BP4NTA is run by volunteers with experience in non-targeted analysis using mass spectrometry. Reach out to our team members with any issues or questions related to the BP4NTA working group.
The Steering Committee
The Steering Committee leads the working group to ensure sub-committee efforts continue to deliver new products and support the group’s vision: to address challenges in non-targeted analysis studies using mass spectrometry. They manage the overall group’s operations and serve as BP4NTA representatives at conferences and other events. Contact them for more information about BP4NTA, requests to join the group, interests in collaboration, or any other BP4NTA-related questions.
BP4NTA Chair: James McCord (he/him), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
James McCord is a research chemist focused on high-resolution mass spectrometry methods development and the elucidation of emerging chemical pollutants, with a particular focus on per- and polyfluoroakyl substances (PFAS). James began work in mass spectrometry during his PhD at North Carolina State University and for the last seven years has worked in the Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling at the US EPA, where he collaborates with state and federal agencies across the country using non-targeted analysis to investigate sites of chemical pollution, monitor cleanup activities, and expand traditional monitoring methods to emerging contaminants. Within BP4NTA, James has contributed to the committees on stakeholder outreach, standard methods & materials, and PFAS topics, with numerous products in the release pipeline. His research goals and vision for BP4NTA are aligned in a desire for standardized, reproducible methods for conducting non-targeted analysis to support risk assessment and decision making for environmental and public health bodies.
BP4NTA Vice Chair: Sara Nason (she/her), Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
Sara Nason uses liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) to detect contaminants in agricultural and environmental systems. She is interested in understanding how organic contaminants move and transform in the environment and how environmental releases of chemicals can lead to unintended human exposures and health impacts. She has used suspect screening and NTA methods to investigate chemicals of concern in sewage sludge, manure digestion, soil, plant/vegetable, and dried blood spot samples. Specifically, she has been involved in work improving methods for non-targeted detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Sara joined BP4NTA in 2018 and is interested in developing resources to help harmonize NTA vocabulary and reporting standards, provide information to researchers who are new to NTA, and develop NTA as a tool that can be used in regulatory monitoring.
Secretary: Robert B. Young (he/him), New Mexico State University
Robert Young is Director of the Chemical Analysis & Instrumentation Laboratory at New Mexico State University. In his research, Robert uses chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques to screen for, identify, and quantify environmental contaminants, and to characterize complex mixtures like dissolved organic matter, which may contain many thousands of unique molecular signatures. He is an elected member of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Ion Cyclotron Resonance Facility User Advisory Committee, and an active member of the New Mexico Produced Water Research Consortium. Robert was a business lawyer in a prior career and has actively participated in the formation of BP4NTA as a charitable unincorporated nonprofit association. He also expects to be an active member of the PFAS Subcommittee.
Treasurer: Stephan Baumann (he/him), Agilent Technologies
Stephan studied at the University of North Carolina, where he received a BS in Chemistry in 1990. For the next fifteen years he worked his way through several roles as an analytical chemist and manager in the environmental, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical industries. He joined Agilent Technologies in 2005 as an application chemist with responsibility for both GC and LC/MS platforms based on his many years of industrial experience. Stephan excelled at statistical analysis with many application notes and several publications on the topic. He joined Agilent’s global marketing team in late 2018 supporting academic customers. During the pandemic, his role shifted to infectious disease but has since switched back to developing technical materials for the food and environmental markets.
Technical Liason: Jon Sobus (he/him), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Jon Sobus is a senior scientist with the US EPA’s Office of Research and Development, Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure in Research Triangle Park, NC. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008. Jon has worked with EPA/ORD since 2008, having led numerous research teams focusing on human biomonitoring and non-targeted analysis (NTA) research. Since 2016, Jon has worked to develop innovative approaches for interpreting high resolution mass spectrometry-based NTA data in an actionable manner. At the core of his efforts, Jon aims to develop computational tools that lead to the defensible identification, quantification, and risk-based evaluation of emerging contaminants detected via NTA methods.
