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Programme

The event takes place over three afternoons, Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th & Thursday 9th September 2021

The PharmSci Conference is the key event in the APS calendar. This year we are holding a virtual conference over 3 afternoons on the 7th ,8th & 9th September 2021.

The meeting will include:

• Plenary presentations by Award winners for the APS Award Lecture, Innovative Science Award and Emerging Scientist Award
• Presentations on ‘Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic’.
• Two parallel science sessions on each of the days
• Networking opportunities
• Posters and Presentations
• Exhibitors

The science session and lectures will includes leading edge research drawing on all the available talent which supports the UK to be a world-leader in pharmaceutical science.
The vPharmSci 2021 conference gives you at whatever stage of your career, a unique opportunity to connect with pharmaceutical scientists, based in industry, academica, regulatory and business from the UK and around the world.

Your registration ticket will entitle you to attend all 3 days. Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th September 2021.

They will start at 12.30 until 17.15 each day.

You can register for all days.

You will then shortly be sent a link to the conference platform.

The APS vPharmSci conference is a showcase event for the pharmaceutical sciences community and provides a dynamic forum for the Pharma, Biopharma and Cell and Gene Therapy industry to come together with academic colleagues.

The meeting is open to all in the pharmaceutical sciences community at whatever stage of their career. We particularly encourage students to join us and submit posters.

Trevor Archbold (Vectura), Hannah Bachelor (University of Strathclyde & APS Board), (Bob Clay (Highbury Regulatory Science & APS Board), Fran Greco (University of Reading ),Mark McAllister (Pfizer & APS Board), Trish Sharp (APS Administrator), Carol O’Connor (APS Scientific Advisor).

Day 1-Tuesday 7th September 2021-12.30-17.15

12.30-12.45 Welcome & Open Address

Welcome-Jo Craig- Chair of APS

Open Address- Professor Trevor Jones -Chairman of the Oxford based Drug Discovery Company, e-Therapeutics plc and a Director of Respiratory Innovation Wales Ltd

12.45-13.45- Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

Professor Peter Simpson, Chief Scientific Officer,Medicines Discovery Catapult-A Lockdown, Lighthouse, Laboratory, Journey

13.45-14.45 APS Award Lecture

Professor Hans Lennernäs, Professor in Biopharmaceutics-Uppsala University-Seven successful projects in my research – so far…

14.45-15.15 Networking, Posters & Exhibitors 

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 1

Pharmaceutical Education and Research with Regulatory Links – Outputs from the PEARRL Marie-Curie ITN

Chairs– Dr Brendan Griffin, University College Cork  & Prof. Jennifer Dressman, Fraunhofer ITMP, Frankfurt.

Speakers & Talks 

Prof Maria Vertzoni (University of Athens, Greece)-Evaluating drug product performance in infants based on adults data.

Dr. Felix Ditzinger (F.Hoffmann-La Roche)-Opportunities of interacting small molecular coformers in amorphous formulations

Dr Angela Effinger (DMPK, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co)- Predicting Drug Product Performance in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 2 

Process Engineering and Formulation Design – Continuous processing for Oral Solid Dose (OSD)

Chair-Dr Stuart Charlton -BMS

Speakers & Talks 

Prof Jim Litster (University of Sheffield)- Twin Screw Granulation – Mechanisms and Modelling

Dr Ranjitkumar Dhenge (GSK)-Continuous manufacturing: Wet granulation platform

Dr Kai Lee (Pfizer)-Continuous Powder Mixing Technology in Drug Product Manufacturing. 

17.00-17.15 Awarding of Prizes and Closing for the Day 

Professor Trevor Jones and Jo Craig

Jo Craig-APS Chair & Senior Vice President CMC (Chemistry Manufacturing & Controls) for NeRRe Therapeutics

Currently Chair of APS, Jo is a Pharmacist and has spent her entire career working in the pharmaceutical industry with a focus on pharmaceutical development, product quality and the introduction of new manufacturing technologies. She is currently Senior Vice President CMC (Chemistry Manufacturing & Controls) for NeRRe Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotech company located at the Stevenage Biosciences Catalyst. She also held the same role for KaNDy Therapeutics prior to its acquisition by Bayer in 2020. Previously, Jo spent over 30 years at GlaxoSmithKline where her career spanned many leadership roles in CMC product development, most recently as Vice President of Technology & Strategy, Product Development & Supply. Jo led the technology team at the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) 2017-2018 where she was influential in aligning Pharma and UK Government on future areas for investment as part of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy. She continues to be involved with medicines manufacturing in the UK contributing to advisory groups. Jo is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, an Eminent Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UK and has been an Advisor to the APS Board for several years.

