Dermal Drug Delivery & Diagnostics Laboratory
Dr Keng Wooi Ng @ Newcastle University
COVID-19 put a lot of things on hold, including this long-anticipated trip by Dr M. Naeem Aamir to join us in Newcastle. The much delayed trip finally materialised this week.
Naeem is an Associate Professor at the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Sponsored by the Pakistani government, he will work with us to design pharmaceutical formulations for inflammation. I am delighted to be hosting Naeem for this work.
This week, we welcomed Dr Djurdja Vukajlovic to our team as a postdoctoral researcher. Djurdja is a materials engineer and specialist in polymer and ceramics. She has joined in our efforts to develop a material that confers exceptional extended-release properties to pharmaceutical dosage forms. This material has recently enabled us to formulate a transdermal microneedle patch that continuously releases the drug for 2 months. Djurdja will split her time between the School of Pharmacy and the School of Engineering.
Dr Surar Al-Hashimi is a physician with an interest in dermatology. She joins our team this week as a research assistant to examine the effect of laser ablation on the biochemistry of the skin. She brings to the team expertise in dermatology and research skills in molecular biology. We are delighted to welcome her to the team!
This month, Daniel Yanes joins the research team to develop a microneedle drug delivery system based on a metallogel. Daniel is a student on the MRes Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine programme, with a background in chemistry.
Meanwhile, Amor has completed his MPharm research project on microneedle biosensor development and will now be focusing his energy on other aspects of his MPharm programme. We wish him all the best!
A research position is now open, for an immediate start, and tenable until 31 July 2022 in the first instance. The closing date for applications is 3 February 2022. Please see the advertisement for full details.
We have described the recent progress we have made in a novel drug delivery technology which, among other things, prolongs drug delivery beyond a month (read about it here , here and here). The research associate/assistant will be responsible for further development work to demonstrate a wide application of the drug delivery technology in various dosage forms, for the delivery of small molecules and macromolecular drugs (e.g. biologics).
This is a collaborative project between the School of Engineering and the School of Pharmacy at Newcastle University. Informal enquiries are welcome.
October 2021. At the start of the new academic year, we welcomed two members into the research team: Emma and Amor.
Emma is a UK-qualified pharmacist with an interest in drug delivery. She has now started her PhD project working on developing a medical microimplant with a view to empower patients to self-manage sustained release medications. The work is funded by an EPSRC PhD studentship.
Amor is a final-year MPharm student. He has been working on the validation of a microneedle immunobiosensor platform based on a new detection method our team has recently developed.
Welcome, both!
And note to self: next time, try to post updates before they become old news.
We’re pleased to announce that a PhD studentship is now available in our laboratory and open for applications. The PhD studentship, generously funded by the EPSRC, will fund the tuition fees, living expenses (stipend) and research support (e.g. consumables) for one PhD student for 3.5 years. The student will work under the guidance of Keng, Wing and Katarina to develop a microimplant for drug delivery.
Interested candidates should apply online by following any one of the links below, which also contain full details of the studentship:
Informal enquiries should be directed to keng.ng@newcastle.ac.uk.
If you know anyone to whom this may be of interest, please forward this on.
We’re looking for a Research Associate/Assistant to join our lab to develop a smart drug delivery system that empowers patients to self-care. Adverts are out on the University’s job site and jobs.ac.uk.
Closing date for applications: 5 December 2020.
We welcome informal enquiries. Please direct them to keng.ng@newcastle.ac.uk.
Update 18 December 2020: Applications have now closed and we’ve entered the shortlisting stage. Thank you for all your interest.
Just as we were about to wind down our lab operations for Christmas, we welcomed postdoctoral research associate, Dr Hassan Elsana, into our team this week. Hassan will be working on an EPSRC-funded project researching microneedle-mediated drug delivery in the skin.
This project is a collaboration with Dr Wing Man Lau (School of Pharmacy) and Dr Katarina Novakovic (School of Engineering). We have high hopes for this project.
Exciting times ahead, and I don’t just mean Christmas!
This week, I welcome 4 new team members into the team:
Cerys Evans is an MPharm student who will be investigating microneedle coating strategies for dermal drug delivery over the next 10 weeks.
Rachael Dixon joins us to develop a novel skin health monitor, in a joint effort between the School of Pharmacy and the Institute of Cellular Medicine. Professor Syed Moein Moghimi, Professor Mark Birch-Machin and Dr Philip Manning are co-supervisors.
Grace Young starts her PhD research formulating an antimicrobial delivery strategy to combat biofilms. The project, led by Dr Wing Man Lau and co-supervised by Dr Nick Jakubovics and myself, is a collaboration between the School of Pharmacy and the School of Dental Sciences.
Georgia Peavoy joins us to develop a novel diagnostic device for detecting nerve damage in diabetic patients. This is a collaborative project with Dr Roger Whittaker (lead supervisor, Institute of Neuroscience) and Professor Anthony O’Neil (School of Engineering).
I hope they enjoy their time with us and have a productive research project in the months and years ahead.