Assessing Antibiotic Quality Worldwide: High Performance Liquid Chromatography Analysis of Doxycycline Tablets
Category: Community Engagement Poster
Author(s): Kaya Dargusch, Jill Robinson, Jade Manna-rubenstein
Presenter(s): Kaya Dargusch, Jade Manna-rubenstein
Mentors(s): Jill Robinson
Substandard and falsified medicines pose a significant global health threat, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where poor-quality antibiotics contribute to treatment failures, antimicrobial resistance, and preventable deaths. To address this challenge, students in an analytical chemistry laboratory course at Colorado State University participated in the Distributed Pharmaceutical Analysis Lab (DPAL), a global citizen-science initiative. In this project, students developed and validated a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method to quantify several antibiotics in pharmaceutical tablets. Method validation included meeting strict criteria for linearity, accuracy, precision, and matrix spike recovery to ensure reliable quantification of the active ingredient. After validation, students analyzed doxycycline tablets supplied by DPAL from LMICs such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, India, Nepal, and Malawi. Analytical results were evaluated against certified reference standards to identify potential quality deficiencies. Results are submitted to DPAL for further review, and any suspect samples may undergo confirmatory analysis and be reported to regulatory authorities or the World Health Organization. This work provides students with authentic research experience while contributing to an international effort to identify poor-quality antibiotics and improve access to safe, effective medicines. Through engagement in method development, quality control, and collaborative data sharing, students gain practical analytical chemistry skills and participate in meaningful scientific inquiry with real-world impact.