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NPS Committee

The TIAFT NPS Committee was created in 2018 with the overall purpose of generating and disseminating information relating to the analysis and interpretation of NPS for members and external agencies. In doing so, the Committee supports the organizational aims of promoting cooperation, discussion and the exchange of ideas.

Aims of the Committee

The NPS Committee has some key aims and objectives:

  1. UNODC collaboration and Tox Portal promotion, awareness and support (www.unodc.org/tox)
  2. assist co-ordinating, networking and collaboration of NPS committees
  3. monitor NPS trends and produce Bulletin articles when appropriate
  4. provide guidance and advice concerning NPS where required

Within these, the NPS Committee will (as appropriate):

  • Adopt, coordinate and/or develop evidence-based toxicologically relevant guidance in relation to NPS which may include identifying gaps in existing knowledge or practice;
  • Support the work of national and international organisations within the field of NPS, including drug trends, early warning systems or equivalent;
  • Collaborate with other professional organisations and committees in relation to NPS (e.g. SOFT);
  • Communicate activities, accomplishments, issues and progress to the TIAFT Board and in conjunction with other TIAFT Committees, as required;
  • Collate and highlight to members NPS updates to assist in the provision of analytical testing scopes and providing individual drug monographs of NPS (e.g. as a Bulletin article)

HighResNPS

The TIAFT NPS Committee operates the HighResNPS database as a service for TIAFT members and other toxicologists around the world. HighResNPS is a crowd-sourced, high-resolution mass spectral database designed specifically for new psychoactive substances (NPS). The database assists laboratories to maintain a contemporary NPS suspect screening capability in the challenging and continually changing NPS landscape. The committee is grateful for the hard work of Petur Dalsgaard for developing HighResNPS.

HighResNPS.com

Current Committee

The NPS Committee consists of:

Chair

Svante Vikingsson (United States)

Dr. Svante Vikingsson is a Senior Research Forensic Scientist in the Center for Forensic Science Advancement and Application at RTI International. He provides scientific support for the National Laboratory Certification Program (NLCP). Research interests include New Psychoactive Substances, analytical methodology (LC-MS/MS), and drug testing in hair and oral fluid. Before joining RTI International he served as a Researcher and Toxicologist with the publicly funded National Board of Forensic Medicine and Linköping University, both in Sweden. Dr. Vikingsson has published more than 110 articles, book chapters, and abstracts related to forensic toxicology. He has also been a speaker in several symposia and workshops related to forensic toxicology. He is a member of the Oral Fluid Committee of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT) and the Alcohol, Drugs and Impairment Division (ADID) of the National Safety Council (NSC).

Committee Members

Luis Ferrari (Argentina)

Luis is the (retired) Head of the Laboratory of Toxicology and Forensic Chemistry, Supreme Court of Justice of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has contributed to more than 70 articles, 250 conferences and posters in analytical, clinical, forensic toxicology and sports doping. Luis is also the Author-Editor of several Manuals of Toxicology. Luis has 40 years’ experience working in forensic science in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, the UNODC, and the Vatican Academy of Sciences in narcotics issues. Luis received a Narcotic Drugs Fellowship, from the United Nations in 1989, as well as nine national and international awards. He organized the first Regional Meeting in Latin America in La Plata, in 2005. Luis has contributed to meetings on Designer Drugs and NPS, and the TIAFT Annual Meeting in Buenos Aires in 2014. Luis is a full professor in Toxicology and Forensic Chemistry at UM and a Postgraduate Professor UNLP & UNSO University. Luis has been a TIAFT member for over 34 years and RR for 25 years, as well as a reviewer of several journals. As well as being a founding member of IACFT and member of the NPS-Emerging Drugs Group of (RETOXLAC) PAHO and WHO, Luis is a member of the TIAFT NPS Committee.

Alex Krotulski (United States)

Dr. Alex J. Krotulski serves as the Director of Toxicology and Chemistry at the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education (CFSRE) in the United States. Dr. Krotulski is the Program Manager for NPS Discovery, the CFSRE’s open-access drug early warning system. Dr. Krotulski is a chemist by training and has practiced as a forensic toxicologist for ten years. Dr. Krotulski holds faculty appointment and serves as the forensic toxicology Program Director for Thomas Jefferson (Philadelphia, PA) and is a Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of Analytical Toxicology. Dr. Krotulski serves on both the SOFT and TIAFT NPS Committees, among other committees and working groups across forensic fields.

Prince Sellase Gameli (Italy)

Gameli Prince Sellase is a forensic toxicologist and doctoral researcher specializing in analytical and toxicological profiling of new psychoactive substances (NPS). Currently completing a PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy, he has contributed to the identification and metabolic characterization of emerging NPS using advanced techniques such as LC-HRMS. Gameli has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications on designer benzodiazepines, synthetic cannabinoids, and doping agents, and has presented his findings at international toxicology congresses. His research spans Europe, Africa, and Asia. As a member of the TIAFT NPS Committee, he brings a global perspective and a strong commitment to advancing forensic science and public health through early detection and risk assessment of novel substances.