Prof Trevor M Jones CBE FMedSci-PhD DSc Hon FRCP FBPhS FRSM FRSC FLSW

Prof Jones is Chairman of the Oxford based Drug Discovery Company, e-Therapeutics plc and a Director of Respiratory Innovation Wales Ltd . He was formerly a Director of Allergan Inc. (USA) ,R&D Director of The Wellcome Foundation and Director General of the ABPI.

Prof Jones is a visiting professor at The Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at King’s College, London and holds honorary degrees and Gold Medals from 6 universities. He was a founder member of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a member of The UK Government Regulatory Agency …The Medicines Commission. , advisor to the Cabinet Office on the Human Genome project, Chair of the UK Government Advisory Group on Genetics Research. He is currently a member of the Wales Government, Bevan Commission on Health, was a Commissioner at The World Health Organisation, WHO, has advised the Government of the Netherlands TiPharma Board on Life Science and was a member of the EU Commission IMI Scientific Advisory Board.
He was the first winner of the SCRIP Life Time Achievement award

Professor Hans Lennernäs, Ph.D.

Hans Lennernäs is a professor of Biopharmaceutics at Uppsala University since 1 July 2000, Sweden and he has been an adjunct professor of Biopharmaceutics at Copenhagen University, Denmark 2000-2012. His research objectives has been and are to develop novel strategies of tissue drug targeting and delivery that is expected to improve the clinical use and efficacy of drugs in various diseases, such as metabolic and cancer diseases. He has been the Principal Investigator in an extensive collaboration with Food Drug & Administration, USA, University of Michigan, USA, and Medical Product Agency, Sweden during 1992-2000 to develop the novel FDA regulatory guideline named the Biopharmaceutics Classification System. He has established an extensive human pharmacokinetic database with jejunal permeability values for 45 drug compounds that today is widely used in academia and pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Lennernäs has been the chairman for numerous international conferences. He serves as reviewer for several scientific journals in clinical pharmacology and pharmaceutical science with a focus on drug delivery and pharmacokinetics. His work had led to more 230 peer-reviewed publications, 330 invited lectures and more than 350 submitted presentations at scientific meetings. He is well-cited author with more than 15 300 citations and a H-index of 62 (web of science). He has supervised 28 doctorial theses and acted as co-supervisor for two neurologists. He has obtained several national and international research grants such vetenskapsrådet, cancerfonden och IMI (EU). He has received Glaxo Wellcome Achievement Award 1997 and Annual Award from the Industrial Pharmacy Section 1998, Fédération Internationale Pharmaceutique (FIP), and a Honourable Mentions at EURAND AWARD 2000, been elected the AAPS Fellow 2004 and received the AAPS Meritorious Manuscript Award 2004, New Safe Medicine Faster Award 2008 and Hjärnäpplet (Innovation Award at Uppsala University) 2017. He received Lilly och Sven Thuréus Awards at Swedish Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala in 2019. He has been the managing entity for an EU-grant from IMI (Innovative Medicine Initiative) of 24.5 MEuro during 2012-2018. He received the highest research rank after an external international evaluation at UU during 2011 (Quality and Renewal 2011). Based on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics principles his research group has during more than 20 years been active in developing a local drug delivery strategy for treatment of localized prostate cancer and primary liver cancer. Prototypes emerging from this research are currently evaluated in phase II clinical trials. He is the inventor of more than 16 drug delivery patents. He is one of the innovators and developers of a novel sublingual drug delivery system currently used for the treatment of various acute pain conditions (Rapinyl®). He has also together with co-inventors initiated four other start-up companies. One company has developed a novel oral replacement therapy (Plenadren®) for Addison disease (approved by EMA 2011) and the second company is developing of local drug product of localised prostate cancer, which is to enter phase III-trials (www.liddspharma.com). Another innovation was the basis for Empros Pharma in the therapeutic area of obesity and metabolic disease and a phase IIa study has been successfully completed. He has been on the board on several companies such as Aquilion AB, LIDDS AB, Recipharm Pharmaceutical AB, Nanologica AB, Empros Pharma AB and Canthera AB, Sweden. His research is today focused on new treatment approaches for hepatocellular cancer and various local gastrointestinal diseases. This research has a strong translational focus with innovation and development of novel drug delivery principles with drug combinations. This research is currently supported by the Swedish Research Council (Sweden’s largest governmental research organization) and Swedish Cancer Society (one of the largest financiers of cancer research in Sweden).