Operational Liason: Gabby Black (she/her), U.S. Geological Survey
Gabby is a Chemist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Sacramento, CA. Her research focuses on nontargeted analysis of various environmental contaminants including those found at illegal cannabis grow sites, oil and gas affected groundwater, disinfection byproducts, and characterization of dissolved organic matter. Gabby spent much of her early career at the University of California, Davis working with Dr. Thomas Young studying endocrine active constituents in sewage sludge, PFAS uptake in agricultural settings, and estrogenic contaminants in drinking water that relate to breast cancer occurrences. Gabby has been an active member of BP4NTA for several years and has contributed to products like the ChemSpace manuscript and the BP4NTA forum.
BP4NTA Past Chairs
Christine Fisher (O’Donnell) (she/her), U.S. Food and Drug Administration/Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
Since 2017, Christine Fisher has been developing, improving, and applying non-targeted analysis (NTA) methods using liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC/HR-MS) to the analysis of complex and diverse matrices, including foods and cosmetics. Specific areas of interest include development of a standard mixture for measuring NTA method performance, methods for comparative analysis, and methods for data reduction. She has been an active member of BP4NTA since 2019, during which she has enjoyed working toward guidance for standardized reporting and performance metrics for non-targeted methods.
Ruth Marfil-Vega (she/her), Shimadzu Scientific Instruments
Ruth Marfil-Vega is the Senior Market Manager – Environmental at Shimadzu Scientific Instruments since 2018. She has +18 years of experience in environmental chemistry and engineering in the US and Europe, developing and implementing solutions for emerging water quality topics. These solutions include the application of advanced analytical strategies, such as non-target analysis and in-vitro bioassays for toxicity assessment, to address needs from utilities and other environmental stakeholders. She received a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Cincinnati, while working as an on-site contractor at EPA ORD (where she was later an ORISE post-doc), and a BSc in Chemistry from the Universidad de Valladolid (Spain).
Outreach Committee
Committee Chair: Esra Miller (she/her), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Esra Mutlu, Ph.D., DABT, is a Research Outreach and Communication Specialist in CCTE/RPIS/OSETS and serves as OSETS (Outreach, Stakeholder Engagement and Training Section) technical point of contact for communicating CCTE (Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure) research and translating complex scientific topics for a range of audiences. As a part of her role, Dr. Mutlu is leading the New Approach Methodologies Training Pilot Program at the U.S. EPA. Prior to that, Dr Mutlu worked as a Chemist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in the Division of the National Toxicology Program (DNTP). In her position, she provided NTP with expertise in organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and interpretation and application of mass spectrometry and served on NTP study design teams to provide technical assistance in these areas of chemistry. She was nominated to join BP4NTA through EPA CCTE/OSETS and has since helped produce a video in collaboration with the EPA: (Introduction to NTA (https://nontargetedanalysis.org/additional-resources/videos/).
Election and Awards Chair: Elin Ulrich (she/her), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Elin Ulrich is a Supervisory Chemist in the Advanced Analytical Chemistry Methods Branch within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure. She has been with EPA since 2002. Her research interests have always involved mass spectrometry, analytical and environmental chemistry, with initial focus on developing methods to analyze the enantiomers of chiral pesticides and recent focus on suspect screening and non-targeted analysis for exposomics. She co-lead the EPA’s Non-Targeted Analysis Trial (ENTACT), is a founding member of BP4NTA, and served as a co-chair of the group from 2018 to 2021.
Membership Chair: Marci Smeltz (she/her), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Marci Smeltz received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a concentration in Toxicology from the University of Florida, where her research focused on factors that modulate enzyme-induced inactivation in rodent models. As a postdoctoral researcher at the US EPA’s Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Marci investigated diverse chemical classes, including PFAS, using in vitro toxicokinetic approaches to inform human health risk by incorporating targeted mass spectrometry approaches. Marci then transitioned to a position with EPA’s Air Methods and Characterization Division where she applied both targeted and non-targeted analyses for PFAS in stationary source samples. Currently, Marci is a Chemist in the Public Health and Integrated Toxicology Division and is developing an array of analytical approaches to assess chemicals of interest impacted by inhalation exposure using new approach methodologies. Marci will serve as the membership chair for BP4NTA.
