Molly Stevens - Bionanoscience 'Development of biocompatible micro and nanoparticles for the delivery of vaccines'
Professor Molly Stevens’ team is interested in applying innovative bioengineering approaches and designer biomaterials to address some of the major healthcare challenges across diagnostics, advanced therapeutics and regenerative medicine. Professor Sarah Gilbert leads a research team developing vaccines against emerging pathogens, developing technology for the rapid transfer of vaccines into GMP manufacturing, and assessing novel vaccine delivery mechanisms. Non-invasive vaccine delivery routes, for example, oral, dermal or intranasal administration, are desirable for vaccine administration as they offer greater convenience in terms of storage and distribution, facilitate self-administration, and ultimately improve vaccination compliance. However, non-injectable vaccine administration presents the challenge of delivering a biologically active vaccine through the gastrointestinal tract, across the skin barrier or into the nasal cavity. We are interested in combining biomaterials and bioengineering techniques with adenoviral vaccine platform technologies to explore different routes of administration through encapsulation of vaccines in biocompatible and degradable materials, enabling controlled and targeted vaccine delivery.
The successful candidate will become part of a collaborative and interdisciplinary research team and will receive training in biomaterials, bioengineering and vaccinology. Participation in this research project will provide the student with a broad range of transferable skills as well as unique insight into translational research. The project will provide opportunities to gain experience in techniques including:
· Design, synthesis, and physicochemical characterisation of degradable polymeric biomaterials
· Design and fabrication of nano- and microparticle systems for vaccine and drug delivery
· Vaccine encapsulation, loading, and formulation within polymeric delivery systems
· Design and characterisation of controlled or triggered release profiles through modulation of material chemistry, structure, and degradation behaviour
· Characterisation of nano- and microparticles, including particle size, morphology, surface properties, loading efficiency, and degradation kinetics
· In vitro handling and evaluation of adenovirus-based vaccines
· Immunological assays for evaluating vaccine infectivity, including ELISpot and ELISA
· Assessment of vaccine stability and biological activity following encapsulation, storage, and release
· Microfabrication techniques, including 3D two-photon printing, moulding, and microfluidic particle fabrication
· Scale-up and optimisation of microparticle fabrication and vaccine formulation processes
· Experimental design, quantitative data analysis, and development of structure–property–function relationships for biomaterial-based vaccine delivery systems
