Alan Wu has several areas of expertise. He is chief of the clinical chemistry and toxicology laboratories at San Francisco General Hospital. In this capacity, his clinical and research laboratory conducts testing for routine analytes in blood, urine and cerebral spinal fluid for electrolytes, metabolites, hormones, proteins, and biomarkers. His particular area of interest is in cardiac biomarkers for acute cardiac diseases (troponin, B-type natriuretic peptide, and novel biomarkers of ACS and heart failure).

The toxicology laboratory has expertise and analytic equipment for quantitation of drugs and other small molecules in biological fluids. Using liquid chromatography (LC) /time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry (MS), this laboratory is able to conduct unknown searches for chemicals in these samples based on high resolution molecular weight (2-5 ppm), enabling the assignment of precise molecular formula. The LC/TOF-MS is ideal for detection of unknown drugs, chemicals and specimens. Recently, this laboratory has expanded its services to include analysis of medications both pharmaceuticals and nutriceuticals (herbals) and street preparations for the presence of adulterants, contaminants, and supplements. Once tentatively identified, the toxicology laboratory has LC-tandem MS capability for quantitation in the pg/mL concentrations.

Dr. Wu is also chief of the clinical pharmacogenomics laboratory and offers a clinical service and clinical research in pharmacogenomic for genomic targets such as cytochrome p450 2D6, 2C9, 2C19, vitamin K receptor complex, UDP glucuronsyltransferase, kif-6, and HLA-B*5710, 1502, and 5801. These targets for important for certain therapeutic drugs such as tamoxifen, codeine, antidepressants, warfarin, clopidogrel, irinotecan, statins, abacavir, carbamazepine, phenytoin, and allopurinol, respectively.