Waters' Centers of Innovation Program Recognizes Forensic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Copenhagen

MILFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

At a ceremony at the University of Copenhagen, Waters Corporation WAT officially welcomed the University's Forensic Chemistry Laboratory within the Department of Forensic Medicine into the Waters Centers of Innovation Program. The laboratory, headed by Professor Kristian Linnet, provides essential drug analysis services to law enforcement and medical examiners who are investigating suicides, suspicious deaths caused by drug overdoses or poisonings, and drug-related crimes. Test results obtained on samples collected at a crime scene or from autopsies - blood, urine, tissue, saliva and hair – are crucial in solving crimes or the causes of accidental or deliberate death.

"We expect a fruitful collaboration on developing new forensic methods based on mass spectrometry which is an exciting, rapidly developing field," said Niels Morling, Professor, MD, DMSc, Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Dr. Petur Weihe Dalsgaard is a research scientist in the Forensic Chemistry Laboratory. He and his fellow scientists are experts in the development of new analytical methods based on mass spectrometry. In his remarks complimenting the work of Dr. Dalsgaard and his colleagues, Eric Fotheringham, Director - Waters Centers of Innovation Program said, "We couldn't be more pleased to have the University of Copenhagen and Dr. Dalsgaard participate in our program. Due to popular television series like Making a Murderer and CSI, forensic science is very much in the public eye today. It's a fascinating science and one that skilled scientists like Petur and his team bring to crime scene investigations every day."

On a global scale, the social and economic costs of illegal drug use and addiction are hard to come by. Estimates vary, but one thing is for certain: despite hundreds of billions of euros and dollars spent annually in lost productivity and for healthcare and drug enforcement costs, the problem remains.

"The illegal drug trade imposes tremendous costs on society. Lives are ruined and the financial cost to society is enormous. We see the effects every day," Dr. Dalsgaard said. "Our mission is to quickly provide law enforcement with the best available expertise, along with accurate and unassailable test results that answer some very tough questions."

For his work Dr. Dalsgaard employs the Waters^® ACQUITY^® UltraPerformance LC^® combined with Xevo^® quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometers to measure as many as 3,000 individual compounds in a single analysis. These include individual drug compounds from a number of categories including amphetamines, benzodiazepines, cannabinoids, cocaine, methadone and opiates.

In a ceremony held on campus, Waters officially saluted the work of Dr. Dalsgaard and the Section of Forensic Chemistry with a forensic science symposium organized in part and sponsored by the Waters Centers of Innovation Program.

About the University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen (UCPH) is the oldest university and research institution in Denmark. It is also the largest institution of research and education in Denmark with about 37,000 students and 7,000 employees. The university is a member of the prestigious International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), along with University of Cambridge, Yale University, The Australian National University and UC Berkeley, amongst others. It is ranked 45th in the 2014 QS World University Ranking and 13th in Europe. The university has had eight alumni become Nobel Laureates and has produced one Turing Award recipient.

About Waters Centers of Innovation Program

Established in 2010, Waters Centers of Innovation Program recognizes accomplished scientists and their institutions for research in the fields of the health sciences, pharmaceuticals, chemical materials, food and environmental chemistry, mass spectrometry and separations science. By partnering with leading scientists and connecting them with experts in mass spectrometry and separations science, Waters endeavors to bring about inspired thinking that converts ideas into reality.

The participants in the Waters Centers of Innovation Program include: Professor Ganesh Anand, National University of Singapore; Professor Luiz Claudio Cameron, UniRio, Brazil; Professor David Clemmer, Indiana University; Professor Daniel Tsun-Yee Chiu, Chang Gung University; Dr. Joseph Dalluge, University of Minnesota; Dr. Petur Weihe Dalsgaard, University of Copenhagen; Professor Marcos Eberlin, University of Campinas, Brazil; Professor Chris Elliott, Queen's University Belfast; Professor John Engen, Northeastern University; Prof. Rob Fitzgerald, University of California – San Diego; Professor Albert J. Fornace, Jr., Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center; Professor David Goodlett and Dr. Maureen Kane, University of Maryland; Professor De-an Guo, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica; Dr. Frank Gonzalez, National Cancer Institute; Prof. Ron Heeren, Maastricht University; Prof. Sunghwan Kim, Kyungpook National University, Seoul, Korea; Dr. Carlo R. Largiadèr, Dr. Jean-Francois DuFour and Dr. Martin Fiedler, Inselspital University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland; Professor Julie Leary, University of California – Davis; Professor Amit Kumar Mandal, St. John's Research Institute, Bangalore, India; Professor John McLean, Vanderbilt University; Professor Arthur Moseley, Duke University; Professor Jeremy Nicholson, Imperial College London; Dr. Devin Peterson, University of Minnesota; Associate Professor Jessica Prenni, Colorado State University; Dr. Serge Rezzi, Nestle Institute of Health Sciences; Dr. Ryan Rodgers, Future Fuels Institute, Florida State University; Professor Pauline Rudd, National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training; Professor James Scrivens, University of Warwick; Professor Vladimir Shulaev, University of North Texas; Dr. Norman Smith, Kings College London; Professor Sarah Trimpin, Wayne State University; Professor Bert van Bavel, NIVA, Oslo, Norway; Caroline West and Eric Lesselier, University of Orleans, Orleans, France; and Prof. Vicki Wysocki, The Ohio State University.

About Waters Corporation (www.waters.com)

Waters Corporation WAT develops and manufactures advanced analytical and material science technologies for laboratory dependent organizations. For more than 50 years, the company has pioneered a connected portfolio of separations science, laboratory information management, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis systems.

Waters, ACQUITY, UltraPerformance LC and Xevo are trademarks of Waters Corporation.

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