12.45-13.45- Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

Professor Peter Simpson, Chief Scientific Officer,Medicines Discovery Catapult

Peter is Chief Scientific Officer for Medicines Discovery Catapult. His expert biology teams collaborate with universities and SMEs around UK, generating innovative technology and assay methodologies to accelerate progress in therapeutic discovery. Peter has previously been Director of N8 Research Partnership, establishing multi-university research collaborations across the North of England and leading strategic engagement on innovation policy.

In 2020 at the start of the Covid pandemic, Peter led the establishment of the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab, which now employs more than 600 staff and has delivered ~9 million Covid tests over the past year.

Previously, Peter has twenty years of experience in leading innovative drug discovery departments and programmes within major Pharmaceutical companies (Merck, AstraZeneca). He sits on multiple national and international advisory boards.

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 1

Pharmaceutical Education and Research with Regulatory Links – Outputs from the PEARRL Marie-Curie ITN
Chairs
Brendan Griffin-Professor of Pharmaceutics and Head of School of Pharmacy at University College Cork

Brendan Griffin is currently Professor of Pharmaceutics and Head of School of Pharmacy at University College Cork. His research interests include formulation technology to improve oral drug delivery and computational pharmaceutics tools to streamline drug product development. He has authored over 85 peer reviewed publications; he is Project Coordinator of the €4m H2020 funded Marie Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) (www.pearrl.eu) and recently was successfully in leading a new ‘InPharma’ ITN (https://www.inpharma-network.eu/) to establish a new fully integrated, animal-free, end-to-end modelling approach in oral drug product development.

Professor Jennifer Dressman

Jennifer Dressman recently retired from the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, where she was Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology for 27 years. She is now affiliated with the Fraunhofer Institute of Translational Medicine and Pharmacology in Frankfurt and continuing her research on oral absorption of small molecules. Professor Dressman has written over 300 papers, books and chapters as well as co-authoring 15 patents, and is best known for pioneering biorelevant dissolution testing. She is a Fellow of AAPS, APV, APSTJ and FIP, as well as receiving numerous other awards

Dr Angela Effinger

Dr. Angela Effinger studied pharmacy at the Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg until 2015. After finishing her studies, she joined the PEARRL project and started her PhD studies at the University of Bath with placements at the MHRA in London and Pfizer in Sandwich. During her PhD, she developed in vitro and in silico tools to predict drug product performance in patients with gastrointestinal diseases. In 2020, she joined Boehringer Ingelheim in Biberach as a postdoc and is currently working as senior pharmacometrician in DMPK.

Dr. Felix Ditzinger-F.Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Pharmaceutical R&D

Dr. Felix Ditzinger is a pharmacist by training who studied at the Goethe University Frankfurt until 2016. After finishing his studies he participated in the PEARRL PhD project, which enabled him to go on research and educational stays at the HPRA in Dublin, Merck KgaA in Darmstadt and Janssen Pharmaceuticals in Beerse. After finishing his PhD about amorphous solid dispersions at the University of Basel, he started  as a formulation scientist and drug product lead at F.Hoffmann-La Roche.

Professor Maria Vertzoni-Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics Department of Pharmacy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Maria Vertzoni is Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics, Department of Pharmacy, National Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece. She received her Bachelor in Chemistry in 1994, her Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry in 1999 and her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2004 from NKUA. In 2016, she received her Master of Science in Medical and Pharmaceutical Statistics from Athens University of Economics and Business. Research interests focus to the physicochemical characterization of intraluminal environment, oral drug absorption with special interest in special populations. She is currently supervising 4 PhD Theses. She is co-author of more than 100 peer reviewed papers and chapters in international journals and books (h-index 37). She is member of the editorial board of Molecular Pharmaceutics, Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Pharmaceutics and Die Pharamzie. She is/has been involved in several EU funded training and research programs, i.e. AGePOP, PEARRL, InPharma, OrBiTo and COLOTAN, and one COST action, i.e. UNGAP.

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 2

Process Engineering and Formulation Design – Continuous processing for Oral Solid Dosage (OSD)
Chair
Dr Stuart Charlton-Associate Scientific Director -Bristol Myers Squibb

Stuart works at Bristol Myers Squibb in the Drug Product Development group, having joined the company in 2005. His current role as Associate Scientific Director is focused on the development of oral solid dosage forms from the pre-clinical stage through to product registration. Stuart has a particular interest in paediatric drug product development and is an SME leading and supporting activities across the company and externally. Other research interests include mechanistic understanding and mini-piloting for roller compaction and film-coating. Stuart graduated from the University of Bath with a degree in Pharmacy, and was later awarded a PhD by the University of Nottingham in 2002

