Harrison College of Pharmacy

Former Funding

Multiple grants from the National Institute of Justice, Department of Justice

External Links

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Research Interests

The central theme of our scholarly work over the past several decades has been synthesis and assessment of structural and stereochemical isomerism in synthetic NPS drugs. As indicated by our publication record, we have synthesized and characterized the analytical and receptor binding profiles of hundreds of derivatives in many NPS drug categories including the substituted phenethylamines (amphetamines, MDMA derivatives, etc.), cathinone derivatives (Bath Salts), synthetic cannabinoids, hallucinogenic NBOMe analogues and piperazine stimulants.

These studies have been funded by multiple grants from the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice over the past 15 years. Our lab has developed the synthetic methods for the preparation and purification of compounds in most of the NPS categories and all the categories proposed in this application. Our analytical work makes extensive use of GC-MS, GC-MS/MS, GC-CI/MS, GC-vpIR, NMR and liquid chromatography for specific compound identification and isomer differentiation. We have supplied over 1000 mass spectra for unique designer drug regioisomers and precursors to the NIST mass spectral data base.

Furthermore, our work has produced reliable methods for the differentiation of regioisomeric synthetic psychoactive drugs having mass-based analytical signatures. Many of these unique methods are based on capillary gas chromatography with vapor phase infrared detection and analysis. This is a relatively new technique generating a vapor phase infrared spectrum via light-pipe technology directly as the compound elutes from the capillary column of a gas chromatograph.

In recent years we have expanded our research efforts in collaboration with pharmacology colleagues to include basic receptor pharmacology of the novel drugs we have synthesized, as well as investigation of their potential mechanisms of neurotoxicity.

Selected Publications (Since 2018)

• Majrashi M., Almaghrabi M., Fadan M., Fujihashi A., Lee B., Deruiter J., Clark CR., Dhanasekaran M., Dopaminergic Neurotoxic Effects of 3-TFMPP derivatives. Life Sci. 2018 Sep 15;209:357-369. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2018.07.052. Epub 2018 Jul 29.
• Ahmad J. Almalki, C. Randall Clark and Jack DeRuiter, GC-MS Analysis of Regioisomeric Substituted N-Benzyl-4-Bromo-2,5-Dimethoxyphenylamines, Forensic Chemistry, 2019, 14, Manuscript number 100164 (2019). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468170919300025
• Ahmad J. Almalki, Lewis Smith, C. Randall Clark and Jack DeRuiter, “Vapor phase GC-IR Identification of Regioisomeric N-Methoxybenzyl-4-Substituted-2,5-Dimethoxyphen-ethylamines (NBOMe),” Forensic Chemistry, 2019, 16, 100181. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468170919300785
• CR Clark, FT Smith, KM Abdel-Hay, J DeRuiter, “Forensic Chemistry of Substituted 1-Alkyl-3-Acylindoles: Isomeric Synthetic Cannabinoids”, NCJ number 25333, US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub, 2019.
• Ahmad J. Almalki, C. Randall Clark and Jack DeRuiter, “Structure Fragmentation Studies for Ring Substituted N-Trifluoroacetyl-N-Benzylphenethylamines Related to the NBOMe Drugs,” Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2020, 34: e8593. DOI: 10.1002/rcm. https://europepmc.org/article/med/31518025
• Karim M. Abdel-Hay, Tarek S. Belal, Amber Thaxton-Weissenfluh, Jack DeRuiter, Forrest Smith, Younis Abiedalla and C. Randall Clark, “GC-MS and GC-IR Analysis of the Chloro-1-n-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)-indoles: Regioisomeric Designer Cannabinoids” Applied Spectroscopy, 73, 433–443 (2019). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003702818809998
• Younis Abiedalla, Lewis Smith, Karim M. Abdel-Hay, Logan Neel, Tarek S. Belal, Amber Thaxton-Weissenfluh, Forrest Smith, Jack DeRuiter, and C. Randall Clark, “Spectroscopic Differentiation and Chromatographic Separation of Regioisomeric Indole Aldehydes: Synthetic Cannabinoid Precursors,” Forensic Chemistry, 2019, 12, 78-90. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468170918300936
• Ahmad J. Almalki, Lewis Smith, Younis Abiedalla, C. Randall Clark and Jack DeRuiter, “Vapor phase infrared identification of regioisomeric N-dimethoxybenzyl-4-iodo- and 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamines,” Forensic Chemistry, 19 (2020) 100239.
• J. Tyler Davidson, Elettra L. Piacentino, Zachary J. Sasiene, Younis Abiedalla, Jack DeRuiter, C. Randall Clark, Giel Berden, Jos Oomens, Victor Ryzhov, Glen P. Jackson, “Identification of a novel fragmentation pathway of synthetic cathinones,” Forensic Chemistry, 19 (2020) 100245.
• J. Tyler Davidson, Zachary J. Sasiene, Younis Abiedalla, J. DeRuiter, C. Randall Clark, Glen P. Jackson, “Fragmentation pathways of α-pyrrolidinophenone synthetic cathinones and their application to the identification of emerging synthetic cathinone derivatives,” International Journal of Mass Spectrometry, 453 (2020) 116343.
• Ahmad J. Almalki, Younis Abiedalla, C. Randall Clark and Jack DeRuiter, “GC–MS Analysis of N-(bromodimethoxybenzyl)-2-, 3-, and 4-methoxyphenethylamines: Inverse Analogues of the Psychoactive 25B-NBOMe Drugs,” Forensic Chemistry, 21 (2020) 100277.
• Ahmad J. Almalki, C. Randall Clark, Younis Abiedalla and Jack DeRuiter, “GC-MS Analysis of Methylenedioxybenzyl Analogues of the Serotonin Receptor Agonists 25X-NBOMe Drugs,” Forensic Chemistry, 21 (2020) 100284.
• Younis Abiedalla, Ahmad J. Almalki, Jack DeRuiter, and C. Randall Clark, “GC-MS and GC-IR Analysis of Methylenedioxyphenethylamine Analogues of the Psychoactive 25X-NBOMe Drugs,” Forensic Chemistry, Forensic Chemistry 23 (2021) 100314.
• Younis Abiedalla, Ahmad J. Almalki, Jack DeRuiter and C. Randall Clark, GC–MS and GC–IR analysis of substituted N-benzyl 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenylisopropylamines. Forensic Chemistry 24 (2021) 100326.
• Mohammed Almaghrabi, Younis Abiedalla, Muralikrishnan Dhanasekaran, Jack Deruiter, Randall Clark,  GC–MS and GC–IR of Regioisomeric 4-N-Methoxy- and Dimethoxybenzyl Derivatives of 3-Trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine, , International Journal of Mass Spectrometry 469 (2021), 116673