Georgia Institute of TechnologyChemistry & Biochemistry
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Facundo M. Fernandez

Associate Professor


Office:

Phone: 404-385-4432

Fax: 404-894-7452

Research Group Website

E-mail Facundo M. Fernandez

M.Sc., Chemistry, School of Science, Buenos Aires University, Argentina (FCEyN, UBA), 1996; Ph.D., Analytical Spectrometry, School of Science, Buenos Aires University, Argentina (FCEyN, UBA), 1999; Postdoc., Zare Group, Stanford University, 2000-2001; Postdoc., Wysocki Group, University of Arizona, 2002-2003

World Bank-FOMEC Program, Argentina, Postdoctoral Fellowship - 2000; National Research Council, Argentina (CONICET), Postdoctoral Fellowship - 2000; Antorchas Foundation, Argentina, Postdoctoral Fellowship - 2000; Society of Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh Award - 2004; American Society for Mass Spectrometry Research Award - 2005, "Professor Doctor Federico Luis Leloir" Award (Special Mention, Buenos Aires Univ.)-2006, Blanchard Assistant Professorship (Georgia Institute of Technology)-2006, NSF CAREER Award-2007; 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award-2008; CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award - 2009.

Research Interests

Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry: Fundamentals, Instrumentation and Applications

The recent award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to John B. Fenn (for the discovery of electrospray ionization) and to Koichi Tanaka (for the discovery of Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization) clearly states that analytical mass spectrometry plays a central role on the on-going revolution in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Research in the Fernandez Lab focuses on the development of novel bioanalytical mass spectrometric instrumentation and methods to solve complex biomedical and environmental questions. The experiments involve state-of-the-art mass spectrometry, ion mobility spectrometry, new types of ion sources (DART, DESI, AP/MALDI, MEMS, high-speed liquid chromatography, and the mining of the obtained data using chemometric tools such as multivariate calibration, classification and genetic algorithm variable selection.

Representative Publications

“Desorption Electrospray/Metastable-Induced Ionization (DEMI): A Flexible Multimode Ambient Ion Generation Technique.”, Leonard Nyadong, Asiri S. Galhena, Facundo M. Fernández, Anal. Chem., 2009, 81, 7788-7794.

“Ovarian Cancer Detection from Metabolomic Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry Data by Support Vector Machines”, Wei Guan, Manshui Zhou, Christina Y. Hampton, Benedict B. Benigno, L. DeEtte Walker, Alexander Gray, John F. McDonald and Facundo M. Fernandez, BMC Bioinformatics, 2009, 10, 259-273.

“Desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry reveals surface-mediated antifungal chemical defense of a tropical seaweed”, Amy L. Lane, Leonard Nyadong, Asiri S. Galhena, Tonya L. Shearer, E. Paige Stout, R. Mitchell Parry, Mark Kwasnik, May Wang, Mark E. Hay, Facundo M. Fernandez, and Julia Kubanek, Proc. Nat Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 2009, 106, 7314-7319.

“Digitally-Multiplexed Nanoelectrospray Ionization Atmospheric Pressure Drift Tube Ion Mobility Spectrometry”, Mark Kwasnik, Joe Caramore, Facundo M. Fernández, Anal. Chem. 2009, 81, 1587-1594.

“A collaborative epidemiological investigation into the criminal fake artesunate trade in SE Asia”, Paul N. Newton, Facundo M. Fernández, Aline Plancon-Lecadre, Dallas Mildenhall, Michael D. Green, Li Ziyong, Eva Maria Christophel, Souly Phanouvong, Stephen Howells, Eric MacIntosh, Paul Laurin, Nancy Blum, Christina Y. Hampton, Kevin Faure, Leonard Nyadong, C.W.R. Soong, Budiono Santoso, Wang Zhiguang, John Newton, Kevin Palmer, PLoS Med., 2008,5, e32.

"Characterization of "Yaa Chud" Medicine on the Thailand-Myanmar border: Selecting for drug-resistant malaria and threatening public health," Paul N. Newton, Christina Y. Hampton, Krystyn Alter-Hall, Thanongsak Teerwarakulpana, Sompol Prakongpan, Ronnatrai Ruangveerayuth, Nicholas J. White, Nicholas P. J. Day, Mabel B. Tudino, Natalia Mancuso, Facundo M. Fernandez, Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 2008, 79(5), 662-669.

"Recent developments in ambient ionization techniques for analytical mass spectrometry," Glenn A Harris, Leonard Nyadong, Facundo Fernandez, Analyst, 2008, 133, 1297-1301.

"Detecting counterfeit antimalarial tablets by near-infrared spectroscopy," Floyd E. Dowell, Elizabeth B. Maghirang, Facundo M. Fernandez, Paul N. Newton, Michael D. Green, J. Pharma. Biomed. Analy., 2008, 48, 1011-1014.

"Comparison of the internal energy deposition of venturi-assisted electrospray ionization and a venturi-assisted array of micromachined ultrasonic electrosprays (AMUSE)," Christina Y. Hampton, Catherine J. Silvestri, Thomas P. Forbes, Mark J. Varady, J. Mark Meacham, Andrei G. Federov, F. Levent Degertekin, Facundo Fernandez, J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom., 2008, 19, 1320-1329.

"Assessment of hand-held Raman insstrumentation for in situ screening for potentially c ounterfeit artesunate antimalarial tablets by FT-Raman spectroscopy and direct ionization mass spectrometry," Camilla Ricci, Leonard Nyadong, Felicia Yang, Facundo M. Fernandez, Christopher D. Brown, Paul N. Newton, Sergei G. Kazarian, Analytica Chimica Acta, 2008, 623, 178-186.