Speakers
Dr Ranjit Dhenge -GSK

Dr. Ranjit Dhenge works as Investigator in the Product Development and Supply department of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) (Ware, UK). He is also Associate Fellow at GSK.
Ranjit has completed a PhD at The University of Sheffield, UK in 2012. After PhD, he joined Nestle in York, UK, as a Product Technologist. He worked on extruded-confectionery product development using Continuous Twin Screw Extrusion. Before joining GSK in 2016, Ranjit also was Post- Doctoral Researcher at The University of Sheffield (2014-16) where he was actively engaged in the research activities in the area of Continuous Pharmaceutical Granulation with special attention to process development. His current focus is on platform and process development of dry granulation operation (roller compaction). This involves developing small scale prediction tools, modelling framework and application of tools into the projects. The work also involves technical troubleshooting and process de-risking

Dr Kai Lee-Pfizer

Kai is a Principal Scientist and is part of the Drug Product Design group based in Sandwich in the UK. His responsibility in Pfizer is to support the delivery of the company’s mid to late-stage R&D and marketed product portfolio. He is currently responsible for designing the formulation and the manufacturing process of oral solid dosage forms for the clinical and commercial drug product which includes transferring the process to the commercial manufacturing organization. His specialty and main interest area is drug product manufacturing science particularly on continuous processing for example continuous powder mixing technology, continuous twin-screw wet granulation, process analytical tools, and the application of Big Data and process modelling to optimize the manufacturing process. Kai is a Chemical Engineer by training and he has obtained his BEng and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Birmingham. His Ph.D. research was on Continuous Twin Screw Granulation and using PEPT application to understand the granulation mechanism of the process. He joined Pfizer 6 years ago as a Process Scientist and is currently the SME of continuous processing.

Dr Jim Litster, The University of Sheffield

Jim Litster is Vice President and Head of Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sheffield, following previous academic appointments at Purdue University (2007-2015) and The University of Queensland (1987-2007). His research area is Particulate Products and Processes. His research focuses on production of particles and particulate delivery forms with well controlled size and morphology from sub-micron to millimeter scale using processes such as wet granulation, crystallization and spherical agglomeration. He is an international leading expert on wet granulation with over 30 years experience in the field. Jim is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. He has received several awards internationally for his work, most recently the Geldart Medal on Particle Technology from the Institution of Chemical Engineers in 2017.

Day 2-Wednesday 8th September 2021-12.30-17.15

12.30-12.45 Welcome & Open Address

Dr Mark McAllister-Pfizer & APS Board Member

12.45-13.45 Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

Dr Brian Henry, Vice President, Medicinal Sciences, Pfizer –Lightspeed development for new Covid-19 therapies

13.45-14.45 Innovative Science Award

Ryan Donnelly– Queens University, Belfast-“Poking holes in transdermal delivery limits to provide solutions to global healthcare challenges

14.45-15.15 Networking, Posters & Exhibitors 

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 1

Transdermal, intradermal and topical drug delivery

 Chair-Dr Liam McAuley University of Hertfordshire

Speakers and talks

Dr Alejandro Paredes, Queen’s University Belfast-Nanocrystals and microneedle technologies as a potent combination approach to deliver high doses of hydrophobic drugs to the skin

Dr Sebastian Braun LTS Lohmann-Microneedle translational development and scale-up and the path to market

Two short presentations selected from poster submissions.

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 2 

Advances in Cancer Therapeutics -United Kingdom & Ireland Controlled Release Society (UKICRS)

Chair-Dr Clare Hoskins, University of Strathclyde.

Speakers and Talks

Dr Jonathan Coulter, Queens University Belfast. -Development and pre-clinical validation of multi-functional radiosensitising nanoparticles – successes and challenges

Dr Yon Son Betty Kim, MD Anderson Cancer Center.-Modulating the tumor microenvironment with nanomedicines 

Professor Steve Rannard, University of Liverpool- Studying polymer nanoparticle design for SN-38 encapsulation and delivery

17.00-17.15 Closing for the Day 

Dr Mark McAllister-Pfizer & APS Board Member

Professor Ryan Donnelly, Chair in Pharmaceutical Technology in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast

Professor Ryan Donnelly is a registered pharmacist. He holds the Chair in Pharmaceutical Technology in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast and is Director of the university’s interdisciplinary research programme Materials & Advanced Technologies for Healthcare, comprising 58 academics from Pharmacy, Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Biological Sciences, Nursing and Medicine. His personal research is centred on design and physicochemical characterisation of advanced polymeric drug delivery systems for transdermal and intradermal drug delivery, with a strong emphasis on improving patient outcomes. He is currently developing a range of novel microneedle technologies through independent research, but also in collaboration with several major pharma partners. He has obtained substantial Research Council, charity and industrial funding and authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications.

