Thomas Pouplin

I am a senior scientist at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Thailand since 2011. During 2007-2011, I worked at the Oxford Research Unit in Vietnam. I have conducted research in Vietnam and Thailand for the past 7 years and have extensive analytical experience from working with liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with UV detection and low resolution mass spectrometry (Triple Quadrupoles). I also have experience from high resolution Mass Spectrometry (Q-TOF) and 1/2D NMR acquired during my PhD-training.

My research focuses on developing bioanalytical methodologies to evaluate drug quality of locally produced pharmaceuticals, and the pharmacology of clinically used anti-infectious drugs in dengue fever, viral encephalitis and tuberculosis (TB). For this purpose we benefit from the ISO certified analytical laboratories at MORU. All bioanalytical LC-MS methods are developed and validated under a QA/QC system which is unique to the South East Asia Wellcome Programme.

Recently, I have focused my research interest on infections in the central nervous system and in particular Tuberculous Meningitis (TBM). By using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem MS, I have developed an ultra-sensitive simultaneous quantification of the four first-line anti-TB drugs rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide and ethambutol in both plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This allows us to investigate the exposure of anti-TB drugs in CSF, but reliable markers are lacking for diagnostics and treatment response monitoring in TBM. Only a non-targeted lipidomics will allow apprehending novel information about CSF lipids specifically present in patients. To estimate the feasibility of capturing low concentrations of many distinct lipid species from a small volume of a complex mixture, I have launched a pilot research project analysing  selected CSF samples on a high accuracy MS system. The outcome of this pilot study will allow adjusting the design of the lipidomics of CSF in TBM by powering the sample size, optimising the detection and inform us on a pragmatic choice for the control groups.