Welcome to the Oral Drug Delivery Lab! Our current research projects are centered on the following themes:
Permeability and absorption
Formulations containing nanosized drug particles, crystalline or amorphous, as well as colloidal species, recently came into light as promising strategies to improve the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs. However, enhanced absorption can not be adequately explained by particle size reduction or solubilization. Our research focuses on understanding the mechanisms and extent of the particle drifting effect using a variety of in vitro, ex vivo, in vivo, and in silico tools.
Process stability
Increased molecular complexity has led to significant challenges in the crystallization and formulation development of small molecule drug candidates in the drug discovery and development pipeline. Liquid-liquid phase separation is the spontaneous phase separation of these molecules in organic solvent or aqueous systems when the miscibility gap is reached. It is usually undesirable during crystallization development, but can be exceptionally beneficial when used as a formulation strategy to produce nanoparticles. Combining fundamental knowledge with industrial applications, our ongoing projects will address several important questions at the interface of pharmaceutical processing, material sciences, as well as colloidal and interfacial sciences.
Microbial metabolism
More than 100 trillion microbes reside in the human gut, making it a natural bioreactor with one of the highest densities and diversity. Orally administered drugs and bioactive compounds can be metabolized by various bacteria strains found in the human gut, and this can lead to significant interpersonal variations in the efficacy and toxicity of orally delivered drugs. In this project, we aim to understand such microbiome-mediated drug biotransformation and its consequences.