This is the December 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

This month has seen members of the team travel to the UK to attend Drug Delivery to the Lung Conference. Jesse Xu presented a poster on TRPV channels and the group caught up with a number of long-term collaborators. Post conference the Dany and Paul travelled to Bath to attend a CDFS/Bath University Reunion and also caught up with long term linkage parters in Chippenham and Bath. 

Meanwhile back in Sydney, Prof Santo Scallia, from the University of Ferrara visited the team and was hosted by YY and Mali. Santo is a long term collaborator of the group and has co-supervised a number of PhD students and projects in the area of DPI therapy. Continuing the celebrations, the team celebrated the submission of Larissa Gomes Dos Reis PhD thesis this month. The team went out to celebrate Yasmin Shirmanesh and Sandra Grau Bartual who are leaving us after spending time undertaking research projects with us from the UK and New Zealand respectively.

Lastly, Merry Christmas to all the followers of the RespiTech team!

This is the November 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. 

In November the group attended the Woolcock Student Symposia day. This is an annual event at the Woolcock that promotes research of the Postgraduate students and encourages collaboration between researchers and disciplines. Also this month, members of the team attended the annual Asian Pacific Society of Respirology Conference. Mariam Mamlouk was invited to present her clinical work on CF, patient mucus viscosity and the effectiveness of DNASE. Mariam was awarded best abstract. Well done Mariam! Also this month the group published two articles. The first was a commentary by Giula Ballerin in the Australian Society for Microbioolgy NSW monthly journal. In the article, Giula discuses how we can exploit bacterial lifestyles to treat infectious disease. The second article was by Zara Sheikh in the Journal Expert Opinion on Orphan Drugs. The article was entitle "Is there a role for inhaled anti-inflammatory drugs in cystic fibrosis treatment?" Well done Giula and Zara! You can learn more about RespiTech Journal publications here

Lastly and most importantly, the RespiTech group held their annual Christmas party this month. As usual the team hosted the party on level 5 of the Woolcock Institute and invited friends and collaborators to enjoy dinner, drinks and Secret Santa (this year in high heels!). You can find more about the party and our social events on the RespiTech Facebook and Twitter social media platforms. Please visit, like and follow!

This is the October 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. This month the group attended Drug Delivery Australia 2018 in Wollongong, along the South coast of NSW to present a number of posters about their Respitech research. Additionally, Larissa Gomes Dos Reis gave an invited talk on her work on respiratory gene therapy while Michele Pozzoli gave an invited presentation about a novel strategy for wound healing in the lung. It was an enjoyable and productive conference, and as always there was plenty of social time at the conference dinner.

RespiTech at DDA2017 | Wollongong | NSW | Australia.

This month, members of the RespiTech team, Daniela Traini, Hui Xin Ong (YY) and Paul Young were awarded an MTPConnect grant to establish a GMP manufacturing site for the production of pharmaceuticals in NSW. This new initiative will provide researchers with a facility to formulate and manufacture new pharmaceutical products to regulatory standards so that they can be tested in the clinic. You can learn more about this exciting initiative here

This is the September 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. In September, a number of the group have been travelling overseas. Paul traveled to the US and met up with Daniela who then visited some collaborators. Paul and Daniela presented at the University of Texas Austin, and spent a couple of days discussing future collaborations with Prof Bill Williams III, Prof Hugh Smyth and the AAPS Student Chapter. They then went on to catch up collaborators Professor Peter Byron in Virginia Commonwealth University and A/Prof Ramin Rohanizadeh at the University of Montreal, Childrens Hospital. Meanwhile YY, Larissa and Michele traveled to China to present at Inhalation Asia in Macau

Back at home the group welcomed a new member to the team. Yasmin Kafaei Shirmanesh Joins us from the University of Bath for three months. Yasmin will undertake a project focussing on microrheology of materials used in aerosols using the new NanoZetasizer. 

Lastly, this month, we celebrate the PhD graduation of Michele Pozzoli. Michele graduated with a PhD from UTS for his research into nasal aerosol drug delivery systems. The supervisory team were Fabio Sonvico, Maria Sukkar, Paul Young and Daniela Traini. Well done Michele!

This is the August 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. August has been a busy month for the RespiTech group. In Sydney, Paul Young had the honour of acknowledging Professor Sandra Anderson's Contribution to Respiratory Research at a Distinguished Alumni Event held at the Woolcock Institute. Sandy is an internationally renowned Respiratory Researcher who's research has resulted in a better understanding of respiratory diseases and a number of commercial products that have changed the way we diagnose asthma and treat COPD. Also this month at the Woolcock, the Respitech group participated in the Promoting RespiTech research at the 2017 Woolcock's Science Day 2017 for National Science Week. The group gave a tour to the general public of our molecular biology labs and demonstrated how 3D printing is being used in inhaler design. 

