Kennedy Group Research

Welcome to the Kennedy Group homepage! Feel free to explore our piece of cyberspace in order to develop a better understanding of our research projects and to obtain information about those working in the group.

As a bioanalytical chemistry lab, our goal is to develop analytical instrumentation and methods that can help solve problems of biological significance. The analytical techniques we investigate are based on microfluidics, chromatography, electrophoresis, mass spectrometry, and enzyme assays. These methods are applied to a variety of areas including endocrinology (e.g., understanding insulin secretion defects related to type 2 diabetes), neurochemistry (e.g., identifying neurochemical deficits associated with Huntington's disease), and high-throughput screening for drug discovery and other applications.

In our work we must analyze complex mixtures, often at nanoliter volumes that contain only attomole or zeptomole quantities. These challenges create innumerable opportunities for analytical research. Students or post-docs with interest and skills in instrumentation, biology, analytical methods, organic chemistry, materials, and engineering can all contribute to the team.

Please follow the links to learn more about our projects related to analytical chemistry including lab-on-a chip, separations, and mass spectrometry and its applications diabetes, neuroscience, and high-throughput screening.

  • In Vivo Neurochemical Monitoring Using Benzoyl Chloride Derivatization and Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

    Analytical Chemistry, 2012

  • Microdialysis and mass spectrometric monitoring of dopamine and enkephalins in the globus pallidus reveal reciprocal interactions that regulate movement

    Journal of Neurochemistry, 2011

  • Push–Pull Perfusion Sampling with Segmented Flow for High Temporal and Spatial Resolution in Vivo Chemical Monitoring.

    Analytical Chemistry, 2011

  • Collection, storage, and electrophoretic analysis of nanoliter microdialysis samples collected from awake animals in vivo.

    Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2011

  • Reducing Time and Increasing Sensitivity in Sample Preparation for Adherent Mammalian Cell Metabolomics.

    Analytical Chemistry 2011

PittCon 2012

The Kennedy group made 9 presentations at PittCon this year. A symposia on “peptidomics” featured a talk by Prof Kennedy on recent developments in measuring neuropeptides in vivo. The group enjoyed dinner at Tu Tu Tango during PittCon.  

Matt Lorenz Graduates

The latest Kennedy group grad is Dr. Matthew Lorenz who defended his PhD in August 2011. His dissertation was entitled “Metabolomics methods for studying INS-1 Cells and Insulin Secretion”. Matt developed valuable HILIC-MS and sample preparation methods for studying how … Continue reading

A “Chip” for Monitoring Glucagon Secretion

Students Jonnie Shackman and Kendra Reid teamed up to develop a chip for monitoring glucagon secretion from islets of Langerhans. This work, “Dynamic monitoring of glucagon secretion from living cells on a microfluidic chip” was published in Analytical and Bioanalytical … Continue reading