Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD)

Cannabinoids have an established role in the exertion of palliative effects in cancer patients. They have been used in cancer patients to relieve nausea, vomiting, pain, and to help stimulate appetite. Standard treatment strategies for cancer patients may involve surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Unfortunately, patients experience many adverse effects associated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Some patients also show resistance to the treatments. Therefore, novel treatment methods are unmet clinical needs. We and others have shown that cannabinoids can also induce cytotoxicity in various cancers such as gynaecological and gastrointestinal cancers. The aim of the project is to continue the investigation and test non-psychoactive cannabinoids such as CBD (cannabidiol) and CBG (cannabigerol) on human carcinoma cells. In our projects, we are interested in investigating the mechanism of action of cannabinoids to induce cytotoxicity in tumours and whether treatment with cannabinoids can increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The results of the pre-clinical project will inform clinical colleagues in designing clinical trials. Our ultimate aim will be: (1) whether cannabinoids can be used as adjunct treatment with the current treatment regimens for cancer patients to reduce the side effects associated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, (2) whether the life expectancy of cancer patients can be increased if cannabinoids are added to the treatment strategy, (3) whether patients’ quality of life can be improved.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £7-£10,000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Dr Farideh Javid

The incidence of cancer is rising, and according to Cancer Research UK 1 in 2 of us will develop cancer in our lifetime. The current treatment strategy which includes surgery, chemotherapy and radiation does not work for every patient and can induce many adverse effects compromising patients’ quality of life. Therefore, better treatment options are needed. The development of new medications is costly and takes few years for a specific medication to become available for the patients. Repurposing medications in cancer therapy can speed up the progress of drug development, as all the toxicological investigations have already been completed, hence the medication is in current use for different indications. Our recent research has shown that some old medications may have additional application in cancer treatment. For example, we have shown that fluoxetine is an anti-depressant drug with additional anti-tumour activity for example in colon cancer. Therefore, the aim of the project is to investigate the potential of fluoxetine as an anti-cancer drug in pre-clinical cancer models.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £7-£10,000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Dr Farideh Javid

Biopolymer wound dressings are dressings made from natural, biodegradable polymers derived from biological sources. These dressings offer several advantages in wound management that include Biocompatibility, Biodegradability, Moisture management, Drug delivery capabilities, Adhesion and conformability and Environmental sustainability. This project will investigate wound healing and current wound dressing approaches and involve preparation and characterization of various biopolymer hydrogel dressings which will then be assessed for moisture retention capacity and absorption properties, mechanical properties (e.g., elasticity, tensile strength), drug release kinetics from the dressings and developing in vitro models for assessment of healing capacity.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £5,000 per annum are required for this project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Dr Alan Smith
• Dr Jessica Senior

Drug delivery into, and through, the skin is an attractive route of delivery for local and systemic delivery, however penetration and permeation into, and across, deeper skin layers are restricted due to barrier functions of stratum corneum, the outermost protective layer of the skin. This project will explore formulation strategies to improve delivery of drugs into the skin for more effective treatment of infections. For example, healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are a major concern for health service providers due to poor delivery of antimicrobials to target sites within the skin.

The project is for self-funding students from home or overseas. in addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £5,000 per annum are also required.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Professor Barbara Conway

Drug delivery into, and through, the skin is an attractive route of delivery for local and systemic delivery, however penetration and permeation into, and across, deeper skin layers are restricted due to barrier functions of stratum corneum, the outermost protective layer of the skin. This project will explore formulation strategies to improve delivery of drugs into the skin for more effective treatment of infections. For example, healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are a major concern for health service providers due to poor delivery of antimicrobials to target sites within the skin.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £5,000 per annum are required.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Professor Barbara Conway

Advances in the field of pharmacogenomics have provided an impetus for the development and fabrication of personalised pharmaceutical formulations. For instance, three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies are set to revolutionise the individualisation of dosage forms at the point of dispensing or use. Thus, the aim of this PhD project will be to bridge the gap between the formulation and 3D printing strategies in order to develop functionally robust pharmaceutical formulations.

