A Great Achievement by TÜBA Principle Member Prof. Dr. Adil Denizli
TÜBA Principle Member and Hacettepe University (HÜ) Chemistry Department Teaching Staff Member Prof. Dr. Adil Denizli and Gülsu Şener who has been continuing her doctorate studies in his study group have developed a “Preparation of Assay Criteria for Drug Detection” project which will be able to detect drugs in one drop of blood in a few minutes wherever the person is located.
Prof. Dr. Denizli, whose international publications on molecular suppression and sensor technologies have reach 85 in only 10 years thereby placing him in 3rd place in the world ranking, announced that the “Preparation of Assay Criteria for Drug Detection” project being conducted with Gülsu Şener and the support of the Ministry of Development is now completed.
Pointing out the existing chemical technologies for detecting the use of drugs by an individual being expensive due to importation, Prof. Dr. Denizli also emphasized that these technologies not only take time but require expertise. Prof. Dr. Adil Denizli explained that the molecular suppression method is studied throughout the world in different laboratories and a portion of these are at the point of being transformed into products therefore it is expected that the market share for detection methods developed with this technology will increase in the future.
Prof Denizli, who announced that they had been getting results on the studies being conducted in the HU Biochemistry Research Laboratory on more affordable and reliable alternatives to these methods said that they had developed a molecular suppression based method to detect drugs within a few minutes wherever the person is located rather than in a laboratory and describe the new methods as follows:
“We have completed our project by detecting cocaine. However, the method is such that it can be applied to any kind of drug. Using molecular suppression we create a smart polymer layer on the surface of a chip to detect drugs. We embed the type of molecule you want to detect within this smart polymer. Then we remove the molecule. Three dimensional gaps in which only the molecule we want can enter are formed in this spongy polymer. Only the molecules of the drugs we want to detect bind to prepared detection kit and thus the detection is made possible”.
Denizli pointed out that the existing drug analyses take samples far from the laboratory making it difficult to bring the sample to the laboratory and added, "The results of a drug test with the existing technology takes two days. The method we have developed is a very simple method that does not require an expert and can be used by any law enforcement official. Thus we can get to the point of being able to detect drugs directly at the scene of an incident".