This is our August 2015 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR.

In August, the group welcomed Dr. Jun Zhang, who starts work with us as a Postdoctoral Researcher. Jun will work on our ARC funded, joint SmartDrop project, with Patrick Spicers group at UNSW. This microfluidic based project aims to revolutionise aerosol drug delivery via creating highly ordered cell targeting particles, with well defined shape and surface properties. Welcome Jun!

This month we also have a number of congratulations. Firstly, congratulations to Lala Sarkassian, Stewart Yeung and Michael Lau for giving excellent first year postgraduate talks in the Discipline of Pharmacology. Secondly, later in the month, all our Postgrad presented at the Woolcock Research Symposium. Stewart Yeung was awarded the Student Choice award. Thirdly, Lala Sarkissian was awarded a University of Sydney HDR+ Grant. This initiative is intended to enhance the academic experience and outcomes of Higher Degree by Research (HDR) programs at the University of Sydney. Well done all!

As always, we give an update of publications from the group. In addition to the numerous poster and oral presentations this month, the group published peer reviewed journal articles. The first authored by Wing-Hin Lee was accepted in ‘Pharmaceutical Research’ and is titled ‘Curcumin Nanoparticles Attenuate Production Of Pro-Inflammatory Markers In Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Macrophages’. The second by Khanh Huynh, was accepted in ‘Aerosol Science and Technology’ and is entitled ‘An Investigation into the Powder Release Behaviour from Capsule-based Dry Powder Inhalers’ You can learn more about our publications here.

Follow the exploits of our RespiTech Lego scientists by following our Social media links

Lastly, don’t forget to like our Facebook page and follow our Twitter feed to keep up to-date with our social activities and the continuing exploits of our RespiTech Lego Scientists. Speaking of which, it may be time for them to attend another conference soon….

This is our July 2015 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR.

In July, a number of the group have received awards and grants. YY (Dr Hui Xin Ong) was awarded seed funding from the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity (MBI) to study the role of ion supplementation on the effectiveness of cystic fibrosis drugs during routine therapy. The $15,000 grant will establish a project between the Woolcock, University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital to conduct preliminary in vitro laboratory studies which the team hope to translate into a clinical trial.
YY was also mentioned this month in Sydney Research’s July news headline talking about a routine analytical method she has developed for studying the fate of inhaled antibiotics.

Yang Chen was awarded a place on the NSW 2015 Medical Device Commercialisation Training Program. Yang is one of only 20 applicants from across the State who were chosen to undertake the prestigious three-month program with ATP Innovations, a technology incubator with a proven record in driving the commercialisation of medical devices in Sydney. Yang also received the final printed versions of her PhD Thesis on aerosol electrostatics this month. Well done Dr Chen!

Later in the month, Michele Pozzoli presented at the 3 minute thesis competition at the University of Technology Sydney. Michele’s talk on new characterisation methods for evaluating nasal drug delivery devices. His talk was well received. 

As always, the group welcome new members and say goodbye to old members. This month, Beatrice Zanelli from the University of Ferrara returned to Italy. Beatrice has spent the last 4 months with the group studying cell targeted uptake of novel inhaled antibiotics. Beatrice, you are always welcome back to do a PhD!

The group had a number of social events in July. Among which were Gnocchi night and Beatrice’s farewell dinner at Saray’s (for Wine, Beer and Turkish Kebabs). Roberto (and lego Roberto) also had their birthdays this month, that the group celebrated. To learn more about RespiTech achievements you can visit our home page. If you are more interested in our social events, or if you want to follow the adventures of our RespiTech Lego Scientists you please visit and Like our Facebook page or Twitter feed. 