Professor Donnelly is Communications Chair of the Controlled Release Society and Europe/Africa Editor of Drug Delivery & Translational Research. His work has attracted numerous awards, including Evonik’s Resomer Award (2018), the Controlled Release Society’s Young Investigator Award (2016), BBSRC Innovator of the Year and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Pharmaceutical Research Meritorious Manuscript Award (2013), the GSK Emerging Scientist Award (2012) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Science Award (2011).

Dr Mark McAllister-Pfizer & APS Board Member

Dr Mark McAllister is a Senior Scientific Director in the Drug Product Design group at Pfizer (Sandwich) with responsibility for mid-to-late stage development projects. He is a Pharmacy graduate from Queen’s University Belfast and has a pharmaceutics PhD from Aston University. Mark has over 25 years industrial development experience and has specialised in oral delivery systems and biopharmaceutics. He is a former chair of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and is currently a visiting senior lecturer at King’s College London. Mark co-led the IMI ‘OrBiTo’ project, an academic/industrial collaboration, developing the next generation of models to predict oral absorption.

Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic
Dr Brian Henry,Medicinal Sciences,Pfizer, Sandwich UK

The Drug Product Design group is responsible for all small molecule Drug Product activities from molecular design in Research through to global registration and commercial launch.
After my first degree in Pharmacy at the University of Manchester and a year working in community Pharmacy, I completed a drug delivery based PhD at the University of Nottingham. I then spent two years working for GSK within a discovery drug metabolism environment before moving to Pfizer in Sandwich, UK, to set up a Pharmaceutical Sciences Discovery support group.
I led the Research Pharmaceutical Sciences group and the Global Research Formulation Network providing formulation and drug delivery support to all programs from early Research through to PhII Proof of Concept clinical studies. I have also been the Pharmaceutical Sciences Research leader for the A&R, Pain and GI/GU Research units and member of the Global Clinical Research leadership team. In addition, I have led Pharmaceutical Science’s intellectual property activities and a technical leader for all merger and acquisition due diligence activities.
I am also the UK lead for Medicinal Sciences and represent Pfizer on the EFPIA and ABPI Innovation boards, the Medicines Manufacturing Industrial Partnership’s board and a Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Nottingham.

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 1

Transdermal, intradermal and topical drug delivery
 Chair-Dr William (Liam)  McAuley University of Hertfordshire

University Of Hertfordshire Pharmaceutics staff portraits © Pete Stevens 2012

Liam is Head of the Centre for Research in Topical Drug Delivery and Toxicology (TDDT) at the University of Hertfordshire. A qualified pharmacist he gained his MPharm degree from Queen’s University Belfast followed by a split industry/hospital pre-registration placement with Whitehall International and Brighton General Hospital. After his pre-registration training, Liam returned to Queen’s to undertake his PhD before taking up an EPSRC funded postdoctoral position at the School of Pharmacy, University of London focussed on using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy to gain insight into penetration enhancement of drugs across skin. In 2008 Liam joined the University of Hertfordshire, he became Head of Pharmaceutics in 2014 and took on his current role in 2019.

Liam’s research interests largely focus on improving drug delivery to the skin, understanding how the clinical use of topical formulations can impact on drug delivery and characterising the skin barrier. Examples of current projects in his group include evaluating the effect of emollients on the absorption of topical corticosteroids and understanding how sporting activity can affect the skin barrier.

Speakers and talks
Dr Sebastian Braun LTS Lohmann-Microneedle translational development and scale-up and the path to market

Sebastian Braun has worked in the field of transdermal and dermal drug delivery for 15 years. A molecular biologist with a PhD in analytical chemistry and molecular biology, he started his career at a transdermal drug delivery company, building a fundamental understanding of the biological workings of the skin. Spending the last 15 years at different transdermal and dermal drug delivery companies in various positions, including head of formulation development, head of manufacturing and head of science and technology, he is now focused on microneedle development and manufacturing. 