The project is for self-funding students from home or overseas. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £xx per annum are required.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Dr Muhammad Ghori
• Professor Barbara Conway

The majority of drug delivery systems are not considered suitable for paediatric patients as children differ in their developmental, dosing and therapeutic requirements in comparison to other subsets of the population. Conventional pharmaceutical formulations cannot provide the range of doses needed, thus, dosage form manipulation (for example, crushing tablets) is routine practice in hospitals and even in the community. This leads to problems with accuracy of dose, and can increase risk and cost. Development of paediatric formulations is a complex process as adequate palatability is an ongoing challenge. Rejection of unpalatable medications compromises patient acceptability and potentially lead to failure in therapeutic plan. Therefore, the aim of this PhD project will be to develop palatable paediatric formulations using novel technologies.

The project is for self-funding students from home or overseas. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £3000 and £15000 per annum are required, depending on the nature of the project.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Dr Muhammad Ghori
• Professor Barbara Conway

Despite the implication of chronic inflammation in the pathogenesis of many conditions, there are still no safe and effective pharmacological interventions for preventing or treating this phenomenon. This research is aimed at identifying natural products and food bioactives that reduce or inhibit inflammatory processes by targeting inflammatory signalling pathways. The research will also elucidate the molecular mechanisms of anti-inflammatory activity of natural products.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £5000-£8000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Dr Olumayokun Olajide

Polymeric drug delivery systems have been widely used to improve delivery of actives using a range of delivery routes including for buccal, oral, nasal, ocular and vaginal. Bioadhesion (and more specifically mucoadhesion) can be exploited in order to improve absorption, and the drug must be presented to the mucosa in an absorbable state from a dosage form that can enhance uptake by this route. Using a range of in vitro techniques, this project will focus on strategies to enhance mucosal absorption. Correlation between rates of release and absorption will be developed for a range of dosage forms

The project is for self-funding students from home or overseas. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £5,000 per annum are required.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Professor Barbara Conway

We are looking to identifying biomarkers to help diagnose and predict Multiple Sclerosis and related disorders. These includes breath and blood analysis to pinpoint indicators of how the disease progresses.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £5000 are required for this project

Home/EU – for September- June 30th, for January-October 31st and Overseas for September- May 31st, for January- September 30th

• Dr Patrick Mchugh

Non-medical use of prescription benzodiazepines has been a long-established problem that has been associated with a large number of overdose deaths worldwide. In recent years, several new psychoactive substances (NPS) belonging to the benzodiazepine class have also emerged on the market and pose a great threat to public health. As new NPS emerge, little is known of their properties which is a serious issue for forensic investigators. One of the most important properties to know is the degree of binding to protein within blood as this dictates efficacy as only drug that is not bound, i.e. ‘free’, can diffuse through cell membranes. Several analytical methods are currently used to measure binding and this project will begin with method development using equilibrium dialysis to investigate the binding of NPS that have not previously been studied, such as bromazolam and flualprazolam. Following this analysis, several other techniques will be studied to determine if a simpler, precise and more accurate method could be used for benzodiazepine analysis.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £3,000 per annum are required for this project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Professor Laura Waters

The aim of this project is to investigate the mechanism of action of anti-tumour activity of potent omega-3 fatty acids and cannabinoids in gynaecological cancer. We propose to define the pharmacological activity of these compounds with regard to their mode of action, cytotoxicity profile and effect on the cell cycle with a view to understanding the therapeutic potential of such compounds in the treatment of cancers.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £10,000 per annum are required.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Dr Farideh Javid

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is a devastating neurodegenerative disease characterised by a progressive loss of neurons and a deterioration in cognitive function. In the UK, around 850,000 people are affected by dementia according to estimates from 2015. This number is expected to rise to over 2 million in the next 30 years.