"Performance, resolving power, and radial ion distributions of a prototype nanoelectrospray ionization resistive glass atmospheric pressure ion mobility spectrometer," Mark Kwasnik, Katrin Fuehrer, Marc Gonin, Katherine Barbeau, Facundo M. Fernandez, Anal. Chem., 2007, 79, 7782-7791.

"Use of refractometry and colorimetry as field methods to rapidly assess antimalarial drug quality. [Erratum to document cited in CA146:128919]," Green, Michael D.; Nettey, Henry; Rojas, Ofelia Villalva; Pamanivong, Chansapha; Khounsaknalath, Lamphet; Ortiz, Miguel Grande; Newton, Paul N.; Fernandez, Facundo M.; Vongsack, Latsamy; Manolin, Ot, Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2007, 43(5), 1890.

"Fast detection and identification of counterfeit antimalarial tablets by Raman spectroscopy," de Veij, Marleen; Vandenabeele, Peter; Hall, Krystyn Alter; Fernandez, Facundo M.; Green, Michael D.; White, Nicholas J.; Dondorp, Arjen M.; Newton, Paul N.; Moens, Luc, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 2007, 38(2), 181-187.

"Ambient generation of fatty acid methyl ester profiles from bacterial whole cells by direct analysis in real time (DART) mass spectrometry," Carrie Y. Pierce, John R. Barr, Robert B. Cody, Robert F. Massung, Adrian R. Woolfitt, Hercules Moura, Herbert A. Thompson, and Facundo M. Fernandez, Chem. Comm., 2006, doi:10.1039/B613200F.

"Biochemical, molecular and functional characterization of PISCF-allatostatin, a regulator of juvenile hormone biosynthesis in the Aedes aegypti mosquito," Salvador Hernandez-Martinez, Yiping Li, Facundo Fernández, Jaime G. Mayoral, Pantelis Topalis, Horacio Priestap, Mario Perez, Arti Navarre and Fernando G. Noriega. J. Biol. Chem., 2006, 281(45), 34048-34055.

"Coxiella burnetii Strain Identification by Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis and MALDI-TOF MS," C.Y. Pierce, J.R. Barr, A.R. Woolfitt, H. Moura, E.I. Shaw, H.A. Thompson, and F.M. Fernández, Anal. Chim. Acta., 2006, doi:10.1016/j.aca.2006.09.065.

"Combined Fourier Transform Infrared Imaging and Desorption Electrospray Ionization Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry for the Analysis of Counterfeit Antimalarial Tablets," Camilla Ricci, Leonard Nyadong, Facundo M. Fernandez, Paul N. Newton, Sergei Kazarian, in press, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2006.

"Direct High Resolution Protein Analysis by Desorption Electrospray Ionization (DESI) Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry," Michael S. Bereman, Leonard Nyadong, Facundo M. Fernandez, David C. Muddiman, Rap. Comm. Mass Spectrom., 2006, 20, 3409-3411.

"Characterization of Solid Counterfeit Drug Samples by Desorption Electrospray Ionization and Direct-analysis-in-real-time Coupled to Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry," Facundo M. Fernández?, Robert B. Cody, Michael D. Green, Christina Y. Hampton, Rose McGready, Sivong Sengaloundeth, Nicholas J. White, Paul N. Newton. ChemMedChem, 2006, 1, 702-705.

"Counterfeit Anti-infective Drugs," Paul N. Newton, Facundo M. Fernández, Michael Green, Nicholas Day, Nicholas J. White, Lancet Inf. Dis., 2006, 6, 602-613.

"Characterization of Counterfeit Artesunate Antimalarial Tablets from SE Asia," K. Alter Hall, P.N. Newton, M.D. Green, M. de Veij, P. Vandenabeele, D. Pizzanelli, M. Mayxay, A. Dondorp, N.J. White, F.M. Fernández, Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 2006, 75(5), 804-811.

"Fast Screening and Chemical Fingerprinting of Counterfeit Antimalarial Tablets by Raman Spectroscopy," M. de Veij, P. Vandenabeele, K. Alter Hall, F.M. Fernández, M. Green, N.J. White, A. Dondorp, P.N Newton and L. Moens. In press, J. Raman Spectrosc., 2006, DOI: 10.1002/jrs.1621.

"Manslaughter by fake artesunate in Asia -will Africa become 'infected' next?" Paul N Newton, Rose McGready, Facundo Fernández, Michael D Green, Souly Phanouvong, Christopher Whitty, Ambrose O. Talisuna, Stephane Proux, Eva Maria Christophel, Grace Malenga, Pratap Singhasivanon, Kalifa Bojang, Kevin Palmer, Nicholas PJ Day, Brian Greenwood, François Nosten, Nicholas J White. PLoS Medicine, 2006, 3(6), e197.

"Protein Identification via Surface-induced Dissociation in an FT-ICR Mass Spectrometer and a Patchwork Sequencing Approach," Facundo M. Fernández, Vicki H. Wysocki, Jean H. Futrell and Julia Laskin. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom., 2006, 17, 700-709.

"Fast Hadamard Transform Capillary Electrophoresis for On-line, Time-Resolved Chemical Monitoring," Kevin L. Braun; Suminda Hapuarachi; Facundo M. Fernández; Craig A. Aspinwall, Anal. Chem., 2006, 78, 1628-1635.

"Micromachined Ultrasonic Nanoelectrospray Microarray for High Throughput Mass Spectrometry," S. Aderogba, J. M. Meacham, F. M. Fernández, F. L. Degertekin, and A. G. Fedorov. App. Phys. Lett., 2005, 86, 203110/1-203110/3.