Pharmaceutics PhD research supervision areas

If you want a career in pharmaceutics research, joining a PhD project at the Reading School of Pharmacy will put you on the right path. 

This is a taster of some of the PhD projects you can be involved in at the University of Reading. To discuss the different projects available, please contact Dr Graeme Cottrell by emailing g.s.cottrell@reading.ac.uk.

Delivery to lungs has always been a challenging task where the drug particles need to be delivered deep in the alveoli. Using molecular mixtures of drug-carrier can achieve unique control over drug release and can be used to release the drug at site of action.

Advantage of this approach is precision of drug release and potential to deliver large doses of the drug. Using spray drying to form these complexes means these can be easily scaled up to prepare larger quantities. The drug-excipients solutions will then be spray dried using different pressures and temperatures based on evaporation temperature and solvents vapour pressure.

This will be followed by characterization of the formed particles using XRPD, DSC, FTIR, solid state NMR, Raman and FTIR. In-vitro dissolution experiments will also be carried out to study dissolution rates and to measure drug solubility at different pH values.

Amorphous solid dispersions (can also be combined with co-amorphous dispersions) can be used to enhance the solubility of hydrophobic drugs. When a polymeric molecule is mixed with a poorly soluble drug, the hydrophobic region of the polymer it thought to associate with the comparable region of the poorly soluble drug, resulting in a dramatic enhancement of the drugs solubility in water.

A combination of advanced physico-chemical techniques will be used to gain the required understanding of the preparation of the novel co-amorphous dispersions. The mechanism for enhanced solubility of drug will be determined using a combination of advanced physico-chemical techniques, in particular light and small angle neutron scattering (SANS). The resulting nanoparticle formulations will be characterized in detail in respect to their physico-chemical properties.

For example their moisture content will be determined using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), x-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and FTIR will be used to characterize the physical state of the components of the nanoparticles, while scanning and transmission electron microscopy will be used to assess the shape and surface texture of the particles and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) will allow the study of the molecular interactions between components.

Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter, involved in many physiological process including voluntary movement and reward.

The project will look at using nanotechnologies applied to agonists and antagonists of the dopamine receptors, to produce localized and selective activation (or inhibition) of the dopaminergic systems. This approach can potentially have therapeutic applications for diseases associated with an impairment of the dopaminergic tone.

This project will focus on the development of new therapeutics for cancer which are proposed to have fewer side effects than current clinical therapies.

In recent years, low molecular weight prodrugs and macromolecular prodrugs (nanotechnologies) have been suggested as tools to increase the selectivity of cancer treatment and these molecules will therefore be the focus of this programme. The aim of this project is therefore to prepare, purify and analyse new prodrugs, designed for specific activation at the tumour.

The prodrug system will be inactive when administered but it will become active after exposure to specific triggers present at the tumour site (e.g. enzymes). This is a highly interdisciplinary project which will involve the design and chemical synthesis of these target compounds as well as their biological evaluation.

Antimicrobial peptides have potential roles in fighting infection and disease due to their ability to target specific lipid properties of cell membranes. AMPs have potential as future therapeutic agents helping to overcome current problems such as antimicrobial resistance or poor side effect profiles of conventional therapies. 

However, the fact that the mechanism of action of AMPs remain poorly understood, and that there are difficulties in terms of stability and controlling cell selectivity and potency, currently limit their use. Professor Green has a number of PhD and MSc research projects available in the area of antimicrobial protein and peptides and their potential use as antimicrobials and anticancer agents. Her research uses a number of analytical methodologies (spectroscopic and calorimetric), and large-scale central neutron reflectometry facilities. 

Other areas where Professor Green has projects available include: 

• Investigations linked to understanding how lipid composition in biological membranes plays a role in cellular activity

• Investigations looking at polyphenols/tannins binding to proteins and lipids, and how these interactions impact on nutritional properties.

Mucoadhesion is the ability of pharmaceutical materials to adhere to mucosal tissues in the human body and provide temporary retention. This property has been widely used to develop polymeric dosage forms for buccal, oral, nasal, ocular, intravesical and vaginal drug delivery.

This research project will be aimed at the development of novel mucoadhesive polymers and nanomaterials, studies of their interactions with the components of the mucus gel in solutions by various physicochemical techniques, characterisation of their adhesive properties with respect to biological and model substrates, formulation of mucoadhesive dosage forms and their in vitro evaluation.

Probiotics are live bacteria that reside in human intestinal tract and provide numerous beneficial effects. Oral delivery of probiotics is viewed as an efficient therapeutic strategy to improve gut health.

This project will be focused on the development of microencapsulated forms of live probiotic bacteria that will facilitate their survival during transit through the low pH of the stomach, when administered via oral route. This highly interdisciplinary project will provide an excellent training opportunity in microencapsulation technologies, microbiological methods and formulation science.

Drug delivery to and through the skin is attractive to treat local skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema and to deliver drug to the systemic circulation whilst avoiding first pass metabolism. However, human skin is a remarkable barrier designed to "keep the outsides out and insides in" and this severely limits the range and dose of therapeutic agents that can be delivered via topical administration. 

Research projects aim to develop novel delivery systems and formulations to overcome the barriers to drug delivery into and through skin. Approaches vary and include: 

• Manipulating the thermodynamic activity of a drug when a formulation is applied to the skin, for example generating supersaturated systems.

• Exploiting the pathophysiology of skin diseases to trigger drug release from a formulation to target the affected site, for example applying a drug in a pH responsive carrier particle to sites of active atopic dermatitis

• Targeting drug delivery to hair follicles using novel nanoparticles

• Using microneedle arrays which penetrate the outer skin barrier but do not reach down to the pain receptors to broach the skin barrier, allowing delivery of macromolecular drugs.