The laboratories are a part of Radiochemical, Microbiological and Chemical Testing for Food Defense and Capability Development and Food Emergency Response Network Programs of the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture.
Research is focused on monitoring toxic organic contaminants including controlled substances, alkaloids and emerging threats in foods as well as metals and radioactivity.
Research activities involve development and validation of analytical methods for measuring a wide range of environmental contaminants including pesticides, alkaloids, and mycotoxins in food matrices and surveillance of food supplies.
Associated Researchers
Sherry A. Faye, PhD
Director, Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory
We focus on method development of radiochemical analyses for use in routine and emergency response scenarios.
Kurunthachalam Kannan, PhD
Deputy Director of the Division of Environmental Health Sciences
Biomonitoring of human exposure to environmental chemicals; biomarkers of health effects; sources and pathways of human exposure; environmental distribution, food chain transfer and fate of organic pollutants; consumer product analysis; overdose and wastewater surveillance
Christopher D. Palmer, PhD
Deputy Director, Clinical Trace Elements Laboratory
We develop and maintain robust ICP-MS methodologies to support both human biomonitoring studies and emergency preparedness.
Patrick J. Parsons, PhD
Director, Division of Environmental Health Sciences
We study human exposure to toxic metals/metalloids (biomonitoring) and long-lived nuclides (radiobioassay); and develop novel speciation methods by coupling LC and GC to ICP-MS, while using portable XRF for field-based studies.
Buu N. Tran, PhD
Organic and Analytical Chemistry Laboratory
We develop analytical methods to identify unknown chemicals in foods and environmental samples including toxic compounds and chemical terrorism agents, thus providing national surveillance of the food supply.