Musah Lab Presents at 8th Annual Life Sciences Research Symposium

Tianyu and Kristen presented their research at the 8th Annual Life Sciences Research Symposium at the University at Albany-SUNY. Kristen spoke about her work during a talk titled "The Development and Application of an Imaging Technique for Small-molecule Spatial Distributions: Laser Ablation Direct Analysis in Real Time Imaging Mass Spectrometry (LADI-MS)”. Tianyu presented his talk titled "Integration of Boron Clusters into Biological Scaffolds for The Development of Anti-tumor Agents”.

Kristen presenting at the 8th Annual LSRS.

Tianyu presenting at the 8th Annual LSRS.

Allix Presents at Undergraduate Research Symposium in Biology at University at Albany-SUNY

Allix presenting her work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in Biology

Allix presented her work on identification of condom fingerprints using DART-HRMS. Her talk was titled "Forensic Identification of Condom Residues by Chemometric Processing of Mass Spectrometry-derived Chemical Fingerprint Signatures”.

Allix Presents at 2nd Annual Undergraduate Symposium of Chemistry Research at University at Albany-SUNY

Undergraduate student Allix gave a talk during the 2nd Annual Undergraduate Symposium of Chemistry Research. Her talk was titled "Cops and Rubbers: Development of a Forensic Database of Condom Lubricants using DART-MS". Allix received the Best Presentation Award for her talk.

Allix presenting at the 2nd Annual Undergraduate Symposium of Chemistry Research.

Musah Lab Presents at NEAFS

The annual meeting of the Northeastern Association of Forensic Sciences was held in Atlantic City, NJ. Professor Musah gave a talk titled "Direct Analysis in Real Time-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (DART-HRMS) as a tool for structural determination of Psychotropic Unknowns" and Ashton presented on work she completed regarding a grant she received from NEAFS in 2015.

Paper Accepted by Phytochemical Analysis

Justine published her first-author manuscript in Phytochemical Analysis. The manuscript discussed the ability to rapidly differentiate between different members of the plant family Salvia by DART-HRMS. The manuscript is titled "Rapid Species-level Identification of Salvias by Chemometric Processing of Ambient Ionisation Mass Spectrometry-derived Chemical Profiles."

Musah Lab Presents at ACS Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting

Professor Musah with Justine and Kristen outside MARM 2016.

Professor Musah, Justine and Kristen presented at the MARM 2016 Annual Meeting in Riverdale, NY. Justine presented her work titled "Time flies: Species identification of blow flies by direct analysis in real-time, high-resolution mass spectrometry (DART-HRMS) for postmortem interval estimations." Kristen presented a talk titled "Deducing the structures of amphetamine and cathinone unknowns from chemometrically processed ambient ionization mass spectral datasets of known synthetic amphetamine and cathinone structures". Professor Musah spoke about the work accomplish on creating a database of plants of abuse titled "Towards development of a mass spectrometric database for the rapid identification of plant drugs of abuse by ambient ionization mass spectrometry."

Kristen presenting her work with synthetic cathinones at MARM.

Professor Musah speaking at MARM.

Musah Lab Presents at ASMS 2016

Professor Musah attended the American Society for Mass Spectrometry's Annual conference in San Antonio, TX with Kristen and Justine. Kristen presented on her work with synthetic cathinones. Her poster was titled "Classification of Synthetic Cathinones Using Neutral Mass Losses by Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS)." Justine presented a talk during the meeting on her work titled "Classification of blow fly eggs for determination of post-mortem interval." Professor Musah presented a poster regarding the novel technique LADI-MS. Her poster was titled "Development of Laser Ablation Direct Analysis in Real Time Imaging Mass Spectrometry (LADI-MS)."

Kristen presenting her poster.

Kristen and Justine visit The Alamo.

Justine presenting at ASMS 2016.

Tianyu Presents at the University at Buffalo Graduate Student Symposium

Tianyu presenting at the University at Buffalo Graduate Student Symposium.

Graduate student Tianyu He presented his research at the University at Buffalo Graduate Student Symposium. His talk was titled "Synthesis and Biological Effects of Novel Biocompatible Agents for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy”.

Ashton Graduates with her Ph.D.

