Research team
Expertise
Dr. Tim Boogaerts (TB) obtained a Master Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences: Drug Development at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Antwerp in 2018. Thereafter, TB pursued a predoctoral scholarship focusing on the potential of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a complementary data source on lifestyle and health aspects in specific communities at the Toxicological Centre (with a research stay at the University of Queensland (Australia) in 2020). During his PhD, TB was involved in the Europe-wide EuSeMe project that applied wastewater surveillance as a valuable source of information about new drug-related threats such as the use of new psychoactive substances, licit and illicit opioids and other emerging drugs including crack cocaine. Currently, TB is involved as a post-doctoral researcher in the field of environmental toxicology and analytical chemistry in the frame of the different (international) WBE research projects (STYX, PARC, PROMETHEUS, PARTINSIGHTS,…). His postdoctoral fellowship focuses on the development and validation of analytical workflows based on suspect and target screening for the measurements of biomarkers of environmental contaminants in wastewater. Using WBE as a complementary environmental monitoring tool, TB aims to gather fundamental knowledge on the human exposome at the population scale. Starting from 2024, TB is an active coordinating member of the Sewage CORe Group Europe, which organizes the yearly Europe-wide wastewater monitoring campaign and proficiency tests for external validation of analytical platforms. TB is also involved in the on-going national wastewater monitoring program on the use of different stimulants (e.g., amphetamine, cocaine, MDMA, methamphetamine and ketamine). Furthermore, TB actively tries to expand the application of liquid-chromatography and mass spectrometry in other areas, as exemplified by his involvement as a co-promotor in the development of a preclinical cornea-on-chip model to assess corneal permeation and small molecule permeability. In the past, TB also actively communicated and promoted the research of the Toxicological Centre through different Scicomm platforms (e.g., University of Flanders, Flemish PhD cup, Nerdland Festival, the national Science Day).
Community-wide assessment of the opioid burden through combined use of wastewater-based analytics and prescription drug monitoring data.
Abstract
In recent times, the use of opioids has escalated drastically and resulted in a crisis of epidemic proportions in North America. In Europe, the use of opioids has also increased, but in smaller proportions compared to North America. However, the extent to which opioids are (mis)used in Europe needs to be further explored. In this project, we will optimise and develop a highthroughput bioanalytical assay based on μSPE-LC-MS/MS capable of measuring a broad range of biomarkers of opioids use in the ng/L range in wastewater. We aim at obtaining near real-time, objective and complementary information on the use of opioids at high spatio-temporal resolution through a wastewater sampling campaign in different locations in Belgium. By generating highly relevant data on the consumption of opioids together with triangulation of this data with other existing datasets (e.g. Farmanet, Health Interview Survey,...), this project can aid in obtaining a better picture on the opioid use in Belgium which is of importance for policy makers in optimizing and evaluating prevention, treatment and harm-reduction strategies on the subject of pain management. Furthermore, by combining multiple datasets, information on the illegal use of opioids can be obtained. In a last step, the obtained data will be correlated with existing socioeconomicco-variates of the investigated communities to obtain a better insight on the relationship between socio-demographic features, and prevalence of use of opioids.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: van Nuijs Alexander
- Co-promoter: Covaci Adrian
- Co-promoter: De Loof Hans
- Fellow: Boogaerts Tim
Research team(s)
Funding
- BOF
Project type(s)
- Research Project