This is our November update of news from the Respitech group at the WIMR.

In November, the RespiTech group has participated in a number of events. Firstly, we were involved in the Woolcock ‘Think Tank’, a two day conference that highlights the institute’s research strengths and identifies strategic directions for future projects and collaborations. Judy Loo gave an excellent presentation on modified intubation tubes for reducing pneumonia infection in ICU patients and Wing-Hin participated in the Woolcock’s ECR Translational Research Grant, pitching a novel lung cancer therapy. Also, YY won a bottle of bubbly for being the most enthusiastic ECR participant!

The team participated in the annual Melbourne Cup celebrations at the Institute. Meanwhile, Dany Traveled to Italy to conduct a series lectures as Visiting Professor at the University of Ferrara, while Paul went to AAPS in San Antonio USA to establish a series of new collaborations.

Later in the month, the team participated in the Chancellor’s reception at the Woolcock to celebrate a series of Centres of Excellence, a Corporative Research Centre, and the Woolcock Advanced Microscopy Suite. Paul spoke about the new microscopy facilities which are now operational.

As usual we welcome and say goodbye to RespiTech members. This month we say goodbye to Amitabh Prakesh and Ningyi Xu. Amitabh completed his Hons thesis on cilia beat function and was awarded his degree at the end of November. Ningyi completed her Masters degree with the team in the area of pressurised metered dose inhaler droplet drying kinetics. We wish both all the best in their future career.

We would like to congratulate Eric (Bing Zhu) for being awarded his PhD from the University of Sydney. Erics’s thesis is entitled “The influence of formulation variables on particles generated from solution based pressurised metered dose inhalers”. Eric will continue working with the group as a postdoctoral scientist within the field of aerosol generation.

We would also like to congratulate Alaa Tulbah and Yang Chen for giving excellent PhD presentations at the Woolcock’s Friday morning seminars.

Lastly, we would like to congratulate Yang and Eric for publishing two papers this month. Yang was the first author on a publication in ‘Pharmaceutical Research’ entitled ‘The influence of actuator materials and nozzle designs on electrostatic charge of pressurised metered dose inhaler (pMDI) formulations’ while Eric was the first author on a paper in ‘Colloids and Surfaces A’ entitled ‘The solid-state and morphological characteristics of particles generated from solution-based metered dose inhalers: influence of ethanol concentration and intrinsic drug properties’. Both these publications focus on one of areas of interest of the group- pMDI technology, and the study of particle properties after aerosol generation.

SPIRITUS: (11) A Monthly update from the Respiratory Technology team at the WIMR