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

February has seen the commencement of a number of initiatives. Of note, the construction work for the Centre for Lung Cancer Research got underway at the Woolcock. This initiative, for which Paul has been a one of the key leaders, will result in a state-of-the-art research centre for people working in the area of lung cancer research and provide support for a the wider Lung Cancer Research Network.

Also this month, members of the RespiTech group successfully launch a new degree through the School of Medicine. The new Master of Medicine (PharmDev) degree is targeted at individuals working in the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors and offers professional education with respect to the development, registration and production of medicines in Australia and overseas. The Course coordinators for the new degree are Hui Xin Ong (YY), Paul Young and Daniela Traini. You can learn more about the degree here. Also this month, the same team members, traveled up to Brisbane to meet with Prof Scott Bell (QIMR) and a number of other collaborators to establish a new clinical trial in Cystic Fibrosis. The trial will aim to reduce burden of disease through similar and more efficient respiratory therapy.

This is the January 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. As 2017 begins the RespiTech group members begin to ramp up their research program for the new year. Firstly we welcome new members and say goodbye to old members. We say goodbye to Priyanka Shahani who has spent a short stay with the group undertaking a summer scholarship program working in the area of dry powder surface modification for controlling aerosol performance. We also welcome Sandra Grisales, who joins us as a new research assistant. Sandra will work with the group developing innovative microbiology models for the development of innovative anti-fungal formulations for respiratory disorders. 

This month we congratulate Jesse Xu and Mic for awards of their degree. Jesse, undertook a Pharmacology Hons with the group in 2016 focused on receptor expression in the airways and Mick completed his masters degree looking at dry powder formulation and performance enhancing excipients. Well done guys! 

As usual we give an update of publications from the group. This month members of RespiTech had three papers accepted. The first was via a Monash/UK/Sydney collaboration and was accepted in Pharmaceutical Research. The article "Revealing pMDI spray initial conditions: Flashing, atomisation and the effect of ethanol". takes a fundamental look at aerosol plume generation using synchrotron X-ray phase contrast imaging and quantitative radiography. The lead author was Nicholas Mason-Smith at Monash. The second paper was accepted in Clinical Science and was a collaboration with UNSW. The paper was entitled "Allergic environment enhances airway epithelial pro-inflammatory responses to rhinovirus infection". Dr Cristan Herbert from UNSW was first author and Prof Rakesh Kumar was corresponding. The last publication accepted was authored by Mic Lau and focussed on "Co-milled API-Lactose systems for inhalation therapy: impact of magnesium stearate on physico-chemical stability and aerosolization performance" The article was accepted in Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy.

You can learn more about our publications here and social activities here and here.

This is the December 2016 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. December has been a month of celebrations for the RespiTech team. 

Firstly, the RespiTech group held their annual Christmas party and invited along some close collaborators to enjoy the celebrations. Dr Susan Hoe, an ex-PhD/Postdoc also joined joined us as she was visiting from the US. The group also celebrated the departure of Carola Cravedi and Cristina  Pacciana, who will tour Australia briefly before returning to Italy to finish their degrees'. You are always welcome back guys! The group also attended the Woolcock's Christmas party in December to celebrate the end of the year. You can learn more about RespiTech social activities at our Facebook and Twitter pages.

As always we congratulate people for successful publications and awards. Michael Lau was the first author on a paper entitled "Investigation into the manufacture and properties of inhalable high dose dry powders produced by co-milling API and lactose with magnesium stearate" in AAPS PharmSciTech. You can learn more about our publications here. We also celebrated the graduation of Alaa Tulbah for her PhD in the official ceremony on the University of Sydney Campus.

Lastly, we celebrated the Wedding of Hui Xin Ong (YY) to Marcus in a ceremony in Malaysia. Daniela Traini, Paul Young, Yang Chen and Lily Daviskas attended the celebrations. 

View fullsize

RespiTech Christmas Party

View fullsize

Graduation of Alaa

View fullsize

The Wedding of YY

As we end the year the RespiTech group are looking forward to the Summer break. We wish everyone a happy vacation and prosperous new year!

This is the November 2016 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. November has been a busy month for the RespiTech group. Firstly, Daniela and Paul traveled to India to attend RDD Asia. Daniela presented a podium presentation on Innovation in therapeutics for the treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis; basing her talk on some great tunes by Tina Turner, Tom Jones and The Beetles! Paul Chaired a session on the evolution and mechanics of spray formation from pressurised systems. Back at home the Group attended a conference on COPD, hosted by the Woolcock Emphysema Centre. Daniela and Hui Xin (YY) presented. 

