Semi - Digital Disputation
Due to the pandemic and the worldwide travel restrictions, the Disputation will be held semi - digital. An Audience is welcome to attend the Trial lecture and Disputation (physical attendance) in the Department after registering below. There is a limited seating capacity and the registration will be closed with no further notice, when the capacity limit has been reached. Only those who sign up are allowed physical attendance.
The Disputation will be live streamed for everyone else.
The livestream will be activated 15 minutes before the Defence starts.
NB! Ex Auditorio questions can only be asked by Audience present in the Auditorium.
Order the Dissertation as PDF from this email address with the name of the Candidate: a.c.gartner@kjemi.uio.no
Printed Dissertations will also be available in Auditorium 1.
Registration for local attendance
Trial lecture
25th. of Sept. 10:30 AM, Auditorium 2
‘The usefulness of hair for detection of NPS in Forensic toxicology’
The livestream of the lecture will be activated 15 minutes before the Trial lecture starts.
Conferral summary / Kreeringssammendrag
De siste årene har man sett en global økning i antallet overdosedødsfall knyttet til det svært potente syntetiske opioidet fentanyl og analoger av fentanyl. I denne avhandlingen har bioanalytiske metoder for bestemmelse av fentanylanaloger i blodprøver blitt utviklet og validert, og ny kunnskap om metabolismen og den farmakodynamiske effekten av utvalgte fentanylanaloger ervervet. Dette arbeidet har bidratt til ny informasjon om fentanylanaloger og nye analytiske verktøy som kan anvendes til å overvåke forekomsten av fentanylanaloger på det norske narkotikamarkedet.
Main research findings
The highly potent opioid analgesic fentanyl and its various analogs play a major part in the global rise in opioid overdose fatalities. New fentanyl analogues are continuously appearing and the high mortality rate associated with these compounds make their analysis critical in forensic toxicology laboratories. In this thesis, sensitive and selective bioanalytical methods based on liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry were developed and validated for determination of fentanyl analogs in human whole blood as well as rat plasma. New knowledge was gained on the metabolism of selected fentanyl analogs by combining human liver in vitro models with high resolution mass spectrometry. The pharmacodynamic effects of fentanyl analogs were also examined using an in vivo rat model. The findings in this thesis have many forensic, clinical and societal applications, and have provided new knowledge on drug intake markers and analytical tools for monitoring the presence of fentanyl analogues on the illicit drug market. The developed methods have been implemented in the routine at Oslo University Hospital and have been employed in various research projects.