Polymers Chemistry | Polymer Research Ireland

Romina Pezzoli

Romina is a Materials Engineer Specialising in Polymers and is currently undertaking a PhD focusing on Amorphous Solids and Composites with emphasis on:

Development of Novel Amorphous Solid Dispersions to improve the dissolution of poorly soluble drugs through the use of hydrophilic polymers as carriers.
Evaluation of the effect of the manufacturing method over the stability and phase behaviour of the solid dispersions.

Andrew Healy

Andrew holds a BSc (Hons) in Pharmaceutical Science from AIT and is currently undertaking a research masters in the area of polymers and nanocomposites with his project entitled:

Development of a novel bioresorbable nanocomposite for use in implantable medical devices

The project aims to develop a novel bioresorbable nanocomposite polymer based material which will have inherent characteristics that make it suitable as an implantable medical device.
It also looks at utilising an additive manufacturing technique, fused deposition modeling (FDM), as a method of implant fabrication.

Evert Fuenmayor

Evert has a Bachelor’s hons Degree in Mechanical Engineering from La Universidad del Zulia (Zulia’s University) from his native Venezuela and his research is focused on enhancing the understanding of how the additive manufacturing processes impacts the performance of drug dosage forms and the improvement of the designs of such.

Dean Hurley

* Developing a more rigorous understanding of the mechanism of amorphous phase stabilisation and to better control the properties (e.g., miscibility, Tg, stability) of BCS class II compounds in formulations.

* Researching the physical stabilisation of the amorphous form of drugs in solid dispersions as a function of: (1) drug polymer miscibility (2) system thermodynamics and Tg, (3) intermolecular drug–polymer interactions in solid dispersions.

* Creating a predictive design space for solid dispersions within HME and spray drying processing, rather than relying on empirical approaches that are still prevalent in industry.

* Evaluating differences in outcomes between spray drying and HME processes in terms of solid dispersion physical stability under the following; “processability”, powder flow, agglomeration and compression.