Uwe Karst

Uwe Karst received his PhD in 1993 at the University of Münster, Germany in the group of Karl Cammann and moved to the University of Colorado in Boulder for a postdoctoral fellowship with Robert E. Sievers. After finishing his Habilitation in Münster, he was appointed as Full Professor of Chemical Analysis at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. In 2005, he took over his current position as Chair of Analytical Chemistry in Münster. His research main interests include hyphenated techniques, with particular focus on pharmaceutical analysis, elemental speciation and metallomics. In his project at CIRES, two different combined aspects of aerosols and imaging mass spectrometry will be investigated. One part of the project deals, in cooperation with Jose-Luis Jimenez, with the development of a novel combination of laser ablation (LA) and aerosol mass spectrometer for improved limits of detection in tissue imaging. Samples of rat lungs will be investigated. The interface of the aerosol mass spectrometer and the experimental conditions will be adapted to the flow rate coming from the LA under consideration of the fact that for imaging analysis, transient signals are obtained. In the second part of the project, in cooperation with Bob Sievers, an analytical method that allows monitoring the distribution of low molecular weight pharmaceuticals in tissues after supercritical fluid-assisted drug delivery will be developed. First, dry particles of the pharmaceuticals of interest will be generated using supercritical fluid-assisted nebulization. Antibiotics are a particularly interesting class of compounds and will be the substances of choice. Uwe is excited to return to CIRES after more than 20 years and looks forward to (re)establish interdisciplinary cooperations with colleagues from various research areas.