Teemu Gunnar (Finland)

Teemu serves as Head of Forensic Toxicology and Chief Specialist at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, leading the nationally centralized forensic toxicology function. He is a member of the interministerial Finnish National Coordination Group on Drug Policy, the Finnish representative in the Forensic and Forensic Toxicology Laboratory Network of the European Drugs Agency (EUDA), and a core team member of the SCORE network, which coordinates wastewater-based drug monitoring studies. He is also a founding member of the TIAFT NPS Committee. Teemu has authored over 40 scientific articles and book chapters and has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences and workshops. In 2005, he received the Young Scientists Award for Best Publication at the annual TIAFT meeting in Seoul for the paper on oral fluid drug testing methodology. His main research interests also include driving under the influence of drugs and combining traditional forensic toxicology data and methodologies with emerging approaches — such as wastewater-based epidemiology and syringe residue analysis — to support a comprehensive understanding of the drug situation

Ruri Hanajiri (Japan)

Coming soon

Sherri Kacinko (United States)

Coming soon

Diana Kappatos (New Zealand)
Diana Kappatos is a forensic toxicologist with more than 50 years’ experience working across clinical, research and forensic science settings in New Zealand and internationally. She trained as a toxicologist and chemist and began her career with Wellington Hospital and the Wellington Clinical School, before joining the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). She also undertook early international experience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Diana has been employed by PHF Science and its predecessor organisations since 1988, with a sustained focus on the analysis of illicit drugs and alcohol.
Throughout her career, Diana has contributed to the development and delivery of forensic toxicology services, including analytical method development and validation, quality assurance and accreditation, expert witness testimony, and the training and mentoring of toxicologists. She has been involved in the analysis of tens of thousands of cases and has provided expert evidence in High Court proceedings, coronial inquests, and criminal and civil cases. Her work has consistently applied international best practice within the New Zealand context.
In the past decade, Diana’s scientific focus has centred on novel psychoactive substances and drug surveillance. She led the Border to Grave Drug Surveillance project, which integrated intelligence from border detections, police seizures, clinical presentations, and coronial and driving impairment cases to improve understanding of emerging drug harms. She also played a key role in establishing the Unknown Substances in Emergency Departments (USED) programme, enabling the analysis of biological samples from patients presenting with suspected drug-related harm. Through this work, and her contribution to national drug early warning systems, Diana has supported evidence-based responses to emerging drug threats and strengthened the interface between forensic toxicology, public health and the justice system.
Rafael Lanaro (Brazil)

Rafael Lanaro is a Pharmacist with a Master’s degree in Toxicology and a PhD in Pharmacology. He has been working for more than 19 years at the Poison Control Center of the University of Campinas (Brazil), where he specializes in emergency toxicological analysis. He is currently President of the Brazilian Society of Toxicology. Rafael has been a member of TIAFT since 2009, when he was encouraged and supported to join by his mentor and supervisor, Dr. Alice Chasin. He served on the Young Scientists Committee from 2014 to 2022. Throughout his career, he has authored 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and contributed 8 book chapters. He co-hosted the TIAFT Latin American Regional Meeting in Campinas, Brazil (2025), and will host the TIAFT Annual Meeting in 2028 in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. Since 2023, Rafael has been a member of the NPS Committee, where he looks forward to further contributing to TIAFT.

Daniel Pasin (United States - HighResNPS)

Daniel is currently the principal administrator of HighResNPS, a crowd-sourced mass spectrometry database for new psychoactive substances (NPS) provided by The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT). While having received his PhD investigating non-targeted analyses of NPS using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), Daniel has now transitioned to using computer programming to improve suspect screening approaches using artificial intelligence (AI), specifically machine learning. In addition to using computer programming for machine learning, Daniel also has experience in developing SQL database applications including the laboratory information management system (LIMS) at the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and is currently redeveloping HighResNPS to better incorporate new compounds into the downloadable libraries that are offered.

Daniel is also a member of the Forensic and Clinical Toxicology Association (FACTA) NPS committees and is responsible for processing quarterly NPS detections from the Asia-Pacific region to inform the membership about the prevalence of NPS.

Peter Stockham (Australia)

After completing his BSc (Hons) in Organic Chemistry at the University of Adelaide, Peter started his scientific career in hospital research and water quality laboratories. He joined Forensic Science South Australia in 2000 and was heavily involved in the lab’s early adoption of innovative LC-MS and LC-HRMS techniques. Besides daily reporting, casework and quality responsibilities, his recent interests include analysis of hospital emergency department samples to monitor drug trends, development of NPS suspect-screening techniques, encouraging sharing of information between toxicology labs, and trying not to take life too seriously. He is a member of FACTA and ANZFSS, and is the Australian Regional Representative for TIAFT. A scientist at heart, Peter is always aware of the rare privilege it is to have a career in a field where science and service are cornerstones, and where innovation and collaboration is the norm, if not a necessity.

Past Committee Members

  • Sherri Kacinko (United States), 2018-2024 (Co-chair 22-24)
  • Eunmi Kim (Korea), 2018-2022
  • Simon Elliott (United Kingdom), 2018-2022 (Chair 18-22)
  • Dimitri Gerostamoulos (Australia), 2018-2022
  • Alicia Evans (South Africa), 2018-2022
  • Luke Rodda (United States), 2018-2022