View fullsize

RDD ASIA 2017

Also this month, Prof Traini was given a Established Scientists Award. The award, presented by the Royal Society will see Daniela attend the Commonwealth Science Conference in Singapore during 2017. During November, Pharmaxis made a press release announcing their partnership with the RespiTech group at the Woolcock to undertake a clinical trial in CF using the Orbital device. You can learn more about this press release here.

Lastly we give an update of Journal publications from the group. Maliheh Ghadiri was the first author on a paper accepted in the Journal of Drug Targeting. The paper entitled "The effect of non-specific tight junction modulators on the transepithelial transport of poorly permeable drugs across airway epithelial cells" is part of a collaboration with Pharmaxis and the Woolcock Cell Biology Group. The second paper entitled " Resveratrol solid lipid microparticles as dry powder formulation for nasal delivery, characterization and in vitro deposition study." is part of an ongoing collaboration with Prof Scalia at the University of Ferrara. Isabella Martignoni was the first author. You can find more about the groups publications here.

This is the October 2016 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

October has been a busy month for the RespiTech Team. Firstly, the group had a RespiTech Wedding with the marriage of YY (Hui Xin Ong) to Marcus Chen. A number of the group attended the wedding in the Rocks, which was a fantastic venue and wonderful sunny afternoon event overlooking the Opera House and Bridge. Congratulations guys! Also this month, the group celebrated Wing-Hin Lee and Judy Loo’s time with the team in Sydney. Wing and Judy have been key leaders in the RespiTech group over the past years and sadly, are now leaving us to return to Malaysia to take the next step in their careers. The group hosted a farewell dinner at the Woolcock. 

Amanda Chancellor, an intern student also left the group this month after spending time with the group gaining valuable work experience. At the same time, Claudia Brown, a Pharmacy student from the University of Bath joins us to undertake a project on nasal drug delivery for the next few months.

A number of the group presented this month. Anthony Nedanoski and Jesse Xu both gave their Hons thesis presentations in Engineering and Pharmacology, respectively. Both have now submitted their final thesis. Subsequently, we say farewell to Anthony and wish you all the best (you are always welcome back to undertake a PhD!). Jesse Xu continues with us over the summer as he has been awarded a Sydney Medical School Summer Scholarship award. Congratulations! Also, Emelie Britt Linnea Land gave a talk this month at the Woolcock Seminar series. 

Later in the month the whole group attended Drug Delivery Australia, where a number of the team presented posters. David Cipolla from Aradigm also attended and spent time with the group  planning the recently commenced ARC Linkage program that we jointly hold.

The team have received a number of awards this month. Firstly, Giulia Ballerin was selected for a best poster award at DDA and gave an oral presentation along with 9 other contestants. Giulla won best presentation and was given a $1000 bursary to attend the Controlled Release Society annual meeting in the USA in 2017. Secondly, Daniela Traini was awarded a prestigious Endeavour Executive Fellowship to spend time establishing industry focussed relationships and research programs in San Francisco during 2017. The award, worth up to $20,000 will be used to spend time at the Pharmaceutical Company, Aradigm, in the Bay area. The award welcomes Daniela to the global Endeavour Alumni Network. Lastly, Paul Young and Daniela Traini were awarded a National Health and Medical Research Development Grant for $421,545 to conduct a clinical trial using a novel high-dose inhalation dry power device containing an antibiotics for the rapid treatment of infection in cystic fibrosis therapy. The grant is with Professor Scott Bell  at QHealth Research in Queensland and Pharmaxis Ltd based at Frenches Forest, Sydney.

At the Institute, the whole RespiTech group have now relocated offices from Level 3 to Level 6 of the Institute. This was necessary to make way for the construction of the new Centre for Lung Cancer Research that Paul has been driving. At the same time, upgrades to facilities in the RespiTech labs have been ongoing and the group have now installed a forth dedicated HPLC system and have taken delivery of a new electrical cell impedance sensing system that will allow real-time monitoring of cell response to stimuli.

Off-site, Daniela, YY, and Paul launched a brand new postgraduate degree with the Sydney Medical School. The Master of Medicine (PharmDev) is targeted at individuals working in the Pharma sector or graduate students looking to enter the industry by providing online continuing education in an innovative format. 

As always, we give an update on publications from the group. In addition to a number of conference abstracts, the group had one article accepted in Expert Opinion On Drug Delivery. The article by Wing is entitled ‘The achievement of ligand-functionalized organic/polymeric nanoparticles for treating multidrug resistant cancer.’

You can learn more about our publications here, competitive grants here and social activities on Facebook here and Twitter here.