Dr Hui Xin Ong (YY)

YY (Dr Hui Xin Ong) and her team at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, The University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital were awarded $15,000 seed funding from the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity (MBI) to study the role of ion supplementation on the effectiveness of cystic fibrosis drugs during routine therapy. The grant entitled “The Role of magnesium in the reduced efficacy of inhaled therapies for cystic fibrosis” was awarded through the Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) node of the MBI. YY and her team will use the funds to conduct a number of in vitro studies looking at the interplay between local ion concentration in the lungs and the effectiveness of common antibiotics and mucokinetic CF therapies. With these findings, the team hope to translate this into a clinical trial that may result in significant benefits for CF sufferers.

The Chief investigators on the grant were YY from the Respiratory Technology Group at the Woolcock (an applied cell biologist)  Dr Paul Robinson and A/Prof Hiran Selvadurai from The Children’s Hospital at Westmead (renowned experts in paediatric CF management), Prof Paul Young and A/Prof Daniela Traini (Respiratory Technology) and A/Prof Andrew Holmes at the School of Molecular Bioscience, University of Sydney (a microbial genomics expert). The Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity (MBI) is committed to meeting the challenge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. You can learn more about the MBI here

Dr Yang Chen

Dr Yang Chen from the Respiratory Technology group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research has been awarded a place on the NSW 2015 Medical Device Commercialisation Training Program. Yang is one of only 20 applicants from across the State to be chosen to undertake the prestigious three-month program with ATP Innovations, a technology incubator with a proven record in driving the commercialisation of medical devices in Sydney. Previous Graduates of the 2014 Medical Device Commercialisation Training Program have launched companies and raised capital from investors, engaged industry partners and – to date – have raised $1.2 million in grants to create job opportunities in Australia and abroad. You can learn more about the program and the ATP here

The MDCTP is a 3-month medical devices commercialisation training program funded by NSW Office for Health and Medical Research to increase the commercialisation of capability medical device research in order to promote better health outcomes and new career opportunities in Australia. Yang aims to develop a novel tuneable inhalation device that can target specific regions of the lung at the touch of a button.

Sydney Research highlighted the leading-edge work being conducted by YY (Hui Xin Ong) in a July news headline. The article highlights a new advanced lung epithelial model, based on the Calu-3 cell line, that is now being used by YY and her team for routine analysis of inhaled antibiotics. YY is from the Respiratory Technology Group at the Woolcock Institute.

Sydney Research is one of the largest research hubs in NSW. Key to this alliance is the partnership between Sydney Local Health District and its principal tertiary referral hospitals - Royal Prince Alfred and Concord Hospitals, the University of Sydney and 11 eminent medical research institutes, including the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. You can learn more about Sydney Research here

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This is our June 2015 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR.

In June, the group have continued their operations overseas. Dr Wing Hin-Lee and Dr Judy Loo travelled to the University of Ferrara (Italy) to give invited seminars and strengthen our long-standing collaborations with Prof Santo Scalia in the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Later in the month, after returning to Australia, Wing and Judy travelled overseas to attend the International Symposium on Phytochemicals in Medicine in Shanghai. Wing gave an invited presentation on work he has been conducting in the area of lung cancer. Also with respect to travel, Giulia Ballerin was selected to undertake a summer course in Singapore in the area of biofilms. She was awarded flight, accommodation and food expenses. Well done Giulia!

Also of note this month, Daniela Traini was appointed onto the board of the International society for Aerosols in Medicine. ISAM is an international organisation dedicated to all aspects of aerosol research in medicine. More details about ISAM can be found here. Lala Sarkissian presented at the Woolcock Friday seminars this June. Lala is a first year PhD student working in the area of aerosol lung deposition and dissolution kinetics. Sharon Davis, a final year PhD student also submitted her thesis this month for review. Congratulations Sharon!

