Research partnership tackles fentanyl crisis
With BC’s drug overdose epidemic reaching record levels, health care providers are seeking new tools to contain the crisis. That’s why, when UVic chemist Dennis Hore received a phone call last summer from a local pharmacist proposing an innovative partnership, he jumped on the opportunity. Alain Vincent of STS Pharmacy wanted a way to detect and measure the levels of drugs that his clients were bringing in, particularly fentanyl, the deadly opioid involved in many of BC’s drug overdose deaths. Since then, Hore and his student Nic Medgyesi have been working with Vincent to develop an inexpensive mobile detection device. The prototype they’ve developed measures how laser light interacts with a tablet, says Medgyesi. “Each drug has a unique molecular fingerprint, so we should be able to determine what drugs are present, and at what concentration.” More info: bit.ly/uvic-hore