Solid Phase Extraction, Drugs of abuse, Opiates, Cocaine, Automation, mass spectrometry, NICC, toxic

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Tecan Group Ltd.

The biological complexity of forensic and toxicology samples makes them unsuitable for direct analysis using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (UPLC®-MS). Ideally, the sample preparation method should be selective, accurate, fast, cheap and safe. However, typical manual procedures are labor intensive and susceptible to human error, which lowers productivity, reducing turnaround times and increasing costs. The lack of data traceability also makes quality compliance (ISO 17025) an increasingly difficult task. The aim of this study was to develop an automated procedure for handling forensic samples, extracting 23 opioids, cocaine and their metabolites from human urine, and satisfying the following criteria: 1) to reduce hands-on time by more than 50 %; 2) to integrate with Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS); 3) to minimize sample cross-contamination; 4) to monitor all sample transfer and extraction steps.