October 2016 Photo highlights

This is the September 2016 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

At the start of September, Paul and Daniela visited the Institute for Biomedical Technologies at Auckland University of Technology to establish new collaborations. Paul gave a departmental seminar on “Innovation In Respiratory Technology At The Woolcock” and both had a chance to catch up with an old friend from their PhD days back in Bath. Around the same time Hui Xin Ong traveled to Kuala Lumpur where she gave an invited presentation at Pharma+Bio Asia 2016.

Daniela an Hui Xin received a grant from the Bosch Institute for a $13,000 rotary cell culture system. The system will be used by the group and researchers in the Bosch Institute to develop 3D cellular structures that can be used to realistically mimic complex cell structures. Continuing the 3D theme, the group invested in a new 3D printer this month. This is the second in-house system and expands the groups capability in terms of resolution and material choices. Specifically, this will give the group capability to print transparent devices, anatomical casts and devices using medically approved plastics.

Daniela, The Woolcock and the Italian Embassy also hosted the Italian Scientist Down Under Conference this month. The conference was for leading Italian Scientists within the region and was preceded by the the Chief Scientist of NSW and Science Attaché. Lastly but not least, the group celebrated Larissa’s birthday. October looks to be even busier, as we we have a number of initiatives underway and a number of exciting announcements to make.

This is the August 2016 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. This month have seen the return of a number of RespiTech team members. Michele Pozzoli returned from Italy after spending the past few months working at the University of Parma. Yang Chen returned from her visit to the Chiesi Innovation Centre in the UK and Larissa Gomes Dos Reis returned from her visit to Evonik in Darmstadt, Germany. Welcome home! We also welcome two new members of the group this month and say goodbye to another. Carola Cravedi and Cristina Pacciana join us from the University of Torino and University of Ferrara, respectively. Cristina is working on a project in the area of epithelia tight junction modification while Carola is working on a project in the area of inhaled chemotherapy treatments for lung cancer. Also, this month we say farewell to Yiwang Xu. Yawing, a medical trainee, has been visiting the group over the past month and now returns to the University of Cambridge to complete his studies. You are always welcome back Yiwang!

Also, this month, work started on the new RespiTech offices on level 6 of the Institute. These works, mark the first phase of the construction of the new Centre for Lung Cancer Research. The team expect to move up to their new offices in September so that construction work can commence on level 3 of the Institute.

The groups research was highlighted in a Channel 9 news report this month when the links between COPD and sleep disorders were discussed and the CIRCOMED study highlighted. CIRCOMED is a collaborative clinical study between Sleep, Lung Physiology and RespiTech departments, and aims to understand how COPD and sleep disorders are inter-related. The study has already commenced and patients recruited for studies at the Institute’s clinic.

On a social side of things, members of the group participated in the Institute’s open day in celebration of National Science week. The Institute hosted 100 guests from local schools and the community, to give them an insight into the work we do in sleep and breathing research. Participants got to see how RespiTech research is conducted and had live demonstrations of 3D printing, particle engineering and other fun technologies.

View fullsize

RespiTech participate in National Science Week

Paul and Daniela attended the SPAM celebrations and drinks. SPAM, conceived by Prof Daniela Traini, Penny Oxford and Prof Fiona White, supports promotion of senior women academics  at the University. Paul and Daniela also attended the Woolcock Board’s farewell drinks for Board member Oliver Frankel.

Towards the end of the month, Paul and Daniela attended the New Zealand MedSci conference in Nelson, NZ. Paul, an invited speaker, gave a presentation on “Innovative Devices And Therapies For Respiratory Diseases”.

Lastly, the group had one paper accepted this month. Daniela Traini had a paper accepted with Philippe Rogueda in Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine. The paper was titled “The future of inhalers: how can we improve drug delivery in asthma and COPD?”.

This is the July 2016 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. July has been a busy month for the group. During July Paul Young, Dany Traini, Yang Chen and Hui Xin Ong (YY) traveled overseas to the Chiesi 7th anniversary and innovation conference in the UK. YY gave a podium on “Teaching Old Drugs New Tricks” while Paul and Dany gave a double act presentation on ‘Industry vs. Academia’ Yang stayed behind after the conference to spend some time on secondment at Chiesi’s Innovation Centre in Chippenham. Meanwhile, Larissa Gomes Dos Reis, spent the month at Evonik, in Darmstadt Germany developing inhalable particles for vaccine delivery as part of her PhD. As always, the RespiTech lego scientists travelled with the group and had quite a fun time. You can learn more about the social aspects of the Lego scientists and that of the RespiTech group via our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

View fullsize

Back at home, Paul and Daniela attended the Airways 2016 Conference in Sydney sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim. Paul gave a “Inhalation 101” lecture on pressurised metered dose inhalers while Dany gave a presentation on eCigs. As always, we welcome new members to the group. This month, the group welcomed two new team members. Xu Yiwang, a medical student from the University of Cambridge and Amanda Chancellor a Biomedical Engineering Student from the University of Sydney. Yiwang will undertake a project on alveolar macrophage function and response to stimulants while Amanda is undertaking work experience and working in the area of nasal drug delivery. Welcome! 