Content Generation/Newsletter/Social Media: Allison Phillips (she/her), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Alli Phillips earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry from Duke University in 2019, where she studied human exposure to and potential adverse effects of emerging flame retardant mixtures. As a Staff Toxicologist at Arcadis, Allison gained expertise in site-specific risk assessments, the tracking and review of new chemical regulations and hazard derivation methods, exposure assessments, and product stewardship evaluations. After a stint in consulting, Alli completed an ORISE postdoc at the U.S. EPA in the Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure (CCTE). There, she worked on projects including prioritizing bioactive and bioaccmulative components of complex mixtures via effect directed analysis and high resolution mass spectrometry, identifying chemical indicators of non-chemical stressors in house dust, and laying the framework for the use of non-target analysis in rapid response scenarios. Alli is currently an Environmental Health Scientist within the Chemical Pollutant and Assessment Division at the U.S. EPA where she contributes to agency chemical hazard assessments. Within BP4NTA, Alli’s efforts have focused on evaluating the utility of the NTA Study Reporting Tool (SRT). Her research interests include: chemical mixtures, human health risk assessment, in vitro bioassays, non-targeted analysis, and flame retardants.
NORMAN & British Mass Spectrometry External Liaison: Drew Szabo (he/him), Stockholm University
Drew Szabo is a postdoctoral researcher for the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Stockholm University. His research focus is on the identification and fate of emerging contaminants using machine-learning assisted high resolution mass spectrometry techniques. Particularly, the application of toxicity and quantification prediction models to highlight important chemicals from thousands of detectable features. Drew joined BP4NTA in 2022, where he led a collaborative effort for the harmonization of prioritization techniques in suspect and non-targeted screening methodologies.
Journal & Conference/Events Outreach: Keaton Nahan, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
keaton.nahan [at] fda.hhs.gov
Website Manager: Anna Feerick (she/her), University of California, Davis
Anna Feerick is completing her Ph.D. in Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry at the University of California, Davis under Dr. Tom Young. Her research focuses on developing machine learning-based models to define the chemical space of a non-target method. Further research will focus on improving nontarget feature prioritization through toxicity response assays. Anna joined BP4NTA in 2022, where she became a member of the website management team and helped write a review paper on examining the chemical exposome.
The website managers maintain the BP4NTA website and provide updates to the website content (blog posts, NTA resources, etc.).
Contact them if you experience any problems on the BP4NTA website, have ideas about additional content, or would like us to add your event/organization/software/database to our lists of resources.
PFAS Working Group
The PFAS working group is focused on investigating, curating, and developing methodologies, tools, guidelines, and educational resources for non-targeted PFAS analysis. The working group also hopes to help expand adoption and awareness of the utility of non-targeted PFAS amongst various diverse stakeholders.
Jacqueline Bangma (she/her), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Jacqueline Bangma, Ph.D., is a chemist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her research focuses on non-target analysis (NTA) applications for identifying novel PFAS in surface water and industrial mixtures. She is interested in utilizing environmentally sourced mixtures of novel PFAS to understand mammalian bioaccumulation and mixture toxicity. I have been a part of BP4NTA in some capacity for about 2 years (I didn’t start leading anything until about a year ago). The PFAS subcommittee has members from almost every vendor, government organization, as well as academia, so I am excited to see what we can accomplish as a team. I know a lot of stakeholders often mention the need for an open source PFAS library, and Ben Place at NIST has started one that is a great resource. I am hoping the PFAS sub-committee will be able to help expand the associated data, thus increasing its impact.