As always, we like to give an update of the groups research output. In addition to conference proceedings and invited talks, the group published three new papers this month. The first paper in Molecular Pharmaceutics was a joint work between the Woolcock’s RespiTech & Cell Biology teams and Prof Claus-Michael Lehr’s group at Saarland University in Germany. The paper is entitled ‘Mono- and co-cultures of bronchial and alveolar epithelial cells respond differently to pro-inflammatory stimuli and their modulation by salbutamol and budesonide’ Dr Mehra Haghi (a Lecturer at The University of Technology Sydney and a Woolcock Affiliate) is the first author and the work is linked to her Humboldt Fellowship. The second paper this month was accepted in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics. The paper entitled ‘In vitro biological activity of resveratrol using a novel inhalable resveratrol spray-dried formulation’ by Valentina Trotta is part of the continuing joint research programs between the University of Ferrara and the Woolcock. Lastly, Sharon Davis had a publication accepted in the Journal of Asthma.  The article entitled ‘The ability of people with intellectual disability to use inhalers – an exploratory mixed methods study.’ focuses on quality use of medications in patients with disabilities.

You can find details of each of these and other peer reviewed papers (abstract and link to main text where available) on our RespiTech publication page.

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RespiTech Team at RDD 2015

This is our May 2015 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR. This month, a few members of the team have traveled overseas to present at international conferences and meet with industry and academic collaborators. At the start of the Month, the team (Paul Young, Daniela Traini, Larissa Gomes Dos Reis, Valentina Trotta and Michele Pozzoli) attended Respiratory Drug Delivery-Europe in Nice. The group presented a number of papers at the conference and Paul co-chaired a session for new investigators. You can learn more about what was presented by reading the four page peer review abstracts available via the rddonline portal. Paul and Daniela went onto meet a number of industrial collaborators across Europe before meeting up with Wing Hin Lee and Judy Loo, attending ISAM (international society for Aerosols in Medicine) in Munich where Judy gave an oral presentation and Dany chaired a session. Of course, our RespiTech lego scientists managed to attend both Conferences also, and enjoyed networking, chairing sessions and even met up with a lego engineering group from Team Consulting at RDD!

Back at home, Mariam Mamlouk and Larissa gave presentations to the Department of Pharmacology, giving an overview of their PhD research plan. Mariam is working with CF patients to understand how diet influences the effectiveness of inhaled therapies while Larissa is developing novel inhalable systems for delivering vaccines.

Also this month, members of the group have been mentioned in the Media. Firstly YY officially received a prestigious award from the University of Sydney for for reducing animal testing. Details can be found here. Secondly, Sumit’s research was mentioned by the Australian Department of Education and Training. Details can be found here. Well done guys!

Lastly, the group have had a number of social events back in Sydney. Members of the group attended Sydney's Vivid Festival  and also hosted a dinner to say farewell to Isabella Martignoni, who returned to Italy to finish her degree.

The group are looking forward to June and the start of the Australia Winter Season. Wrap up warm!

This is our April 2015 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR. April has been busy month for the RespiTech Team and congratulations all-round for such a productive month!

Firstly, Yang Chen submitted her PhD Thesis and took a short break before she returns as a PostDoc in May. Well done Yang! Also this month Giulia Gitana D’Arco, Mariam Mamlouk and Larissa Gomes gave their first year PhD talks to the Woolcock during its morning seminar program. Great talks girls! YY (Hui Xin Ong) also returned from her ERC fellowship in the UK this month. YY will rejoin the group as a postdoctorate research fellow and will work between the Woolcock and Westmead Hospital to establish a number of clinical based research programs. Welcome home YY!

