Dr Katie Ryan, University College Cork (UCC)
SSPC welcomes new investigator, Dr Katie Ryan (UCC), who will be investigating the impact of novel processing techniques on the stability and functionality of oligonucleotides in order to expand the repertoire of techniques available to process biological formulations in a safe and effective manner.
The project will directly impact how complex molecules will be formulated, manufactured, stored and handled, enhancing scientific knowledge and providing evidence on electrospraying and microfluidic technologies to manufacture stable and efficacious biological medicines.
Career
Katie Ryan is a lecturer in Pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy, University College Cork where she contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programmes. She is a qualified pharmacist (BSc. Pharm, Trinity College Dublin) and completed her PhD in Pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy, TCD, in area of novel excipients for topical drug delivery. During this time, she also completed a postgraduate diploma in Quality Improvement (Trinity College Dublin). She subsequently completed a master’s in Teaching and Learning in University College Cork focusing on teaching strategies to enhance critical thinking development in pharmacy students. She is also interested in promoting science and supporting young researchers. She is a member and past president of the United Kingdom and Ireland Controlled Release Society (2017-2020).
Katie’s research interests focus on the formulation and processing of both novel and challenging therapeutic cargoes including proteins and poorly soluble drugs to create stable and efficacious products for drug delivery, medical device, and tissue regeneration applications. In 2013 and 2014, she undertook sabbatical research in Prof. David Mooney’s Bioengineering lab in Harvard University investigating novel biomaterial strategies to promote bone tissue regeneration. This research has grown to utilise biomaterials to create more clinically relevant in vitro models to provide more accurate and informative screening of drug cargoes. Katie is interested in projects with a translational focus and has been involved in several academic-industry collaborative projects in the areas of novel formulation design and combination medical devices for pulmonary and orthopaedic applications.
