Discovery of new solid forms of drugs

Target of the research area is to improve the properties of drugs by searching for multi-components solid forms including salts, co-crystals, solvates or co-amorphs. Once prepared, their properties are characterized by combination of analytical techniques, including XRD, DSC, TGA, NMR, SEM, Raman spectroscopy, dissolution rate measurement. Goal is to enhance their dissolution and stability properties.

👤 Tereza Havlůjová, Erika Hriňová,

         Jan Jirát & Sreela Ramesh 

Several novel drug delivery strategies have emerged to overcome limitations often associated with conventional delivery systems. Modern nanocarriers can significantly improve drug bioavailability, increase solubility of lipophilic compounds, and provide controlled and sustained release. Non-ionic surfactant-based vesicles (niosomes) can accommodate lipophilic and hydrophilic compounds due to their core-shell structure. This project focuses on loading of various therapeutic agents such as APIs, inorganic nanoparticles, antimicrobial agents, etc. The nanovesicles are characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to evaluate their size and morphology. Optimization of the formulations is necessary to achieve a high encapsulation efficiency of the loaded agent. Furthermore, bilayer functionalization allows to fine-tune the drug release kinetics required by specific application.

👤 Ashley H. George

Research topic concentrates on application of porous materials for drug delivery and their subsequent characterization. Utilized preparation techniques are electrospinning, solvent casting and freeze casting. Used characterization techniques are SEM, texture analysis, disintegration kinetics and dissolution kinetics (dissolved drug and monitoring of changes in particle population). By proper selection of preparation method and suitable excipients we are able to tune drug dissolution rate as well as process-ability.

👤 Dominik Švára