Dr Alejandro Paredes, Queen’s University Belfast-Nanocrystals and microneedle technologies as a potent combination approach to deliver high doses of hydrophobic drugs to the skin

Alejandro J. Paredes graduated as a Pharmacist in 2011, and as a PhD in 2016 from the National University of Córdoba, Argentina, where he also taught pharmaceutical sciences for 7 years. He obtained a PhD studentship from the Argentinean National Research Council, where he also worked as a postdoctoral researcher for 2 years until 2019. During this stage, he obtained national and international funds in competitive calls to visit the University of the Basque Country (Spain) and the University of Pavia (Italy) where he was involved within leading groups in gene therapy and wound healing, respectively. In 2019 he started working as a Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, where he participated in multiple projects related to the transdermal administration of drugs using microneedle array patches. During his doctoral and postdoctoral works, Dr Paredes worked intensively in improving the oral and transdermal absorption of poorly soluble drugs by means the formulation of drug nanocrystals. Alejandro is author and co-author of 2 patents, 2 book chapters and 23 papers. Moreover, he is a member of the Controlled Release Society, the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UK) and the Society for Applied Microbiology (UK). In 2021, he was appointed as a Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast, where he focuses on the development of precisely engineered nanocrystals for tissue targeting.  

Two short presentations selected from poster submissions.

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 2

United Kingdom & Ireland Controlled Release Society (UKICRS) – Advances in Cancer Therapeutics
Chair- Dr Clare Hoskins, University of Strathclyde

Dr Clare Hoskins is a Reader in the School of Pure and Applied Chemistry. She has published >50 peer reviewed articles and filed 1 patent. Her research has been supported with over £3M by national (e.g. EPSRC, BBSRC/FAPESP, Wellcome Trust) and international (e.g. Newton-Bhabha & British Council, Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research) research funding. Clare is the Elected Secretary to the Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemical Nanosciences and Nanotechnology Network, she is a committee member of the UK and Ireland Controlled Release Society and she sits on the British Council Grant Review Panel for Newton Grants. In 2019 Clare was awarded the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences ‘Emerging Scientist’ sponsored by Pfizer and also the North Staffordshire Medical Institute Researcher Award. Clare sits on the editorial board of numerous journals in her field, she leads a vibrant interdisciplinary research group within the them of Bionanotechnology and Analytical Chemistry within the Technology Innovation Centre. The focus of her research is the development of a range of multifunctional nanoparticles and their translation into medical therapies and agricultural products.

Speakers
Dr Jonathan Coulter, Queens’ University, Belfast.

Dr Coulter is a Reader working within the Nanomedicine and Biotherapeutics research group at the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast. His research has always had a focus on developing strategies to overcome treatment resistance in cancer, with a specific focus on radiotherapy. His work has spanned approaches that include the use of suicide gene therapy and more recently exploiting the unique physical properties of high atomic number nanoparticles as radiosensitisers. Recent iterations have been developed as biologically active formulations, designed to overcome tumour microenvironment properties which are known to confer treatment resistance, in addition to the core particle acting as a radiation dose modifier. This presentation aims to outline some of the successes we have experienced in this space while looking to spark discussion around the key challenges that have limited clinical translation to date. ​

Professor Steve Rannard-University of Liverpool

Steve Rannard is a materials chemist and, after 16 years in industry (Cookson, Courtaulds, Unilever), joined the University of Liverpool (UK) as a Professor of Chemistry in 2007. His medical research focuses materials science onto unmet clinical needs (oral, long-acting and topical administration) through scalable nanoparticle platforms. In addition, considerable non-clinical work targets the improvement usage and efficacy of poorly water-soluble compounds in a range of market sectors and the development of new polymer synthesis techniques. He has co-founded four start-up companies, the recent Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT Liverpool) and two national societies acting as a committee member for the Recent Appointees in Polymer Science (Macro Group UK) and vice-Chair of the British Society for Nanomedicine for nearly 10 years. Scientific recognition includes the RSC/Macro Group UK Young Researcher of the Year Medal (first recipient), sequential RSC Industrial Lectureships (Strathclyde, ’01; Sussex, ‘02), visiting Lectureship at the University of Sussex (‘99-‘01), visiting Professorship at the University of Liverpool (‘03-‘07) and a Royal Society Industry Fellowship (’05-‘09). He has co-authored >170 scientific publications and is co-inventor of >95 patent families (>150 national grants). His collaborative research funding (>£52m) since 2007 includes grants from MRC, EPSRC (UKRI), NIH, USAID, Unitaid (WHO), CRUK, CHAI, BSAC and global industry.

Professor Betty Y.S. Kim, UT – MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 

As a Neurosurgeon-Scientist, Dr. Kim’s laboratory takes a multidisciplinary approach to the research of solid tumors with a specific focus on malignant primary and metastatic brain tumors. Her work has been published in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Reviews Immunology and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. Dr. Kim’s lab is interested in understanding the molecular cross-talk that occurs between tumor and stromal cells within the tumor immune-microenvironment, while also developing multiple patented nanotherapeutic strategies to inhibit tumorigenesis. Her current research primarily focuses on finding new ways to promote immune recognition of brain tumor cells to boost the efficacies of cancer immunotherapies.

