Toxicologist III
Sara Walton currently works at the CFSRE as a Forensic Toxicologist and the NPS Discovery Toxicology Lead. Her work primarily falls under NPS Discovery, the CFSRE’s program for the identification and dissemination of information regarding novel psychoactive substances. She focuses on the detection and characterization of these NPS through sample-mining and data-mining, as well as the confirmation of these NPS through method development and validation using LC-QTOF-MS and LC-QQQ-MS. She also works on characterizing these novel drugs by examining NPS trends and their metabolism and contributes to various other projects in clinical toxicology, postmortem toxicology, and drug material analysis.
Sara received her Bachelor of Science degree in Forensic Science from the Pennsylvania State University in 2019, her Master of Science degree in Forensic Toxicology from Thomas Jefferson University in 2021 and is currently pursuing her PhD in Analytical Chemistry at Temple University.
Highlighted Publications:
Sara E Walton, Alex J Krotulski, Barry K Logan. A Forward-Thinking Approach to Addressing the New Synthetic Opioid 2-Benzylbenzimidazole Nitazene Analogs by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (LC–QQQ-MS), Journal of Analytical Toxicology (2021).
Alex J. Krotulski, Nancy Garibay, Donna Walther, Sara E. Walton, Amanda L.A. Mohr, Barry K. Logan, Michael H. Baumann. Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of the Synthetic Cannabinoid, 5F-MDMB-PICA, in Male Rats. Neuropharmacology (2021).
AJ Krotulski, DM Papsun, SE Walton, BK Logan. Metonitazene in the United States – Forensic Toxicology Assessment of a Potent New Synthetic Opioid using Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry. Drug Testing and Analysis (2021).
