Respiratory Technology celebrates its fourth month since establishment at the WIMR. 

April has been a short month for the group, with members of the Respiratory Technology team attending the International Society of Aerosol Medicine conference in North Carolina, followed by meetings with collaborative partners on the East Coast of the US. At home, members of the team who supported the WIMRs Student Research Symposia. 80 people attended this years meeting and Dr Mehra Haghi gave a plenary lecture. Yang gave a postgrad talk and Jess and John had posters which attracted significant attention by other attendees, congratulations to all!

Two papers from an international university-industry consortia were published for which we have received amazing feedback and support from the local pharmaceutics and inhalation community; many thanks for all who commented on our media feeds! It was also announced this month that Respiratory Technology and the WIMR have supported the Australian Chapter of the Controlled Release Society by offering to host the 2013 Drug Delivery Australia Conference in Sydney on the 24 and 25 of October (See www.crsaustralia.org and www.facebook.com/DrugDeliveryAustralia for further details). 

This month has also seen the appointment of YY and Eric as postdoctorate researchers within the WIMR. YY's research will focus on understanding the mechanisms underpinning drug interactions at a cellular level, with a view to treat chronic infection and hypermucosal secretion at the epithelia, while Eric will focus on the dynamics of particle production in combination inhalation systems. We welcome both! Additionally the group would like to introduce and welcome two new research students, Ningyi Xu and Giula Ballerin. Ningyi is undertaking a project looking at the dynamics of pMDI aerosol droplet formation and will be co supervised by Eric, while Giulia, co-supervised by YY, is studying new approaches to enhance clearance of mucus in patients with COPD and Cystic Fibrosis. 

The month ahead; May looks to be an interesting month with the launch of a new group-initiative and the ramp-up of a new area of research (watch this space…). Additionally, members of the team will be attending Respiratory Drug Delivery in Berlin towards the end of the month. See you there…

Industry-academic partnerships have become a popular topic in recent years, as evident from dedicated sessions, podium presentations and discussion panels at leading pharmaceutical and respiratory R&D conferences. The reason for this drive is unclear at first; however, synergistic partnership between academia and industry has the potential to enhance productivity within the sector, ultimately resulting in new technologies. 

A pessimist would argue that academics attempt to engage with industry for an additional source of income, while industry target researchers to gain intellectual property for significant profit. However, this is rarely (if ever) the case. Partnerships between academics and industry provide the means to solve significant research questions, develop new technologies and provide new avenues of research that cannot be easily achieved through isolation. Furthermore, large scale multi-institutional and industry projects can be achieved without direct funding from the industry partner. 

View fullsize

Multi-institute academic-industry consortia

An example of such a research program is the multi-institute “consortia project” developed by , Chiesi Ltd, The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Parma, Kings College London and University of Sydney. In late 2011, a group of academic and industry leaders met openly to discuss aerosol science and the implication of formulation parameters on drug transport and bioavailability after deposition in the lung. The result of this discussion was a multi-study consortia project between all members to investigate how formulation variables in pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDIs)influence drug uptake in the lung. Each aspect of the study was funded by the local working party and no funds were exchanged between centres. The nature of the study involved personnel exchange between each of the centres and discrete collaborative projects towards a common goal. 

View fullsize

First two papers published in the ‘European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics’

The consortia project commenced early 2012 and to-date a series of significant findings have been made. The first two projects were focussed on developing a series of identical pMDI formulations, in terms of lung deposition, that had significantly different physico-chemical properties (such as morphology and excipients etc.), and to evaluate those using cell and non-cell based in vitro techniques. In February 2013 the consortia reported the results of these initial studies, with the first two papers published in the ‘European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics’

For further information of the findings follow the links: paper 1 and paper 2

The consortia continue to work towards understanding fundamental research questions in the area of respiratory science. For further information contact: paul.young@sydney.edu.au

Respiratory Technology are happy to announce that they are working with the Australian Controlled Release Society Chapter to host Drug Delivery Australia 2013. DDA (formerly AUS-CRS) is the premier Drug Delivery conference in Australia. In its seventh year, the conference has become a focal point for scientists from academia, industry and government agencies to meet, network and discuss the latest developments in the Drug Delivery field.  

The conference will be hosted at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research's conference centre on 24th -25th October 2013. To get unto date information please follow the links to www.crsaustralia.org and www.facebook.com/DrugDeliveryAustralia. We look forward to seeing you at the WIMR in October 2013!