PhD Pharmacy Showcase 2019

Pharmacy PhD Showcase Flyer 2019

Alzheimer’s association funded PhD position

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An exciting position has become availbel in the group of Dr Mark Dallas here at the Reading School of Pharmacy. Fully funded for three years by the US Alzheimer’s Association, the PhD fellowship will focus on carbon monoxide as a potential protective factor against Alzheimer’s pathology. For more details, contact Mark Dallas at m.dallas@reading.ac.uk, or click on the link below to apply.

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AOO066/phd-studentship-in-neuroscience/

Novel antimicrobial hydrogel for wound dressing

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Prof Khutoryanskiy’s team has developed a new type of hydrogel wound dressings by simple autoclaving mixtures of two polymers in water. The hydrogels developed in their work, recently published in RSC Advances http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/ra/c6ra08234c (open access), have a unique combination of properties such as excellent swelling ability, good mechanical strength, adhesiveness to skin, as well as intrinsic antimicrobial activity.

New paper in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

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Prof Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy continues his research on adhesion and retention of various polymeric materials on biological surfaces. His team recently published a new paper in collaboration with Syngenta Ltd, reporting the retention of dry polymer deposits on leaf surfaces: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.6b01682 (open access). This paper discusses rainfastness, defined as the ability of agrochemical deposits to resist wash-off by rain, which is of great interest to the development of agrochemical formulations. Pesticide formulations with excellent rainfastness  are expected to have better efficiency in protecting crops. This study was funded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) as a CASE studentship with Syngenta Ltd. The paper is also highlighted on the cover page of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia paper in Brain

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Out today in Brain is a study on hereditary spastic paraplegia, led by Henry Houlden at the UCL Institute of Neurology in collaboration with Dr Patrick Lewis here at the Reading School of Pharmacy. This is one of the most comprehensive analyses of the genetics and symptoms of the HSPs, and Dr Lewis and Claudia Manzoni in his lab contributed by carrying out an analysis of the cellular impact of mutations in a number of the HSP genes. Read all about it on the Brain website.

EPSRC undergraduate student project

Gold%20nanoparticlesSee below for details of an EPSRC funding project for undergraduates in Professor Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy’s laboratory here in the school of pharmacy:

Students are invited to apply for 10 weeks undergraduate EPSRC-funded project entitled ” Designing polymer-functionalised gold nanoparticles for penetration of biological tissues ” available at Reading School of Pharmacy.

This summer project will include (1) the synthesis of gold nanoparticles decorated with water-soluble polymers; (2) studies of reaction kinetics as a function of environmental temperature using UV-Vis spectrophotometry; (3) characterisation of nanoparticle size using dynamic light scattering, nanoparticle tracking analysis and transmission electron microscopy; (4) the synthesis of fluorescently-labelled nanoparticles; and (5)  studies of their diffusion through animal mucosal tissues using fluorescent microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.

The ideal candidate should have a good understanding of chemistry as well as sufficient laboratory experience. They should be self-motivated, with an ability to independently assess potential issues and derive logical solutions and conclusions.

Applicants are asked to submit a CV and covering letter to Prof. Khutoryanskiy (v.khutoryanskiy@reading.ac.uk) before 24th May.

Wellcome Trust funded post doctoral position

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced qualitative researcher with a high level of commitment to improving patient care, ageing research and with an interest in dementia to be involved in a Wellcome Trust funded research project. The aim of the project is to explore and explain medication non-adherence experienced by patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A human factors approach will be used to study the complexity of the medicines management system and draw out nuances relating to how patients and carers manage medicine-taking.

A unique opportunity has also arisen for the post-holder to be involved in the teaching and learning to pharmacy undergraduates in our established and growing Master in Pharmacy programme, on a one-day a week equivalent basis. It is ideal for a research fellow wishing to develop their CV both in the direction of safety, as well as education and training – assets for future career progression.

The post-holder will join the Pharmacy Practice Division within the School of Pharmacy, under the supervision of Dr Rosemary Lim.

Deadline for application: Friday 13th May 2016

Informal contact: Rosemary Lim, r.h.m.lim@reading.ac.uk<mailto:r.h.m.lim@reading.ac.uk>

To formally apply, visit http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ANL090/research-fellow-wellcome-trust-funded-project/

New publication from Darius Widera

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Dr Darius Widera from the Pharmacy research division has a publication in press at Clinical Science. Read more about this and another paper that the Widera group has accepted in the journal Photonics on the Widera lab website.

PhD showcase

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Last Thursday we held the annual School of Pharmacy PhD showcase event at Henley Business School here on the Whiteknights campus. An excellent day, with some fascinating research talks and a truly inspiring range of research projects from understanding chocolate to developing new drugs for human diseases.

Self healing plastic research from Reading

plasticA new paper, just out online in Chemical Science, reports on research into “self healing” plastics. The team, led by Professor Wayne Hayes in the department of chemistry here at Reading and including Dr Fran Greco from the School of Pharmacy, also talk about their research in this YouTube video.

Read more about this on the University news stream.