Currently available pharmacological treatment options are insufficient in reducing the impact of the disease. Four of five options are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which are aimed at elevating levels of acetylcholine in the brain. The fifth option is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist. These drugs only provide symptomatic relief and have no significant effect on the prevention or delay of AD progression.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the progression of the disease is crucial for elucidating molecular targets and aiding effective drug discovery. In the proposed project, the PhD candidate will use 2D and 3D cell culture models to investigate the effects of Aβ proteins on pathological markers of relevance to AD including inflammatory and synaptic markers.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £3-£15,000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Dr Bushra Almari

Development of new pharmaceutical formulations is expensive, time consuming and complicated. This project will focus on the use of several forms of thermal analysis to characterise formulations and their behaviour to help simplify the development process.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £3000 per annum are required

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Professor Laura Waters

Natural materials are increasingly being used as alternatives to synthetic pharmaceutical excipients in various drug delivery systems due to their biocompatibility, low cost, and relative abundance. This research project will explore the extraction and characterization of selected natural products and their assessment for potential pharmaceutical applications.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £3-£15,000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Home/EU – for September- June 30th, for January-October 31st and Overseas for September- May 31st, for January- September 30th

• Dr Adeola Adebisi

Magnesium aluminum silicate is a sheet-type clay mineral and a saponite in the smectite group. Smectites have a basic three-layered structure (tetrahedral– octahedral–tetrahedral layers) in which an octahedral layer with an Mg atom in the centre and six apical oxygen atoms are present between regular tetrahedral layers with an Si atom in the centre and four apical oxygen atoms. Clays have many different applications as reviewed in literature. The objectives of this study is to fully understand and determine pharmaceutically relevant properties of clays with regards to its suitability in solid dosage forms using compression analysis, small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), isothermal calorimetry (ITC) and x-ray microtomography (XµT)

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £3-£15,000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Home/EU – for September- June 30th, for January-October 31st and Overseas for September- May 31st, for January- September 30th

• Dr Kofi Asare-addo

Natural materials are playing an increasing role as alternatives to synthetic pharmaceutical excipients. This is due to their biocompatibility, low cost, and relative abundance. These natural polymers are now being widely used in the pharmaceutical industry as polymers in various drug delivery systems. Examples of such polymers include sodium alginate, guar gum, chitosan, gum karaya etc. This project involves the extraction and characterization of different plant based polymers. In addition, these polymers will be assessed against commercially available polymers in their native form or with some modification to tailor their use for various pharmaceutical applications.

The project is for self-funding students from home or overseas. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £4,000 per annum are also required.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Professor Barbara Conway

Natural materials are playing an increasing role as alternatives to synthetic pharmaceutical excipients. This is due to their biocompatibility, low cost, and relative abundance. These natural polymers are now being widely used in the pharmaceutical industry as polymers in various drug delivery systems. Examples of such polymers include sodium alginate, guar gum, chitosan, gum karaya etc. This project involves the extraction and characterization of different plant based polymers. In addition, these polymers will be assessed against commercially available polymers in their native form or with some modification to tailor their use for various pharmaceutical applications.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £4,000 per annum are required.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Professor Barbara Conway

Chronic diseases, also known as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), affect people for a long duration and result from a combination of factors (e.g., genetic, physiological, environmental). These chronic conditions result in about 41 million deaths yearly, equivalent to 74% of all deaths globally. NCDs also cause a significant burden on patients experiencing them and the healthcare systems. The primary aim of this project is to improve the quality use of medicines associated with the management of patients with chronic diseases such as CVD and diabetes mellitus. The objectives are to extract de-identified clinical/ dispensing/ safety data for pharmacoepidemiologic studies from a sample of patients in different regions of England and determine the patterns of medicines prescribed to treat chronic conditions.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £3-£15,000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Dr Syed Hasan

Accumulating evidence links activation of oestrogen receptors (ERβ) to suppression of neuroinflammation in the microglia, with the resulting neuroprotective effect. Estradiol has been shown to exhibit anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects in the brain. However, clinical use of this hormone is controversial because of its peripheral actions related to risks of endometrial and breast cancers. Consequently, PhD research in this topic will investigate potential selective oestrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) from natural products (phytoestrogens) for anti neuroinflammatory and neuroprotective effects. The project will also determine whether these compounds induce proliferation of cultured endometrial and breast cancer cell lines. The project will involve biochemical techniques, cell culture, live cell imaging, western blotting, ELISAs, immunofluorescence, RNAi, miRNA analysis, and epigenetics.

