FUNDED STRATEGIC RESEARCH PROJECTS
His Majesty Trust Fund (2016 to 2019)
Novel microfluidics devices for the determination of the total phenolic content in Omani honey and fruits samples (187,096 U$)
Phenolic compounds play an important role in prevention and treatment of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Total phenolic content (TPC) in honey or fruits usually measured using Folin–Ciocalteu assay. The method suffers from several drawbacks. First, the test is sensitive to pH, temperature and reaction time. Therefore, proper selection of reaction condition is necessary for consistent and reliable results. Secondly, overestimation of TPC is a major concern for Folin–Ciocalteu assay, due to the contribution of non-phenolic reducing agents present in the system to the reduction of the Folin–Ciocalteu reagent. This project is aiming to develop two novel microfluidics devices for the determination of total phenolic content in Omani honey using chemiluminescence methods developed earlier in our laboratory. The first one is paper/plastic based device while the second one is based on Cyclic-olefin-copolymers (COC) chip materials. Although both will utilize chemiluminescence (CL) as detection technique, the second one will include solid phase extraction to enhance the selectivity and sensitivity of the CL method. Photomultiplier tube, charge couple device, mobile phone and digital camera will be evaluated as detection devices. Finally, the two developed microfluidics devices will be evaluated critically and various honey and fruit samples will be analyzed.
The Research Council Fund (2014 TO 2017)
Rapid Liquid Chromatography -Mass spectrometry methods for monitoring adulterants in herbal medicines and dietary suplements (436000 U$)
High-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to Tandem Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was used to develop and validate a rapid method to qualitatively and quantitatively analyse common adulterants in herbal medicine (HM) and food samples (FS).
THE RESEARCH COUNCIL FUND (2012 TO 2015)
Capillary HPLC systems for pharmaceutical and biological analysis using microfluidic chip chemiluminescence detector (143600 U$)
The objective of this project is to utilize the efficient novel mixing micro-devices as a detection system for a capillary-HPLC. In capillary HPLC, the size of packed HPLC columns is decreased into the capillary range, where the column ID is between 100–500 μm and flow rates are typically 0.4–100 μL min-1. This imparts many advantages to the separation such as improving the speed and mass sensitivity of a separation. These capillary HPLC are compatible in flow term with the developed micro-devices (flow rates vary between 10 to 100 µl min-1) which will eliminate any compromise with regard to the flow rate issue.
HIS MAJESTY TRUST FUND (2009-2013)
Developing Microfluidic Systems for Routine Analysis of Pharmaceutical samples (232258 U$)
The hazard chemical waste generated from the growing number of various chemical laboratories in the Sultanate is becoming a major challenge facing these laboratories. One of the most promising approaches to minimize this problem is to miniaturize the chemical systems, such that the amount of chemicals used in these systems is of minimal quantities. The latest development in microabrication techniques permits miniaturization of the analytical system and reduction of the generated waste by a factor of thousand to hundred thousands. In addition to the advantages inherent in miniaturizing the analytical systems, other merits are associated with the enhanced efficiency with respect to sample and reagent size, response time, cost, analytical throughput and automation. Taking into account these merits we are aiming to develop environmentally safe cost effective, sensitive and highly selective analytical techniques for routine analysis. Various chips will be designed and fabricated to develop complete microfluidic systems for the assay of drugs in pharmaceutical and clinical samples. These samples were selected as model to test the efficiency of the developed systems.