Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis and Nuclear Pharmacy

The primary Department of Analytical Chemistry was founded on September 1, 1958. The first head of the Department was J. Majer who became later an associate professor, professor and member of SAV (Slovak Academy of Sciences). In 1960, after the Faculty in Bratislava merged with the Faculty in Brno, the Department acquired facilities on Odbojárov Street 10.

Besides inorganic and organic analysis and instrumental methods, nuclear analytical methods are taught in the newly built laboratory of nuclear pharmacy. In the academic year 1981/1982 a new subject Radiopharmaceuticals was introduced in the curriculum for the first time in the Slovak Republic. In the years 1981 and 2004 E. Havránek, inaugurated a professor in 1997, was the head of the Department. In 1990 the Department was renamed the Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis and Nuclear Pharmacy. In 2004 associate professor I. Valášková became its head. The Department started teaching several subjects in Bachelor Study Programme ‘Medical and Diagnostic Devices’. In 2010 associate professor P. Mikuš became head of the Department. New facilities – APEC (Analytical Module of Pharmacy Excellence Center) and LSM (Laboratory of Spectral Methods) were built and a new project for construction of the Center of Radiopharmaceutical Technology (CRT) was submitted. Since the academic year 2006/2007 the obligatory subjects Analytical Chemistry 1, Analytical Chemistry 2, Radiopharmaceuticals and the obligatory elective subjects Analysis of Substances in Biological Systems and New Trends in Analytical Chemistry have been taught in Master Study Programme ‘Pharmacy’ both in Slovak and English languages.

The scientific preparation of young postgraduates was held at the Faculty of Natural Sciences in the study programme ‘Analytical Chemistry’ till 1991, between 1991 and 1997 in the study programme ‘Bioanalytical Chemistry’ at the same Faculty, and between 1997 and 2010 in the study programme ‘Control of Chemical Drugs’ at the Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis and Nuclear Pharmacy. The chairman of the scientific specialization board was professor E. Havránek.

Since the establishment of the Department the research under J. Majer’s supervision was aimed at the preparation of homologic chains of complexones with various chelating agents and their utilization in analytical chemistry and different industrial branches. The state research projects formerly under the supervision of P. Schiller (patented and manufactured radiometric analyzer), E. Havránek (X-ray fluorescence analysis), P. Balgavý, F. Pavelčík, and the VEGA (Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and the Academy of Sciences) projects, later supervised by other scientific workers – M. Strašák, P. Novomeský, V. Kettmann, Z. Pikulíková, J. Tekeľ, I. Valášková, and P. Mikuš are oriented towards the field of biomedicine, namely the analysis of drugs, their metabolites and biomarkers in biological systems; enantioselective separation of drugs in living systems, preparation of radiopharmaceuticals, molecular modelling, etc. Young research workers are solving successfully Faculty and University grant tasks dealing with partial goals of the main research activities of the Department such as analysis of the biologically active substances, their metabolites and biomarkers in clinical matrices by modern analytical methods represented by 2D liquid chromatography (HPLC-HPLC), tandem mass spectrometry (Q-TOF, QQQ MS) and new hyphenations of column-coupled isotacho- phoresis and capillary zone electrophoresis (ITP-CZE) with DAD, LIF and tandem MS detection for therapeutic and diagnostic studies.