Self-funding applications are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £8,000 per annum are required.

Home/EU-June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Dr Olumayokun Olajide

There is no validated alternative to animal testing for determining penetration of compounds through skin. Researchers have proposed several methods to predict transdermal permeation yet none have achieved the simplicity and predictive ability required to realise their incorporation into analytical studies and remove the need for animal testing.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £2000 per annum are required for this project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Professor Laura Waters

The majority of new drugs are 'biologics', these are large and complex molecules that must retain their structure to remain efficacious. Little is know of their interactions with excipients in formulations. This project will investigate predicting biologic-excipient interactions using mainly computational techniques and from this, involve the development of predictive models.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, Bench fees of £2,000 per annum are required for this project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Professor Laura Waters

As people live longer, cases of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the UK are expected to rise from ~850,000 in 2015 to 2,092,945 by 2051. Consequently, investment and research efforts need to be intensified to identify new disease modifying therapeutic strategies. The use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonists are effective at reducing symptoms, but cannot modify disease progression. Strategies aimed at slowing down progression need to be considered. Neuroinflammation is known to contribute to AD pathology. Therefore, strategies aimed at achieving neuroprotection through inhibition of neuroinflammation need to be studied. Drug repurposing is a time-saving approach at getting new AD drugs to clinical trials. Drugs already approved for other indications, but which may target AD pathophysiology through mechanisms unrelated to their original therapeutic indications are of interest. Our studies showed that some currently approved drugs such as artemisinin and its derivatives inhibited neuroinflammation in mouse microglia. The project will investigate neuroprotection by these drugs in neuroinflammation-mediated and APPswe-transfection-induced neuronal death. Drugs will also be evaluated for effects on levels of Aβ, tau and other biomarkers of AD in differentiated human neural progenitor cells. The Caenorhabditis elegans model of AD will be used to study in vivo drug effects on Aβ. The project will involve biochemical techniques, cell culture, live cell imaging, western blotting, ELISAs, immunofluorescence, RNAi, miRNA analysis, epigenetics and C. elegans model of AD.

Self-funding applications are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £8,000 per annum are required.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Dr Olumayokun Olajide

We are looking to repurpose known drugs for the use in inflammatory conditions, including neuropathic pain. Repurposing allows for a more rapid drug development, as previously approved drugs will not require the stringency of clinical trials.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £5000 are required for this project

Home/EU – for September- June 30th, for January-October 31st and Overseas for September- May 31st, for January- September 30th

• Dr Patrick Mchugh

It is well known that community pharmacies are located close to places where people live, work and shop. In recent years, the role of community pharmacists and their teams has expanded from the supply of prescribed and over-the-counter medicines into broader public health roles that include disease prevention and screening, and vaccination. In England, the concept of the ‘Healthy Living Pharmacy’ led to growing recognition of a group of NHS-funded or privately funded services. What started as an optional accreditation became part of the essential service offer, but accreditation to a higher level of public health activity has arguably stalled. In France, recent developments in community pharmacy regulation have opened the door to a similar professional trajectory. This PhD will explore the evolution – past, present and future – of the public health role of community pharmacy in the contrasting contexts of the health systems of England and France.

Self-funding applicants are welcome.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Dr Hayley Gorton
• Dr Nicola Gray

With increasing life expectancy and associated co-morbidities such as obesity and diabetes, there has been a dramatic rise in the prevalence of chronic and hard to heal wounds within the last few decades. Chronic wounds that fail to proceed through the typical phases of wound healing in an orderly and timely manner require multiple follow-up treatments, therefore posing a burden to patients, their families and carers, healthcare systems, and the economy. Debridement has been shown to expedite healing in chronic / hard to heal wounds and is a crucial component in wound care. This technique describes an umbrella of methods used to remove damaged tissue or foreign objects and requires extensive training. As training on live patients is extremely dangerous and unethical, traditional methods of training implement oranges, pig skin and even cadavers. These crude attempts of wound models, however, are physically and mechanically unrealistic, poorly represent human wounds or are in short supply, necessitating the availability of alternative models.