Jeremy Koelmel (he/him), Yale University
Jeremy Koelmel joined BP4NTA in May of 2021 and currently serves as the co-leader of the BP4NTA PFAS sub-committee alongside Jacqueline Bangma. As a research associate at Yale University in Krystal Pollitt’s laboratory, he is actively involved in cutting-edge research in lipidomics, wearable devices for exposure monitoring, and non-targeted PFAS analysis. Additionally, Jeremy is the founder and CEO of Innovative Omics, a company dedicated to designing open-source software for non-targeted analysis and training scientists in the entire non-targeted analysis workflow. Jeremy Koelmel’s passion is in designing software which continues to improve the accuracy and coverage of non-targeted analysis and provides interactive visualization tools for researchers to better navigate mass spectrometry data. His main fields of application are in lipidomics and redox lipidomics, PFAS analysis, polymers, and wearable passive samplers for exposure monitoring. By releasing open-source software tools and providing mentorship and training, Jeremy aims to empower scientists in government, academia, and industry who are dedicated to minimizing the release of harmful chemicals in the environment.
Study Planning Tool
The Study Planning Tool (SPT) is part of a broader suite of tools and resources available from BP4NTA working groups. SPT was developed to support the researcher as a guide for developing studies using non-targeted analysis (NTA). The purpose of SPT is to provide direction during the planning stages of a NTA study and use as a resource for defining key parameters, methods, analytical technology and sample metrics to be used in the study, in addition, facilitate development of a quality assurance plan and identify potential gaps to ensure thorough data reporting.
Niti Shah (she/her), Altria Client Services
Niti Shah, Ph.D., serves as a Principal Scientist, Analytical Sciences, at Altria Client Services in Richmond, VA. In her role, she leads projects to build infrastructure and scientific testing capabilities to support product development initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements. Niti earned her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and has been working in industry for 11+ years. Since 2016, she has been involved in development of nontargeted analysis (NTA) methods for complex matrices using GC-MS and LC-MS high resolution mass spectrometry. Niti has extensive experience in methods development, validation, differential screening, compound identification, and implementing new technology to solve scientific problems related to targeted and nontargeted screening. She is very passionate about nontargeted screening and creating standardized processes in developing protocols for study planning, method performance evaluation/validation, and reporting. Niti has been a member of BP4NTA since 2021 and serves as co-chair for the study planning tool (SPT) committee and support initiatives in the Outreach Committee.
Heather Whitehead, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Heather Whitehead is an ORISE EPA fellow working on the application of high-resolution mass spectrometry methods development to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Heather began her work with mass spectrometry and PFAS during her PhD at the University of Notre Dame. In her current role as an ORISE EPA fellow Heather is involved in collaborations with state and regional partners to employ NTA for site characterization of emerging contaminations. Within BP4NTA, Heather is interested in the development of standardized approaches for NTA data collection, processing, and reporting to support decision making.
The Stakeholder Outreach Committee
The stakeholder outreach committee develops materials for those such as regulators and collaborating scientists who are not NTA practitioners but are interested in using NTA data in their work or understanding how NTA data is useful in their field.
Sara Nason (she/her), Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
Sara Nason uses liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) to detect contaminants in agricultural and environmental systems. She is interested in understanding how organic contaminants move and transform in the environment and how environmental releases of chemicals can lead to unintended human exposures and health impacts. She has used suspect screening and NTA methods to investigate chemicals of concern in sewage sludge, manure digestion, soil, plant/vegetable, and dried blood spot samples. Specifically, she has been involved in work improving methods for non-targeted detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Sara joined BP4NTA in 2018 and is interested in developing resources to help harmonize NTA vocabulary and reporting standards, provide information to researchers who are new to NTA, and develop NTA as a tool that can be used in regulatory monitoring.