Day 3-Thursday 9th September 2021-12.30-17.15

12.30-12.45 Welcome & Open Address

Jo Craig-Chair of APS

12.45-13.45 Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

Cristiana Campa, GSK- Development of COVID-19 vaccines during this pandemic situation

13.45-14.45 Emerging Scientist Award

Luis M Bimbo, Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, United Kingdom and Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Portugal Inorganic carriers for drug delivery applications”

14.45-15.15 Networking, Posters & Exhibitors

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 1

Emerging technologies in Drug Delivery

organised by the Emerging technologies APS Focus Group
Chair-Dimitrios Lamprou Queen’s University Belfast
Speakers and Talks
Professor Bice Conti-University of Pavia, Italy.-Microfluidics as emerging technique in manufacturing polymer nanoparticles
Professor George Malliaras-University of Cambridge- Electrophoretic delivery in the brain
Professor Ricky Wildman-University of Nottingham-3D Printing: Dialling up the personalised dosage form

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 2

Digital Pharmaceutics – Opportunities and Challenges

Chair Dr Pankaj Doshi, Pfizer

Speakers and Talks

Gavin Reynolds Astra Zeneca-Implementing digital twins to help us make more robust medicines for patients faster

Ana Ferreira BMS-Use of data science to support characterization and understanding of pharmaceutical material properties

Two presentations selected from the poster submissions

17.00-17.15 Closing of the conference looking forward to PharmSci 2022

Jo Craig -Chair of APS

Martin Snowden- Conference Science Chair, PharmSci 2021

Professor Martin Snowden PhD, CChem FRSC, PFHEA
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Faculty of Engineering and Science, University of Greenwich

Professor Martin Snowden is a member of the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive Group at the University of Greenwich. Martin provides overall leadership and strategic development to four major academic disciplines including Engineering, Pharmacy, Science and the Natural Resources Institute. He leads a team of over 200 academic staff, providing a first class student experience to over 3000 on-campus students. Martin plays a leading role in representing the University in the London and South East of England region building key strategic links and partnerships. He also contributes to cross-University work in Teaching and Learning, Martin chairs the University Student experience committee and has provided long term leadership to the University’s large and successful Transnational Education (TNE) programme. He has a distinguished track record of high quality published output in physical chemistry and pharmaceutical science, total refereed outputs are over 100 (Google Scholar h-index 42). Martin is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Eminent Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Martin has recently been invited to join the editorial board of the Q1 journal Polymers. Previous editorial board member of the American Chemical Society journal Langmuir.

Luis M Bimbo, Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, United Kingdom and Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Portugal 

Dr. Luis M. Bimbo is an Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Coimbra Portugal, an Adjunct Professor in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and a Visiting Researcher at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (SIPBS), University of Strathclyde, UK. Prior to this, he spent three years as a Chancellor’s Research Fellow and Lecturer in Drug Delivery at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, UK, where he developed work on novel engineered materials for the formulation of advanced drug delivery systems, such as porous silicon and porous polymers, supramolecular hydrogels, and drug nanocrystals, attracting over £420,000 in external funding. He is the recipient of the 2020 Emerging Scientist Award from the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the UK, the 2012 Albert Wuokko Award to a Young Researcher from the Finnish Pharmaceutical Society (Finland’s most prestigious pharmaceutical award to a young researcher) and the 2014 International Award for the Most Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in the Pharmaceutical Sciences by the International Association of Pharmaceutical Technology (APV).

Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic
Cristiana Campa, GSK- Development of COVID-19 vaccines during this pandemic situation

GSK Fellows Summit 2019

Cristiana Campa, PhD, is currently a Technical R&D Advisor and Fellow at GSK Vaccines, with more than 20 years’ experience in biologics and related analytical and development strategies, gained in different universities and companies. She joined Novartis Vaccines in 2006, focusing on development, validation and transfer of analytical methods for release and characterization of several vaccine products, first as senior manager and then as Head of Analytical Development, Italy. Since 2012, Cristiana has worked on Quality by Design (QbD) principles implementation for vaccines. After acquisition of Novartis Vaccines by GSK in 2015, she has been the Head of QbD Integration and, until June 2018, the Head of Science and Development Practices in Technical R&D, covering QbD implementation, Knowledge Management and Development roadmaps.

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 1
Digital Pharmaceutics – Opportunities and Challenges
 Chair- Dr Pankaj Doshi, Pfizer.

