My research interests are in drug and vaccine delivery, and in pharmacy education.

Drug delivery: Ungual (of the nail) drug delivery following topical application is being investigated in order to improve the topical therapy of nail diseases such as fungal infections. The latter are fairly common but their treatment is far from ideal. Oral therapy has side effects such as liver toxicity, while topical therapy is limited by the low permeability of the nail plate.  My research in this field is focused on characterisation of the nature of the nail plate, physical and chemical enhancers to improve ungual drug permeation, topical drug carriers, and new drug molecules optimised for topical ungual delivery.  I am also supervising a student who is formulating topical medicines for cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Vaccine delivery:  Polysaccharide vaccine formulation. The goal is to formulate easy-to-prepare self-assembled vaccine formulations that have physiochemical properties designed to mimic bacterial cells. In addition mucosal immune responses are desired in order to further extend vaccine effectiveness. The long-term goal is a generic method for inexpensively producing and delivering temperature-stable vaccines that better protect infants, world-wide, against a wide-range of encapsulated polysaccharide bacterial pathogens. 

Pharmacy and development education: I am leading a project at the School, on the integration of global and development issues into undergraduate curricula in pharmacy. This project, funded by the Department for International Development, is in collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College, UCL Institute for Global Health, the Institute of Education and the London International Development Centre.