Graduate student Ashton Lesiak successfully defended her dissertation titled "Development of Direct Analysis in Real Time-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (DART-HRMS) and Statistical Analysis Tools for the Identification and Classification of Psychoactive Plant Drugs”.

Ashton and Professor Musah at Graduate Commencement.

Ashton at Commencement.

Professor Musah Presents at The Sage Colleges

Professor Musah was honored to deliver the Grace Van Dervoort Lecture at The Sage Colleges. Her talk was titled "Getting to the Root of Psychedelic Plant Highs: Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometric Approaches to Identification and Characterization”.

Musah Lab Presents at AAFS

Ashton and Justine at AAFS.

Ashton presented her work at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Las Vegas, NV. Her talk was titled "Adulteration of Psychoactive Herbal Supplements Revealed by Direct Analysis in Real-Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS)”. Justine also attended the meeting.

Professor Musah Presents at the University at Albany-SUNY

Professor Musah was invited to speak at the University as part of the "Campus Conversations in Standish" lecture series. Her talk was titled "Smokes, Chews and Brews: The Dangers and Crackdown on Legal Plant Highs".

Professor Musah Visits Trinity College

Professor Musah visited Trinity College in Hartford, CT. She presented a talk titled "Revealing the Secrets of the Shaman’s: Characterization of Mind-Altering Plants by DART-HRMS”.

Professor Musah’s Research is Featured in New Scientist, Huffington Post, and Mental Floss

M. pudica plant.

Mimosa pudica research from the Musah Lab is highlighted in international publications.

New Scientist: Farting plants have a built-in stink bomb that deters predators

"Musah has found that the roots of some species actively release their foul smell. Her team made this discovery while growing seedlings of Mimosa pudica, known for its sensitive leaves that fold up when touched. They found that this plant’s roots are also touch-sensitive, releasing the odour when accosted (Plant Physiology, DOI: 10.1104/pp.15.01705)."

Huffington Post: This Plant Lets Loose a Stinky Defense Mechanism When Humans Touch It 

MentalFloss: Plants Fart in the Face of Danger

Allix Coon Joins the Musah Lab

The Musah Lab is very excited to welcome sophomore Allix Coon.  She is a chemistry and mathematics double major with a business minor. She is also a proud member of the Honors College.

Professor Musah’s Work is Featured in the Times Union Newspaper

Professor Musah's research on the creation of a psychoactive plant database for forensic analysis was featured on the front page of the Times Union newspaper.  

"Rabi Musah is building a database with the fingerprints of some of the world's worst offenders. They've harmed, hospitalized and — some believe — even killed.

They've done so with impunity for centuries, and that's something Musah and law enforcement across the country would like to stop. Their names are Salvia divinorum, Datura stramonium and Picralima nitida, to name a few. They're ancient, psychoactive plants. And they're natural and perfectly legal."

Psychoactive plant powder analysis by DART-MS.

Professor Musah Speaks at Pacifichem 2015

Professor Musah traveled to Honolulu, HI to attend the 2015 Pacifichem conference.  She presented a talk titled "Solvent-dependent Self Assembly of S-substituted Cysteines" in the Organosulfur session.

Image taken from http://paradiseintheworld.com/hawaii-travel-guide-to-vacation-in-hawaii/

Cameron Longo Joins the Musah Lab

The Musah Lab is excited to welcome first year Ph.D. student Cameron Longo.  Cameron graduated from Buffalo State University last year with a B.S. in Chemistry. 

Professor Musah Receives NIJ Grant

Professor Musah is a recipient of a 2015 National Institute of Justice Grant "Development of Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometric and Multivariate Statistical Analysis Methods for Rapid High-Throughput Analysis and Identification of Psychotropic Plant Species" for $688,158. This grant will fund forensic investigation of mind-altering plants and methods to identify psychoactive botanical materials. This is the second NIJ grant that Professor Musah has received.  

UAlbany Chemist Helps CSIs get to the Root of the Investigation

Musah Lab Presents at Eastern Analytical Symposium

Ashton was one of four recipients of the Graduate Student Research Award from the 2015 Eastern Analytical Symposium.  The award afforded her the opportunity to present her research on forensic identification of botanical materials using DART-MS.  Professor Musah also presented a talk on plant emission analysis by SPME-DART-MS analysis.