Research Focus

     Dr. McDonald is manager of the Inhalation Exposure and Analytical Chemistry Program. This program supports research activities in environmental inhalation toxicology, new drug development and safety evaluation, aerosolization of biological and radiological products, and chemical disposition. The Inhalation Laboratory is among the world’s leaders in the ability to generate and characterize simple and complex exposure atmospheres. Long recognized in the field of inhalation toxicology, in recent years the laboratory has emerged as a leader in the field of respiratory drug development. The Inhalation laboratory is coupled with the Analytical Chemistry laboratory to enable an integrated approach to the characterization of exposure atmospheres. The laboratory develops and applies measurements of either simple single component exposure atmospheres or characterizations of complex exposure mixtures that include hundreds of individual measurements.

     Several key programs define the main emphases of this program. First, Lovelace is home to the National Environmental Respiratory Center (NERC). NERC (www.nercenter.org) is a joint government-industry funded program aimed at studying the toxicology of inhaled mixtures. The Inhalation and Analytical Laboratory have developed and characterized several novel exposure atmospheres to support this program, including diesel engine exhaust, wood smoke, and gasoline engine exhaust. Currently road dust and a downwind coal exposure atmosphere are being developed. Several other environmental programs at Lovelace benefit from the exposure systems developed and characterized for this and complementary programs. Facilitated through the New Mexico National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NM NIEHS) Center based at Lovelace and the University of New Mexico, investigators at several labs throughout New Mexico have improved their ability to study the toxicity of inhaled materials by collaborating and utilizing the Lovelace Inhalation and Analytical Laboratories.

     Built on many years of excellence in the aerosolization and aerosol characterization of powders, suspensions, and solutions, this lab has recently partnered with several companies to develop and test methods for inhaled drug products. Lovelace has experience in the development of dry powder and other aerosol technologies in-house, as well as application of several aerosolization products on the market that are adapted to animal inhalation exposure systems.
     To complement the analytical measurement of inhalation exposure atmospheres, the Analytical Laboratory also has years of experience in the development and validation of bioanalytical methods. Our laboratory is actively involved in many studies assessing the absorption, disposition, metabolism, and excretion of environmental or pharmaceutical agents exposed by several routes of administration. These studies require measurement of active compounds with and without radiolabels, and also involve identification of unknown metabolites by mass spectrometry and other tools.
     In summary, the Inhalation Exposure and Analytical Program is a key component of much of the research at Lovelace and the University of New Mexico. The laboratory has facilities and experience that match or exceed the capabilities of any other laboratories in the world with respect to inhalation toxicology. As the laboratory continues to grow into the next Century, we expect that this National Resource will serve an important role in the World’s effort to understand the toxicology of inhaled materials.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute
2425 Ridgecrest Dr., SE
Albuquerque, NM 87108

Affiliations

• American Association for Aerosol Research
• Society of Toxicology
• American Chemical Society
• Air and Waste Management Association