Also this month at the Woolcock, Prof Rob Price, an old collegue collaborator and friend from the University of Bath spend time with the group while on Sabbatical in Sydney.

As part of the ongoing construction of the new Centre for Lung Cancer Research and associated Lung Cancer Research Network (LCRN),  the Woolcock and Lung Foundation Australia hosted "Cloudy With Increasing Sunshine" The public event for lung cancer patients, friends, family and specialists was a success with a number of speakers covering patient, clinician and scientist perspectives.  Paul is coordinator for the LCRN. You can learn more about the event here

Away from the Woolcock, Paul and YY attended the ARCS 2017 conference at the Royal Randwick Racecourse. ARCS provides professional education and advice/networking for the Pharma sector in Australia and the conference brings together the industry from across the Nation. Paul and YY represented the new Master of Medicine (PharmDev) degree, at the University of Sydney, that supplies professional medical education for this sector. You can learn more about the degree here

Also at the University of Sydney, Daniela & colleagues received the Vice Chancellors Award for Outstanding Mentoring and Leadership. The award was for SPAM, a program for mentoring and promoting women in academic institutes to enhance their career tracks.

The group had one publication accepted this month. Alaa Tulbah had a pair accepted in Nanomedicine. The paper was entitled "Inhaled simvastatin Nanoparticles for inflammatory lung disease". You can learn more about all RespiTech publications here

Lastly we welcome new members of the group. This month Ricardo Fontana. Ricardo (Ricky) will be working with the group on a series of new molecules that have potential anti-inflammatory effects in respiratory diseases. On a more social note, the group also celebrated Ricky's 25th Birthday this month!
You can follow all our social events here

This is the July 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. This month the group have had a number of grant successes. YY (Hui Xin Ong) received $2,500 ECR Overseas Conference Support Grant from the University and later went on to be awarded $52,000 in the Woolcock Major Equipment Grant for the purchase of a NanoZetasizer ZSP. The new facility will give the Woolcock and RespiTech group the capability to measure nanoparticle size distributions of new drug delivery systems, proteins and peptides at an unprecedented level. Additionally the system, has the capability of measuring microrheology of complex fluids, and will support a number of projects including projects focussing on mucocillaray clearance and the SmartDrop initiative with Patrick Spicer and collaborators at UNSW.

While the research group have been busy back in Sydney, Daniela Traini commenced her Executive Fellowship at Aradigm Ltd in San Francisco. Dany will spend a couple of months coming up to speed on industries approach to registering new drug molecules in the inhalation therapy space.

The group published one journal article this month. Khanh Huynh had a paper accepted in the Journal of Aerosol Medicine entitles
"The development and validation of an in vitro airway model to assess realistic airway deposition and drug permeation behaviour of orally inhaled products across synthetic membranes. This paper is part of the groups ongoing collaboration with Virgin Commonwealth Collaborators Mike Hindle and Worth Longest.

As always the group like to welcome and say goodbye to old members. This month three of the group have left us to continue their studies and careers. These are Amanda Chancellor, Laura Busato and Arianna Fallacara. We hope you enjoyed your time with the Respitech group and you are always welcome back!

To keep up to date with Respitech activities you can also follow our Facebook and Twitter pages.

This is the June 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

This month a number of the group have been traveling overseas. YY (Hui Xin Ong) spent time in in the USA and attended the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM) 2017 conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she gave an oral presentation titled "Simvastatin nanoparticles reduce infammation in LPS induced alveolar macrophages" Meanwhile, Daniela traveled to Singapore to attend the Commonwealth Science Conference of the Royal Society.

Meanwhile back in Sydney, Zara Sheikh joined the group as a new PhD student. Zara will be working on a novel approach to treating inflammation in the lung. Welcome Zara.

Postgraduate students, Jesse Xu and Khanh Huynh presented at the  Sydney Medical Postgraduate symposium and Jesse presented at the 3minute thesis competition at the Bosh Annual Scientific Conference.

Paul was awarded a successful Australian Research Council Linkage grant worth $555,000 (incl partner contribution). The project is being lead by a Colleague in Monash, Prof Damon Honnery. Chiesi is the industry partner and the grant will focus on "Improving respiratory drug delivery through targeted nozzle design". You can learn more about RespiTech successful grant funding here.

Lastly, this month Jesse was a Finalist in Sydney Research's the Big Idea.The Big Idea is the first Sydney Research event focusing on research innovation and commercialisation and is an innovation challenge supporting individuals to progress their idea to the next level. Jesse Xu's Big Idea is to develop a 3D-printing platform technology that will revolutionise the way that airway stents are used in a clinical setting. This Big Idea forms one of the Core Translation Projects within the Lung Cancer Research Network. you can learn more about the Centre for Lung Cancer Research and theLung Cancer research Network here

This is the May 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

Dany and Dave talk serious collaboration....