Within the Biopolymer Research Centre, we have recently generated a wound model from natural materials with a realistic aesthetic and similar physical properties to those found in real wounds. This project will build on current our understanding of the physical properties of healthy and wounded skin and use this knowledge to develop a life like in vitro model that could then be used as a realistic training tool for health care professionals. Once established, live cells will be incorporated into the model in order to further elucidate the mechanisms associated with the chronic wound microenvironment, investigating cell migration, the role inflammatory cytokines and biofilm formation. This could ultimately lead to a model that can be used in the preclinical development of novel wound dressings.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £4000 per annum are required for this project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Dr Jessica Senior
• Dr Alan Smith

UV imaging has been used as a platform for observing the behaviour of pharmaceutical compounds. The surface dissolution imaging instrument (SDI) has been used in determining the intrinsic dissolution rates (IDR) of compounds due to its compound sparing approach and has been used to observe phenomena such as the swelling behaviour of hydrophilic matrices, capsule dissolution and drug precipitation. We have also developed a Franz cell prototype (patented) at allows imaging through biological and synthetic skin membranes. This project aims to utilise this imaging platform in providing further insights into the behaviour of pharmaceuticals with the prospect of speeding up the preformulation stage thereby reducing costs

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £3-£15,000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Home/EU – for September- June 30th, for January-October 31st and Overseas for September- May 31st, for January- September 30th

• Dr Kofi Asare-addo

Conventional nail formulations are not fully effective due to limited drug permeation across the compact keratinized structure of the nail plate. Drug permeation through the nail plate is important for treating nail diseases and infections. Therefore, there is currently a need for more effective formulations in the treatment of nail diseases. This project will explore the use of novel combination of approaches in the design of ungunal and transungunal formulations in order to enhance to drug delivery to the nail.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £3-£15,000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Home/EU – for September- June 30th, for January-October 31st and Overseas for September- May 31st, for January- September 30th

• Dr Adeola Adebisi

As we age the incidence of CNS disease increases including neurodegenerative, neurological and psychiatric disorders. CeBioR at the University of Huddersfield looks to address some of these issues by exploring the underlying aetiology of the aforementioned diseases. By understanding these diseases we can develop tools to not only improve diagnosis, but also develop new therapeutics to improve disease treatment. We anticipate that the centre’s research will improve the quality of life of many people suffering with these highly debilitating diseases, providing a smooth and rapid translation from proof of concept to a tangible availability in the clinic. Students will look to explore a number of candidate CNS disease biomarkers developed within the research centre and determine their use as disease indicators or their potential as drug targets. The project will involve a wide range of techniques/methods and may include biochemical techniques, advanced cell culture e.g. stem cells, live cell imaging, Quantitative PCR, western blotting, ELISAs, proteomics, immunofluorescence, bioinformatic analysis, immunohistochemistry, RNA sequencing, array analysis, GWAS and epigenetics

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of £10,000 per annum are required.

Home/EU -June 30th/October 31st and Overseas May 31st/September 30th

• Dr Patrick Mchugh

Currently food waste and by-products generated, are not fully exploited and their disposal is presenting a continuously growing problem. Common by-products from food are peels, hulls, shells, husks, pods, stems, stalks, bran, seeds, and pulp refuse. Our investigations have shown that by-products from fruits such as pomegranates and oranges have significant pharmacological and health-promoting potentials. This project will use a combination of cellular and molecular pharmacology approaches to evaluate anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-ageing activities of bioactive compounds from these waste products. Molecular targets of these activities will also be established.

Self-funding applicants are welcome. In addition to tuition fees, bench fees of between £5000-£8000 per annum are required depending on the nature of the project.

Our standard University deadlines apply. Please see our Deadlines for Applications page to find out more

• Dr Olumayokun Olajide