Research

Pharmacy overview

The principal theme of our research is understanding disease and drug action, developing novel treatments and applying this knowledge to enhance primary healthcare. Together with colleagues within the Faculty, we are developing a multidimensional strategy to address specific issues in relation to cancer, neurodegenerative disease, psychiatric illness, hepatic and endocrine pathophysiology together with the investigation of novel drug delivery mechanisms. Research is broadly administered under two categories, pharmacology and pharmaceutical technologies, comprising the principal research groups described below.

Dr Sangeeta Tanna and Dr Graham Lawson conduct research on the development of new micro-analytical techniques for the determination of low levels of drugs from small volume blood samples collected, principally, from paediatric patients. The research addresses a major issue in the area of children’s medicine namely the lack of information available to the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare professionals about the prescribing, dispensing and administration of existing and new medicines to children. This research is multi-disciplinary incorporating pharmacy practice, bioanalysis and biopharmaceutics. This research group is also examining the potential of using micro-analytical techniques to detect biomarkers of disease and environmental exposure from small volume blood samples.

The Molecular Toxicology group, led byProf Bob Chaudhuri, focuses on three main areas: (1) Cancer drug discovery targets specifically the enzymes/proteins that govern cell proliferation, in particular fascaplysin analogues which are highly efficacious in the treatment of tumours in SCID mice-human tumour models. (2) A new functional genomics/proteomics tool (MorTar) designed to allow discovery of crucial tissue-specific apoptosis-inhibitory proteins which may prove effective in the treatment of cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. (3) The development of an integrated system to allow robust production of cytochrome P450 enzymes in eukaryotic cell factories, which will significantly improve our understanding of drug metabolism and so reduce the risk of toxic side-effects and dangerous drug interactions which beset new drugs when they are initially being developed.

The Cancer Drug Discovery group, led by Prof Gerry Potter, is pioneering the design and synthesis of novel pro-drugs (such as DMU212) which act as specific inhibitors of the 1B1 sub-type of cytochrome P450 which is selectively expressed in cells that are cancerous and may therefore show lower systemic toxicity than existing anticancer drugs. Studies are also under way to reveal the potential anti-cancer properties of compounds extracted from natural sources, such as resveratrol from red wine.

The Cell Signalling group, led by Prof Mike Boarder, studies the liver hepatocyte in an attempt to induce cell proliferation without losing cell function which could accelerate cell-based therapy for the treatment of both inherited and acquired liver disease. To date, the clinical potential for hepatocyte-based cell therapy has not been developed due to limited availability of human hepatocytes, but through collaboration with the UK Human Tissue Bank (also based at DMU) this problem is now being addressed.

The Neuropharmacology group, led by Prof Martin Elliott, is investigating the effects of drugs used in the treatment of brain disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and ADHD to modify proteins which regulate synaptic plasticity, such as Arc and BDNF. Functional analysis of neuronal networks is accomplished through electrophysiological measurements using both single and multi-electrode arrays. The potentially damaging effects of long-term treatment with drugs which enhance monoamine function such as MDMA (Ecstasy) and methylphenidate is a particular concern.

The Pharmaceutical Technologies group, led by Dr Geoff Smith, has developed and patented a novel instrument for dielectric measurements which has many potential applications in biomedical areas where molecular dynamics and meso-scale information on complex fluids, colloids and soft solids is required (for example, the monitoring of tissue growth within scaffolds and blood cell coagulation. The first application for this technology is being developed for use in a cryomicroscope to monitor the freeze-drying process.

The InSMART insulin drug delivery programme, led by Dr Joan Taylor, is pioneering the development of an artificial pancreas for the management of diabetes. The invention is an implantable medical device which can deliver insulin to the patient in response to an increase in the patient’s blood glucose level, thus mimicking the action of a healthy pancreas. This device is based on a gel barrier layer that becomes more permeable to insulin molecules when in the presence of glucose because of a competitive displacement mechanism between polymeric and free glucose that determines the structure of the material. Collaboration is now under way with other major research groups and companies to undertake the medical engineering and pre-clinical work leading to production of a prototype suitable for regulatory approval for human use.