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Biography
Chloe obtained her MPharm degree (1st Class Hons) at the University of Portsmouth. Her Masters project focussed on the extent of communication support provided by community pharmacies to service users with mixed sensory impairments in order to aid medicines management. The results of the project were later presented at the Health Services Research in Pharmacy Practice conference (April 2017, Nottingham).
Chloe undertook her preregistration training at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and registered as a pharmacist in 2017. She remained for a further year in clinical training and assisted members of the Cardiology & Cardiovascular Clinical Research team with evaluation of patient-centred care within clinical guidelines.
In 2018, Chloe enrolled into the CDT in Advanced Therapeutics and Nanomedicine at the University of Nottingham and completed training projects in nanoparticle formulation and improving solubility of an oncology research drug. She is now undertaking the first year of her PhD project, which focuses on evaluating the foreign body response to hydrogel depot injections for the controlled delivery of proteins.
Research Summary
PhD Project: Modulating the Foreign Body Response in the Design of a Hydrogel Depot Injection for the Controlled Delivery of Proteins
Maria Marlow, Anna Piccinini, Mischa Zelzer, Andrew Hook
The foreign body response (FBR) is referred to as the end-stage of inflammation following biomaterial implantation and is comprised of two main features: presence of foreign body giant cells (FBGC), which are formed from the fusion of macrophages and degrade in-situ biomaterials; and formation of a fibrotic capsule due to deposition of collagen from activated fibroblasts. The FBR can be detrimental to the efficacy of biomaterials inserted into the body for the purpose of providing a sustained drug release profile due to premature degradation and inability of the drug to diffuse out of the fibrotic capsule layer. However, the in-vivo FBR is complex and highly unpredictable. We are aiming to utilise an in-vitro methodology to screen the foreign body response towards a variety of hydrogel depot formulations with encapsulated model proteins and evaluate the subsequent impact on protein release. The outcomes may guide formulation development to optimise protein release with minimal adverse effects from the FBR.
Past Research
Academia training project: Manufacturing the Personalised Pharmaceuticals of the Future
Jonathon Aylott, Phil Williams, Stephanie Allen, Charles Laughton
Chloe's first-year training project is based upon the concept of technical solutions to manufacturing personalised pharmaceuticals, with specific focus on the reproducible formulation of nanoparticles. This encompasses four main areas of training: formulation of both solid and model-protein-encapsulated polymeric nanoparticles, mechanistic insight into nanoparticle formation, analysis and characterisation of nanoparticles, and computational modelling to simulate protein-polymer interactions.
Industry training project: Hot Melt Extrusion - Oral Solid Dosage Form Development of a Poorly Soluble Drug Compound & Computational Model Evaluation
Jonathan Booth, Catherine Hallam, Timal Haribhai, Martin Kearns, Kevin Treacher (AstraZeneca)
Chloe's second training project was conducted at AstraZeneca, Macclesfield and was centred upon using hot melt extrusion (HME) to produce an amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) of a poorly water-soluble drug compound. ASDs have improved solubility profiles and can result in greater free drug concentrations, which are necessary for absorption, being achieved from an oral solid dosage form. Training techniques included use of hot melt extruders, solid state analysis, dissolution and solid dose formulation. The second part of the project involved evaluating a computational extrusion model by correlating experimental outcomes with model predictions using a three-factorial design of experiment.