Yong-Lai Feng (he/him), Health Canada
Yong-Lai Feng is a Research Scientist at the Health Canada, a Federal Department of Canada. He holds a PhD degree in Analytical Chemistry. He joined Health Canada in 2002, and he is the leader of the high-throughput screening laboratory. His research interests include studying the effects of exposure on health outcomes, developing HRMS based non-targeted analysis tools to identify possible priorities for future assessments, and performing DNA Adductomics and metabolomics analysis. . He has been an active member of the BP4NTA group since 2019.
Standard Methods & Materials Committee:
The Standard Methods & Materials Committee is developing recommendations and tools for NTA study design and method development to enable the creation of reproducible results, development of validated methods, and effective assessments of NTA method performance. Contact the committee chair if you would like to join the committee or for more information about their efforts.
Retired Committees: The Study Reporting Tool
The SRT Committee is responsible for maintaining the NTA Study Reporting Tool (SRT) and updating it to capture user feedback and major advancements in the field. The SRT Committee also develops instructional content related to SRT use and partners with editors and journals interested in using the SRT in their peer review process. Please see the SRT Page or check out the manuscript Standardizing Non-targeted Analysis Reporting to Advance Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology for more information.
Retired Committees: The ChemSpace Tool
Unlike targeted approaches wherein the entire chemical universe is well defined, the chemical space of any non-targeted method is an ambiguous, multidimensional space consisting of chemicals within a swath of chemical properties. However, understanding and communicating which region of chemical space is extractable and detectable by an NTA workflow remains challenging and non-standardized. The article proposes the development of a tool capable of addressing attributes known to fundamentally affect the types of chemicals detected in NTA samples.
Exploring chemical space in non-targeted analysis: a proposed ChemSpace tool
Past Board Members
Website Manager: Seth Newton (he/him), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
For over a decade, Seth Newton’s research has focused on identifying and quantifying emerging contaminants in environmental and biological samples. He has worked to develop analytical methods and tools that enable other researchers to more quickly and accurately identify unknown compounds or contaminants of emerging concern. He has also applied these methods and tools to environmental samples, resulting in the discovery of numerous contaminants that would have otherwise gone undetected. He was involved in the organization of EPA’s Non-Targeted Analysis Collaborative Trial (ENTACT), which compared Non-Targeted Analysis (NTA) methods across over 20 labs representing government, academia, and industry, and co-chaired the ENTACT workshop in 2018 that brought together participating laboratories to present their findings from the analysis of ENTACT samples. Participants in ENTACT formed the first NTA working group, BP4NTA, which currently has over 80 members. Seth has been an active member in BP4NTA, advocating for the development of NTA study guidance and performance benchmarks with the aim of establishing NTA as a tool that can be used by regulatory decision makers. He has served on an interagency working group, commissioned by Congress, to develop guidance on contaminants of emerging concern in drinking water and as leader of the NTA subgroup, he has been an advocate for the further study of drinking water using NTA methods. He was the first researcher to apply NTA methods to point-of-use drinking water filters, resulting in the discovery of many compounds not typically monitored in drinking water.
Publications Committee Chair: Natalia Soares Quinete (she/her), Florida International University
This chair serves as the primary contact for journal editors and reviewers involved in publishing NTA related research who are interested in utilizing BP4NTA resources and leads programs related to editorial/reviewer outreach.
Natalia Quinete is an Assistant Professor at Florida International University. Her research interests are concentrated in the environmental and bioanalytical chemistry areas, focusing on assessing and understanding the sources, distribution, and fate of persistent organic pollutants and emerging contaminants in the different environmental and biological compartment and their potential impacts to humans and animals. More specifically she has been working on the development and improvement of analytical methods based on mass spectrometry and non-targeted analysis workflows for the identification and determination of several classes of pollutants of concern, such as PFAS and phthalates, in the environment. She was involved in the ENTACT project led by the U.S. EPA and has been an active member of the BP4NTA group since 2018.
If you would prefer not to reach out directly to our team members, you can fill out our Contact Form with any questions, concerns, ideas, and/or potential collaborations, and we will get in touch!