Our People
Anas El-Aneed
Dr. Anas El-Aneed (Ph.D. Biochemistry (2007) & M.Sc. Pharmacy (2003), Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada; M.B.A. (2012), University of Saskatchewan, Canada; and B.Sc. Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry (1997), Tishreen University, Syria) is a Professor of Pharmacy at the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan. His Ph.D. thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Banoub, focused on structural elucidation of bacterial carbohydrates that can be used as vaccines using mass spectrometry. He was awarded the Governor General Gold medal for his thesis. El-Aneed’s research is focused on developing novel mass spectrometric methods using various analytical platforms, with emphasis on metabolites and pharmaceuticals. His funding sources over the years include NSERC, CIHR, CFI, SHRF (Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation), Government of Saskatchewan/ Ministry of Agriculture, and Western Economic Diversification Canada. He coauthored over 70 publications and contributed to over 150 conference abstracts and published conference proceedings. He has supervised/co-supervised over 40 trainees and research staff to-date.
Deborah Michel
Deborah is a Research Manager at the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition. She obtained a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to joining the U of S, she worked for 13 years in industry at two biopharmaceutical companies. She has extensive experience in bioanalysis including quantitation and method validation (FDA/EMA guidelines) and animal studies working in a Good Manufacturing Practice facility. After joining the U of S, she has worked 15 years with liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, flow cytometry and other various benchtop assays; training undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral and research personnel. She has also used complementary biological and analytical techniques high-resolution microscopies, spectroscopy techniques, biological assays, and synchrotron techniques, including data processing.
Her current focus includes training new and existing users as well as helping them with data analysis and interpretation. She also maintains both LCMS systems, AB Sciex QTRAP 4000 with Agilent 1260 HPLC and AB Sciex QTRAP 6500 with Agilent 1290 UPLC. She has in-depth experience in LC-MS analysis for small molecules, metabolites and peptides. She continuously supplements her expertise by participating in workshops and training sessions regarding mass spectrometry. To date, she has trained over 112 users.
Deborah has approximately 40 publications in peer reviewed journals and numerous conference proceedings and abstracts. She also contributes to graduate and undergraduate teaching when analysis is needed in the course.
Ed Krol
Dr. Krol received his Ph.D. in Physical-organic chemistry from Queen’s University, Kingston. His research has focused on solving chemical structural questions such as biological properties, stability and metabolism of phenolic natural products and their synthetic analogues.
Dr. Krol has experience with analytical, semi-preparative and preparative chromatography techniques and mass spectrometry for compound quantitation, identification and isolation.
Jane Alcorn
Dr. Jane Alcorn holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Pharmacokinetics) from the University of Kentucky. Jane provides pharmacokinetic expertise to a significant number of collaborative drug discovery and clinical (veterinary and human) research projects. Quantitative pharmaceutical analysis lies at the core of pharmacokinetic research and Jane principally employs liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry for the quantification of novel and repurposed small molecules in a variety of in vitro and in vivo pharmacokinetic assays and models.
Randy Purves
Dr. Randy Purves is an adjunct professor in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition and a Research Scientist at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). He obtained Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Alberta developing electrospray mass spectrometry instrumentation under the supervision of Prof Liang Li (conferred 1997). Dr. Purves has over 30 years of experience in bioanalytical mass spectrometry and co-founded Ionalytics in 2001, the company that produced the first commercial ion mobility device (FAIMS) for use with mass spectrometry in 2003. For this and other achievements in mass spectrometry, Dr. Purves received the prestigious Lossing award in 2021, awarded to a Canadian scholar who made significant contributions to mass spectrometry.
Dr. Purves’s expertise involves applying mass spectrometry-based solutions to solve complex analytical problems across several disciplines. His research interests can be broadly divided into two main areas. The first area involves his continued research into advancing FAIMS, primarily for use in small molecule quantification, and his other main research area involves untargeted metabolomics. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and 24 patents.