In November, Polymax sponsored the PhD student research showcase at the School of Engineering and Materials Science at the Queen Mary University of London. Our Head of Marketing, Julia Strudwick, spent the day at the Industrial Liaison Forum, meeting the students before presenting the award to three winners. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn about the current research projects in development across the faculty with almost 80 students participating in the poster competition. The students exhibited their work in the prestigious ‘Octagon’ hall which is used for a variety of events and graduation ceremonies. The winners were selected by a panel of judges made up with academics from the Materials Engineering, Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering divisions.

From left to right, the winner Valeriya Kudryavtseva, 2nd place Megan McFie, Polymax representative Julia Strudwick, 3rd prize Hudair Samad and Professor Martin Knight.

The winners of the SEMS Industrial Liaison Forum 2019 are as follows:

1st Prize: Valeriya Kudryavtseva for a poster on "Fabrication Biocompatible Coating Enabling Drug-Eluting on Demand" supervised by Professor Gleb Sukhorukov.

2nd Prize: Megan McFie for a poster on "High throughput confocal screen of 1,728 FDA approved compounds to uncover novel regulators of chondrocyte primary cilia expression" supervised by Professor Martin Knight.

3rd Prize: Hudair Samad for a poster on "Mechanical phenotyping of human prostate cancer cells using flow cytometry" supervised by Professor Yi Sui.

Nano-Scale Water Soluble Drug Delivery Systems

Valeriya Kudryavtseva has a Master of Science from the Tomsk Polytechnic University in Russia and is currently enrolled in the PhD studentship, "Fabrication Biocompatible Coating enabling Drug-Eluting on Demand". The project is part of a collaboration between seven universities and eight SMEs across Europe. With a primary focus of developing drug delivery systems for personalised drug therapy and regenerative medicine.

This is not the first time Valeriya has worked with release-on-demand drug delivery systems. In 2017, the scientist was part of a research team which discovered a hydrophobic polymer coating which enabled the encapsulation of water-soluble substances. The study developed two-micron sized capsules embedded with nanoscale magnets which allowed the drug to be delivered to a targeted part of the body. It was thought the discovery could change the way we treat cancer and infectious diseases.

In the current project, Valeriya uses a biodegradable stamped film to encapsulate the drug in microchambers and low-frequency ultrasound to trigger the release of the drug. It focuses on one drug, in particular, a blood thinner called Heparin, which is used to treat a variety of heat-related illnesses. The research team went on to demonstrate applying the film to a cardiac stent, allowing a local delivery of Heparin. For more information about the project, you can find the published report in the European Polymer Journal.