William Alex Clarke, Ph.D.

Headshot of William Alex Clarke
  • Director, Point-of-Care Testing, The Johns Hopkins Hospital
  • Professor of Pathology

Research Interests

Drug Assay Development; Clinical Toxicology; Therapeutic Drug Monitoring; Clinical Mass Spectrometry ...read more

Background

Dr. William Clarke is Professor of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research focuses on the development of analytical methods for drug analysis, clinical mass spectrometry, and devices for point-of-care testing. Dr. Clarke serves as the director of Clinical Toxicology as well as Point-of-Care Testing at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

His team's current projects include qualitative screening for antiretroviral drugs and substances of abuse in various HIV- prevention clinical trials, development and validation of mass spectrometry methods for clinical analysis, and development of clinical assays for use on microfluidic platforms.

Dr. Clarke received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as well as an M.B.A. from the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins University. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Clinical Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.  Following his post-doctoral fellowship, he remained at Johns Hopkins as a member of the Pathology faculty.  Dr. Clarke has published as author or co-author over 175 peer-reviewed manuscripts or book chapters, is the Co-Editor of the textbook Contemporary Practice in Clinical Chemistry, and is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Practical Laboratory Medicine.

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Titles

  • Director, Point-of-Care Testing, The Johns Hopkins Hospital
  • Co-Director, Clinical Chemistry Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program
  • Deputy Director for Quality and Regulatory Affairs, Department of Pathology
  • Professor of Pathology

Departments / Divisions

  • Pathology - Clinical Chemistry

Education

Degrees

  • B.S.; University of Nebraska (Kearney) (Nebraska) (1993)
  • Ph.D.; University of Nebraska (Lincoln) (Nebraska) (2000)

Research & Publications

Research Summary

Dr. Clarke's research interests primarily involve the development of analytical methods for drug analysis. This includes the development and implementation of tandem mass spectrometry and high resolution-accurate mass (HRAM) spectrometry methods for measurement of multiple drugs in a single sample, as well as investigation of alternative matrices for drug testing. In addition, he is interested in the application of pharmacokinetic measurements, along with pharmacogenetic testing, to clinical management of patients.

Active projects in his lab include qualitative screening for antiretroviral drugs and substances of abuse in various HIV- prevention clinical trials, development and validation of mass spectrometry methods for clinical analysis, and development of clinical assays for use on microfluidic platforms. He and his team are also investigating ways to improve the robustness and throughput of LC-MS methods in the clinical laboratory by the evaluation of newly developed technologies and alternative approaches to LC-MS method development.

Technology Expertise Keywords

LC-MS/MS, chromatography, mass spectrometry, immunoassay

Selected Publications

Olson MT, Breaud A, Harlan R, Emezienna N, Schools S, Yergey AL, and Clarke W.  “Alternative Calibration Strategies for the Clinical Laboratory: Application to Nortriptyline Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, Clin Chem, 2013; 59 (6): 920-927.

Marzinke MA, Breaud A, Parsons TL, Cohen MS, Piwowar-Manning E, Eshleman SH, and Clarke W.  “The Development and Validation of a Method Using High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HRMS) for the Qualitative Detection of Antiretroviral Agents in Human Blood”, Clin Chim Acta, 2014; 433: 157-1681) 

Clarke W.  “What is Needed for Optimal Therapeutic Drug Monitoring”, Bioanalysis, 2014; 6 (2): 113-115.

Marzinke MA, Petrides AK, Steele K, Schweitzer MA, Magnuson TH, Reinblatt SP, Coughlin JW, and Clarke W.  “Decreased Escitalopram Concentrations Post Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery”, Ther Drug Monit, 2015; 37 (3): 408-412.

Olson MT, Baxi A, ElNaggar, M, Umbricht C, Yergey AL, and Clarke W. “Morphologically Compatible Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Lipids in Cytological Specimens”, J Am Soc Cytopath, 2016; 5 (1): 3-8.

Contact for Research Inquiries

Office
1551 East Jefferson Street
CRB II, 3M03
Baltimore, MD 21287 map
Phone: 410-502-7692

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Academic Affiliations & Courses

Graduate Program Affiliation

Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology

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