Full Professor / February, 2022 — Present

As of February 2022, I was appointed to the position of Professeur Ordinaire (Full Professor) in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Associate Professor / January, 2014 — Present

In 2014, I was appointed to the position of Professeur Associé (Associate Professor) in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and also became the head of the Doctoral Programme in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Currently, my main research interests are: (i) Development of new formulations to increase local and systemic bioavailability of topical and transdermal therapeutics. (ii) Investigation of the influence of physicochemical properties on electrically-assisted transport across the skin. (iii) Synthesis and characterisation of prodrugs optimised for transdermal iontophoretic administration. (iv) Development of new techniques for the “needle-free” delivery of biotechnology-derived therapeutics across the skin (“pharmaceutical biotechnology”). (v) Investigation into the use of formulation and technology-based methods to improve buccal and ocular drug delivery. (vi) Developing a physiological model for drug permeation in the gastrointestinal tract in vitro.

Senior Lecturer / March, 2001 — December, 2013

My group’s research interests include (i) development of new formulations to increase local and systemic bioavailability of topical and transdermal therapeutics, (ii) investigation into the influence of permeant physicochemical properties on electrically-assisted transport across the skin, (iii) development of new techniques for the non- and minimally invasive delivery of biotechnology-derived therapeutics across the skin and (iv) synthesis and characterisation of prodrugs optimised for topical and transdermal administration. Our research is funded by public grants and through industrial collaborations. I have published ~100 papers, presented ~140 communications at international conferences and I am a co-inventor on 4 patents. I serve on the Editorial Boards of the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics and Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery and I am also a reviewer for several journals in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields.

Junior Lecturer / September, 1996 — February, 2001

Principal research areas: (i) Evaluation and optimization of topical drug bioavailability in vivo:. Non-invasive biophysical techniques (low frequency impedance spectroscopy, TEWL, ATR-FTIR) used in conjunction with tape-stripping methodology to evaluate the effect of drug formulation on skin barrier function and drug permeability and to assess topical drug bioavailability of lipophilic molecules. (ii) Modeling transdermal drug delivery: Development of mathematical models to calculate diffusion parameters describing drug transport across the skin in vivo. (iii) Sonophoresis: Assessment of the effects and mechanisms underlying sonophoretic enhancement of transdermal delivery. (v) Development of drug delivery technologies for premature neonates: Development of barrier models to mimic the impaired skin barrier function in premature neonates and hence optimize drug delivery and noninvasive clinical monitoring in this population.

Postdoctoral Research Associate / January, 1994 — September, 1996

Principal research areas: (i) Evaluation and optimization of topical drug bioavailability in vivo:. Non-invasive biophysical techniques (low frequency impedance spectroscopy, transepidermal water loss, attenuated total reflectance Fourier Transform infra-red spectroscopy) used in conjunction with tape-stripping methodology to evaluate the effect of drug formulation on skin barrier function and drug permeability and to assess topical drug bioavailability of lipophilic molecules. (ii) Investigation of skin barrier development in low birth weight infnats.

Postdoctoral Research Associate / November, 1990 — December, 1993

Determination of the three-dimensional structure of a pyruvate dehydrogenase peripheral subunit-binding domain: Recording and assignment of 2D-homonuclear spectra (NOESY, TOCSY, DQF-COSY, E.COSY, RELAYED-COSY and DQ); the restraints derived were used in conjunction with simulated annealing (XPLOR) to obtain a high resolution structure of the three-dimensional structure of the dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (E3)/pyruvate decarboxylase (E1p) binding domain from the pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex from Bacillus stearothermophilus.