The group have also had a successful month publicising our research. The group had 7 publications accepted in peer reviewed journals in the last 30 days.
Wing-Hin was first author on two papers accepted in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery (IF 4.1) and Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology (IF 7.6) in the area of nanotechnology. The first is a review of nanoparticles for macrophage targeting entitled ‘Nano- and micro-based inhaled drug delivery systems for targeting alveolar macrophages.’, while the second is an original research article entitled ‘Synthesis and characterization of inhalable curcumin nanoparticles for lung cancer therapy’. The group had a second review accepted in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery authored by Jesslynn Ooi entitled ‘Determination of physical and chemical stability in pressurised metered dose inhalers (MDIs): Potential New Techniques.’ Two papers were accepted in the European Journal of Pharmacetuics and Biopharmaceutics (IF 4.2) in May. The first by YY entitled ‘Is the cellular uptake of respiratory aerosols delivered from different devices bioequivalent?’ while the second from Mehra Haghi is entitled ‘Inhalable tranexamic acid for haemoptysiss treatment.’ Sumit Arora also had his work accepted for publication this month in Molecular Pharmaceutics (IF 4.8) focussed on development of anti-fungal lung therapies. Lastly, Eric Zhu was first author on a article in European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (IF 3) entitled ‘The formulation of a pressurised metered dose inhaler containing theophylline for inhalation.’ Well done all! You can find details of each of these articles (abstract and link to main text where available) on our publication page.

Looking forward to May, a number of the group will travel overseas to attend conferences and meetings. Who knows even our lego scientists may join us…

You can follow the adventures of our RespiTech Lego Scientists at www.facebook.com/RespiTech

This is our March 2015 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR. March has been busy month for the RespiTech Team. This month, we celebrated the graduation of Wing and Judy, who received their doctorate at the University of Sydney. Anphy Nguyen also graduated with his BPharm during the Pharmacy ceremony. Well done all! Also this month, YY won a prestigious 'Award for the Reduction in Use of Animals in Research' from the University of Sydney. This will be presented by the University later in the year. Daniela was reported in the National Newspaper ‘The Australian’ in an interview discussing the financial threat to the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme and the need for governments to keep these National facilities open. 

Importantly this month, we announced plans for Woolcock Centre for Lung Cancer Research and Lung Cancer Research Network. This was announced in-line with the NSW State Governments commitment of $3M to the initiative. The project, of which the RespiTech team has been a key leader, will result in a state-of-the art research Centre and Hub for the wider network, which covers over 20 basic research and clinical groups from hospitals, universities and institutes across NSW. You can learn more about the Centre for Lung Cancer Research and Lung Cancer Research Network by watching the video

As always we welcome new members to our team. We welcome Beatrice Zanelli, a visiting researcher from the University of Ferrara. Beatrice will spend 4 months in our lab working on a collaborative project on inhalation drug therapy. We also welcome Anita Vandyke, a researcher with an engineering background who is looking to transition into the medical field. Anita will be working on a number of projects with our group.

Lastly, we give an update on group publications. Three publications were accepted this month; Yang Chen had a paper accepted as first author in the journal 'Pharmaceutical Research' entitled ‘Effect of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients on Aerosol Electrostatic Charges from Pressurized Metered Dose Inhalers.’; Sharon Davis was the first author on a paper entitled ‘Unique location but similar issues - working with health professionals in correctional services to improve inhaler use’ in the 'Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research' and Eric had a paper accepted in the 'Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences' entitled ‘Tuning the Orbital® DPI device: how to control delivery parameters and aerosol performance via modification of puck orifice geometry’. You can find details of each of these articles on our publication page.

RespiTech team member Dr. Hui Xin Ong (YY) was given the University of Sydney Award for the Reduction in the Use of Animals in Research.

Dr Hui Xin Ong (YY)

This award promotes the replacement and reduction of animals in research and teaching, and is offered by the University as part of its commitment to the ethical principles of the Code. The award was for the promotion and use of bench-top in vitro epithelium models of the lung, which can be used to study new medicines for the treatment of diseases such as asthma, COPD and Cystic Fibrosis.

The selection panel agreed unanimously that Dr Ong’s application stood out both for its novelty and potential for immediate impact on the reduction of in vivo studies undertaken during the development stages of novel inhalable formulations, resulting in vast cost savings. 

The simplicity and robustness of these models provides tremendous benefits, especially during the early phases of research and development of novel molecular therapeutics.

You can learn more about YY's award here