During May, Paul and Dany went on from RDD Europe to the UK to catch up with a number of collaborators in the UK. Paul and Dany attended the Launch of OzUK a new start up contract services company and caught up with ex colleagues from Vectura. The team also spent some time at the Chiesi site in Chippenham planning future research programs.

Back in Sydney, Michelle Pozzoli gave his final PhD talk at the Woolcock Friday morning seminars. Well done Michelle! Also this month, Joanne Peart (Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, co-organiser and Editor of the Respiratory Drug Delivery series of conferences and book series) visited the group. Joanne spent time with PhD and Postdocs within the group discussing their projects and career focus. Joanne also had time to enjoy the more social side of Sydney...

As usual, the group give an update of publications and research output. This month, members of the group had two Jounral articles accepted. The first, was a paper accepted in Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy, entitled "Novel nano-cellulose excipient for generating non- Newtonian droplets for targeted nasal drug delivery." This is part of an ongoing collaboration with Patrick Spicer at UNSW and forms part of the SmartDrop initiative. The second paper was related to the Google Innovation Grant and is entitled "Motivations and key features for a wearable device for continuous monitoring of breathing".

To learn more about our publications you can find a list of all our journal publications here.

This is the April 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

RespiTech Members in Nice, France. RDD Europe 2017

This month has seen members of the RespiTech group travel Antibes, France for RDD Europe. Mali, Larisa, Khanh, Paul and Daniela travelled to Nice to attend the conference. Mali and Larisa both presented posters on their work while Khanh was invited to give a *Posters on The Podium* talk on he in vitro respiratory model. Paul Chaired a session and fun was had by all at the social events (even the Lego Scientists enjoyed themselves!)

Meanwhile, back at base, The RespiTech group would like to welcome two new members to the team, Arianna Fallacara and Laura Busato, Ariana and Laura are PhD students from the University of Ferrara, will spend the next few months with the team working on innovative particulate therapies for upper and lower respiratory tract disorders. We also welcome back Amanda Chancellor this month who will continue undertaking a research internship with the group. Lastly, we would like to congratulate YY (Hui Xin Ong) this month for being appointed as an associate lecturer in Pharmacology. YY, will continue to work with Pharmacology developing the new Master of Medicine (PharmDev) Degree, while coordinating and managing her own research projects within the RespiTech group. Well done YY!

As always we give an update of publications by the group. This month Micelle Pozzoli had a paper accepted in Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy. This paper focusses on nasal drug delivery and is part of a continued collaboration between UTS (Maria Sukkar) and the University of Parma (Fabio Sonvico). The paper is entitled " Development of a Soluplus/Budesonide Freeze-Dried Powder for Nasal Drug Delivery. Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy" You can find a full list of RespiTech publications here

Lastly, we would like to say farewell to old members. This month Yang Chen, Alaa Tulbah and Valentina leave us. Valentina, returns to Ferrara to continue her Postdoc and Alaa returns to Saudi to take up her academic role their. Yang, one of the longest running members of the team, leaves us to take up an exciting new Postdoctoral position in at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. You will be missed and are always welcome back. Of course we had quite a leaving party....:)

RespiTech Leaving party for Yang, Valentina and Alaa

This is the March 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

This month RespiTech members have attended a number of events. Of note, the Woolcock hosted the Annual Ann Woolcock Lecture of which a number of the RespiTech team attended. Mali, Alaa, YY, Larissa and Emilie spent a weekend at the TSANZ lung cell workshop in Canberra and Paul and Daniela attended the Australian Lung Foundation Dinner hosted in Parliament house. Giulia Ballerin was invited to present  at the ASM student competition and did an excellent job explaining how bacteria have secret personalities. Finally Paul attended the Farewell dinner for the Hon Jillian Skinner at the Great Hall, University of Sydney

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RespiTech Members at the TSANZ cell workshop in Canberra .

As always, we say farewell to old colleagues and welcome new ones. This month Mariam Mamlouk returns from Maternity Leave to continue her PhD with the RespiTech group and Alaa Tulbah returns as a Postdoctorate Researcher. Also, Jesse Xu returns to undertake a PhD with the group. Jesse will be working on innovative therapies for lung cancer. Welcome back guys! 

April looks to be a busy month, with the RDD Europe upon us already and a number of social and work related events on the horizon. Don't forget to follow our Facebook and Twitter pages to keep up-to-date with all RespiTech activities.

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Annual Ann Woolcock Lecture | March 2017