents.
In the eight years since it was established, the laboratory has published 105 peer-reviewed articles from its various research activities and collaborations. The distribution of these papers according to research topic is detailed below.
