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Dave Berry PhD, FRCPath, MFSSoc, MRSC

Dave has been involved with toxicology and the measurement of drugs, alcohol and other poisons including interpretation of results for more than 45 years. For most of this time he worked at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital Medical Toxicology Unit Laboratory (MTL) where in the early days he developed methods to screen for and determine the increasing range of drugs encountered in self-poisoning together with methods for screening urines from drug abuse clinics. He also developed quantitative assays in blood for several groups of therapeutic drugs such as anticonvulsants, cardioactives, antidepressants, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic and some antibiotics (particularly those used in TB) in order to investigate the role of measurement in therapeutic drug management (TDM). In the early 1970’s his main focus was measurement of drugs used to treat epilepsy.

In 1975 he registered at Surrey University to undertake a collaborative research PhD in his “spare time” and was most fortunate to have Professor Dennis Parke as his supervisor. His PhD studied the disposition and metabolism of a new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. He was awarded his PhD in 1982 by which time he was responsible for organisation and management of a comprehensive supra-regional antiseizure drug (ASD) TDM service. He continued to develop methods for the many new, ASDs that were in the pipeline and also worked closely with pharmaceutical companies and CROs to monitor trials of these developmental ASDs. In addition he worked with diagnostic companies to assist development of immunoassays for newer drugs. By the time he left the MTL it offered assays for TDM of 26 ASDs together with relevant metabolites and in addition a very comprehensive Clinical and Forensic Toxicology Service.

Dave was promoted to Consultant Biochemist on the grounds of personal excellence in 2003 and in 2008 was awarded FRCPath on the basis of published works. After leaving the MTL Dave was appointed Honorary Consultant Clinical Scientist at The Epilepsy Society and in January 2018 accepted the position of part time Consultant Clinical Scientist in Viapath’s Toxicology Laboratory.

Dave is a member of several scientific societies including the Forensic Science Society, the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists, Society of Hair Testing, British Pharmacological Society, The International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Toxicology, Association of Clinical Biochemists and is a registered practitioner with the Health Professions Council. He has also undertaken specialist Medical Review Officer training. In addition Dave undertakes Expert Witness work on toxicological issues. He has provided reports and given expert evidence in a wide range of cases that involve drugs and poisons. He is also Consultant to a number of Healthcare organisations for whom he undertakes Toxicological/Medical reviews as part of their workplace drug testing programme and until recently was also Consultant Toxicologist to two Hair Testing Services for whom he prepared expert reports concerning hair drug and alcohol tests mainly for the family courts.

Dave has published more than 100 peer reviewed scientific papers relating to the toxicology and analysis of drugs; furthermore, he acts as an invited referee for several journals that publish papers concerning the management of drug therapy and clinical/forensic toxicology.