Dr. Townsend’s primary research interest is the discovery and validation of biomakers in tissues and biological fluids using proteomics and metabolomics. His research program focuses on the development of robust sample preparation and separation methods and the application of advanced mass spectrometric technologies to clinical medicine. His laboratory has ongoing collaborative protein biomarker projects in cancer (pancreatic, breast, prostate and bladder) and Alzheimer’s disease using plasma, CSF, urine and formalin-fixed tissues. The laboratory is developing quantitative survey metabolomic methods for plasma and tissues, and targeted analysis of chemical classes of metabolites.