Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis (APA Lab). Coordinator: Mandrioli

Research themes

1. Quality control: Development of advanced instrumental methods for the quality control of drug formulations, food supplements, cosmetics, plant extracts and all intermediates and raw materials. Development of stability-indicating methods.
2. Laboratory tests: Design and implementation of tailored methods for the quantitation of small molecule APIs in clinical specimens.
3. Advanced sample preparation: Choice, design and planning of devices, materials and procedures for in vitro and in vivo sampling. Advances methods for sample treatment by LLE, µSPE, MEPS, bioSPME, SaLLE, DPX, StAGE, others. Procedure optimisation and critical data assessment.
4. Pharmacokinetic studies: Determination of small bioactive molecules in biological fluids for the evaluation of pharmacokinetic parameters in human and animal organisms.
5. Validation trials: In vitro and in vivo applications for method validation and validation trials. Involvement in inter-laboratory, multisite cross-validation studies. International partner of planned validation rounds and analytical method qualification maintenance.
6. Monitoring of APIs as environmental pollutants: Development of original methods for the high-sensitivity, high-selectivity determination of APIs and other bioactive compounds with possible endocrine disrupting activity (EDC, endocrine disrupting chemicals) in environmental specimens.

Lab members

Roberto Mandrioli, Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry (CHEM-07/A)

Roberta Di Lecce, Post-doc Research Fellow

Riccardo Comazzi, PhD Student

Internship projects

Experimental thesis activity within the research themes of the group for the graduation programmes in Pharmacy (both Italian and International programmes), Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (CTF), Herbal and Toxicological Sciences (SET, formerly Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences – SFA), Health Biology.

Places available for stages and project works within the Professional postgraduate Master’s in Forensic Chemical-Toxicological Analysis.

Main publications

• Roberto Mandrioli, Roberta Di Lecce, Sobia Noreen, Mattea Carmen Castrovilli, Abuzar Kabir, Marcello Locatelli, Laura Mercolini, Michele Protti, Novel microsampling approach using fabric-phase sorptive extraction (FPSE) for cannabinoid analysis in blood. J. 210, art. no. 113855 (2025), 7 pages, Open Access. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2025.113855
• Michele Protti, Roberto Mandrioli, Sobia Noreen, Antonio Leone, Roccaldo Sardella, Jose González-Rodríguez, Laura Mercolini, Volumetric absorptive microsampling for in vitro metabolism of the recent synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist 5F-PB-22. J. 215, art. no. 114162 (2025), 8 pages, Open Access. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2025.114162
• Roberto Mandrioli, Marco Cirrincione, Přemysl Mladěnka, Michele Protti, Laura Mercolini. Green analytical chemistry (GAC) applications in sample preparation for the analysis of anthocyanins in products and by-products from plant sources. Sample Prep. 3, art. no. 100037 (2022), 8 pages, Open Access. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sampre.2022.100037
• Michele Protti, Roberto Mandrioli, Camilla Marasca, Andrea Cavalli, Alessandro Serretti, Laura Mercolini, New-generation, non-SSRI antidepressants: drug-drug interactions and therapeutic drug monitoring. Part 2: NaSSAs, NRIs, SNDRIs, MASSAs, NDRIs and others. Res. Rev. 40(5), 1794-1832 (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/med.21671
• Fabiana Antognoni, Roberto Mandrioli, Giulia Potente, Danielle Laure Taneyo Saa, Andrea Gianotti, Changes in carotenoids, phenolic acids and antioxidant capacity in bread wheat doughs fermented with different lactic acid bacteria strains. Food Chem. 292, 211-216 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.04.061