Pankaj Doshi is currently the head of process modeling in the Drug Product Design department at Pfizer Inc. He has been leading the digital design of continuous and batch processes used in the manufacturing of drug product. He has published 40 papers and delivered over 50 presentations. Pankaj received his PhD in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 2003, which was followed by a postdoctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interest includes application of computational techniques like CFD, DEM and PBM to the modeling and scale-up of pharmaceutical processes and unit operations. He started his industrial career at GSK where he developed computational model for dry powder inhaler. This was followed by an academic stint at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, where he led a group of graduate students to develop models for liquid and powder flows

Speakers
Prof. Gavin Reynolds- Pharmaceutical Technology and Development, Operations, AstraZeneca

Gavin Reynolds is a Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca and a Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield.  His interests include applying mechanistic modelling and simulation to pharmaceutical processes and developing process understanding.  He is a Fellow of the IChemE, and has authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications.

Ana Patricia Ferreira, Scientific Associate Director, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Drug Product Development, Global Product Development and Supply

Ana is a data scientist with over 15 years of experience in the application of multivariate analysis in the pharmaceutical industry spanning small- and large-molecule applications both in R&D and manufacturing. Ana’s main role with BMS is to extract information from material characterization data sets to support product teams in the design and troubleshooting of formulations. She has published papers on the use of multivariate analysis for extraction of information from large data sets spanning diverse topics such as near-infrared spectroscopy, process analysis, and material characterization and co-edited a book about the applications of Multivariate Analysis in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

15.15-17.00 Parallel Science Session 2
Emerging Technologies in Drug Delivery 
 Chair-Dr Dimitrios Lamprou Queen’s University Belfast

Dimitrios Lamprou is the first Chair of the Emerging technologies Focus Group, which was established in March 2021 with the aim to bring together scientists interested in the field of Emerging Technologies and bridging the gap between industry and academia in this exciting field. From the beginning of my career, I always had a strong interested in Drug Delivery & Emerging Technologies, and finally now with APS FG we have a “home” to bring all these Emerging Technologies in one FG and work towards the development of drug delivery systems and medical devices that were not possible to produce a few years ago.

I am the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications, have over 200 conference abstracts, given over 100 Oral/Invited Talks, and I have secure Funding in excess of £2M. My research and academic leadership have recognised in a range of awards, including the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Science Award and the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance Leaders Scheme Award. My research Lab is applying Nano and Microfabrication Techniques (e.g., 3D Printing & Bioprinting, Electrospinning, and Microfluidics) in the Manufacturing of Drug Delivery Systems, Medical Devices & Implants. For more info please follow the link

Speakers
Professor Bice Conti-Univerity of Pavia, Italy.

Bice Conti, is currently full professor of pharmaceutics at the Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia. She got MSc in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology and postgraduate degree in Industrial Pharmacy. She spent two years as postdoc at the College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky, USA, she was associate professor firstly at the University of Catania, Italy, and then at the University of Pavia, Italy, and she is presently full professor at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Pavia. She an organizer of the European Master Joint Master Degree Nanomedicine for drug delivery (NANOMED). Her scientific researcher focus on drug delivery and tissue engineering. More recently, her research focuses on design and development of drug loaded polymer nanoparticles as well as on biodegradable polymer scaffolds for tissue regeneration, their processing and physicochemical characterization. She has several collaborations with Italian and international academics, and with pharmaceutical and medical devices companies such as Ceva-Vetem (Agrate Brianza, Italy), Rottapharm Biotec (Monza, Italy), US-WorldMeds (Louisville, USA), Geistlich Pharma AG (Root-Langenbold CH). She is a member of International scientific associations and Italian: CRS, AAPS, AFI, ADRITELF. She was President of CRS Italian Chapter from 2014 to 2016.

Professor George Malliaras, University of Cambridge

George Malliaras is the Prince Philip Professor of Technology at the University of Cambridge. He received a PhD from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and did a postdoc at the IBM Almaden Research Center, USA. Before joining Cambridge, he was a faculty member at Cornell University in the USA, where he also served as the Director of the Cornell NanoScale Facility, and at the School of Mines in France. His research has been recognized with awards from the New York Academy of Sciences, the US National Science Foundation, and DuPont, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Linköping in Sweden. He is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society and of the Royal Society of Chemistry and serves as Deputy Editor of Science Advances.

Professor Ricky Wildman, University of Nottingham.

Ricky Wildman is a Professor in Chemical Engineering at the University of Nottingham. He focuses on developing new understanding of how additive manufacturing / 3D printing works, and how it can be used to deliver new function, particularly in the area of healthcare. His interests are in developing methods to rapidly identify materials suitable for 3D printing and in how form and structure can be manipulated systematically using computational algorithms to identify optimal function.