Stefan Stürup
Lektor
E-mail: sts(at)farma.ku.dk

Platinum-based drugs Platinum-based drugs, most commonly cisplatin or oxaliplatin, are used as chemotherapeutics for the treatment of testicular, ovarian and bladder cancer. The drugs are given intravenously and transported by the blood stream to the cancer cells in which they bind to DNA and hinder cell proliferation. Although the platinum drugs have been applied for the last 30 years many aspects of their mode of action and resistance mechanisms are not fully understood. The aim of this project is to investigate the distribution and biotransformation of platinum-based drugs in cancer cell lines at a molecular level. This entails application of advanced analytical chemistry e.g. ICP-MS and LC-ICP-MS for determination of platinum drugs and their biotransformation products in cells, cell fractions and DNA. The cancer cell line work is performed in collaboration with Assoc. Professor Ian Lambert at SCIENCE, KU.
Supervisor: Stefan Stürup

Development and characterization of multi-elemental Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) methods for determination of inorganic impurities in drugs
There are several different sources of inorganic impurities in drugs e.g. solvents, reagents, contaminants from equipment or from the use of inorganic catalysts. The Pharmacopeias outline guidelines and limits for the elemental impurities in drugs and drug substances, these regulations are currently being reviewed and it is foreseen that more sensitive analytical techniques will be required, thus new methods for determination of elemental impurities is of increasing interest to the pharmaceutical industry. This project entails the development and validation of ICP-OES and ICP-MS methods for the measurement of inorganic impurity profiles in a range drug substances and candidate drugs. The main part of the work will taken place at Lundbeck A/S.
Internal supervisor: Stefan Stürup, external supervisor: Henrik Jensen, H. Lundbeck A/S