Lastly, the group published 4 articles this month. The first, published by Maliheh Ghadiri looked at the impact of fatty acids on tight junction permeability. The article was accepted in Pulmonary Pharmacology and Therapeutics and is titled “Effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) on airway epithelial cells' tight junction”. The second paper was accepted in Drug Delivery Letters and is part of a collaborative program with Dr Bosnic-Anticevich. The paper is titled “Substitute and add-on devices used in inhalation therapy: is it safe to recommend replacing the Ventolin™ actuator with the Sports-Haler™”. The third paper was Larisa’s review article on

“Inhaled gene delivery: a formulation and delivery approach” accepted in  Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery. Lastly, the fourth paper accepted this month was Michele Pozzoli’s paper titled “Application of RPMI 2650 Nasal Cell Model to a 3D Printed Apparatus for the Testing of Drug Deposition and Permeation of Nasal Products” accepted in European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. You can learn more about publications of the RespiTech group on our website here.

This is the June 2016 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

June has been a busy month for the RespiTech team. Firstly, the group had their first RespiTech wedding. PhD student Stewart Yeung married Chloe and the RespiTech team attended the marriage and celebrations. Congratulation guys! Later in the month, the Woolcock and RespiTech team celebrated the 2015-16 graduations of a number of its members including Sharon Davis, Mali Ghadiri and Yang Chen. Sadly, the group said farewell to Sergio Gualtieri and Elvira Pisano who have returned to Italy to complete their degrees. You are always welcome back guys!

View fullsize

Wedding Team RespiTech

Away from the office YY (Hui Xin Ong) was invited to give a Plenary Talk at the Sydney Surfaces And Soft Stuff (SASSY 2016) conference held at UNSW. Meanwhile Paul represented the Institute at the annual Sydney Research meeting while Daniela gave an invited seminar at SCELCE at the National University of Singapore.

As always, we give an update on the groups publications. This month Yang Chen had a paper accepted in AAPS Pharm Sci Tech. The paper titled “High-Speed Laser Image Analysis of Plume Angles for Pressurized Metered Dose Inhalers: The Effect of Nozzle Geometry” is part of an ongoing collaboration with David Fletcher in Engineering and David Lewis’s team at Chiesi in the UK.

Next month sees numerous members of the group travelling overseas for meetings and conferences. Time for the Lego Scientists to pack their bags.

This is the May 2016 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

In May, members of the RespiTech group were awarded an Australian Research Council linkage grant. Daniela Traini and Paul Young were awarded the grant, worth $420,000, to develop innovative nanotechnologies that target biofilms. Biofilms occur everywhere in nature and act as a protective matrix for aggressive bacteria and fungus that can effect our health, food production, processing machinery and water quality. The Linkage grant is in partnership with Aradigm Corporation based out of San Fanscisco. 

Also this month the group had a number of celebrations. These included the celebration of  Maree Svolos birthday, dinner to celebrate Alaa’s PhD award and a group outing for an evening of Karaoke in the City.

View fullsize

The great kareookee caper

As usual, the group give an update of publications. This month, members of the group published 5 research articles. The First titled ‘From Single Excipients to Dual Excipient Platforms in Dry Powder Inhaler Products’ was a review accepted in International Journal of Pharmaceutics. The paper was a collaborative effort of the old Bath crew with Jag Shur (first author) Rob Price (corresponding) Dave Lewis, Paul Young and Stephen Edge. The second paper titled 'Primary Air Liquid Interface Culture of Nasal Epithelium for Nasal Drug Delivery' was accepted in Molecular Pharmaceutics. The paper by YY (Hui Xin Ong), is the result of her collaborative research program with Prof Joy Conway and the University of Southampton. Also, this month in a third paper titled “Could simvastatin be considered as a potential therapy for chronic lung diseases?” was published. In this paper, Alaa Tulbah gives an expert opinion on the future of inhaled statin therapy. The fourth paper, accepted in Current Drug Delivery is the result of a collaboration between Prof Rafael Villalobos from the University of Mexico and the RespiTech team. The paper is titled 'Drug release from inert spherical matrix systems using Monte Carlo simulations'. Lastly, the team published a paper with David Lewis and the group at Chiesi’s UK innovation Centre. The paper titled 'Exploring the impact of sample flowrate on in vitro measurements of metered dose inhaler performance' was accepted in International Journal of Pharmaceutics.