Mary Strimaite

Mary completed an integrated master’s programme in Chemistry at UCL in 2018. Her Master’s project was based on using metal organic frameworks for encapsulation of non-crystalline compounds, in order to conduct structural analysis using single crystal X-ray diffraction.

In September 2018, Mary joined the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) advanced therapeutics and nanomedicines programme at the UCL School of Pharmacy. She first undertook a project supervised by Dr Gareth Williams exploring the self-assembly process of drug-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles from spray dried microparticles. Mary then went on to do an industrial placement at Intract Pharma, developing a dissolution test to demonstrate the bacterial enzyme responsiveness of the dual-trigger Phloral® enteric coating.

Currently, Mary is in the first year of an interdisciplinary PhD supervised by Dr Gareth Williams (UCL School of Pharmacy), Dr Gemma-Louise Davies (UCL Department of Chemistry), and Camille Toulisse (Pfizer). Her research will focus on generating multifunctional inorganic nanoparticles for theranostic (diagnostic and therapeutic) treatment. These nanoparticle platforms will be based on oxides of transition and rare earth metals, which will allow them to exhibit MRI and photothermal functionalities, as well as the ability to be loaded with anti-cancer drugs.

PhD Project Title: Biomimetic inorganic nanoparticles for theranostics and targeted drug delivery

Supervisor: Dr Gareth Williams

Theranostic formulations, integrating both diagnostic and therapeutic functions into a single platform, hold great potential for personalised medicine, for instance in precision cancer medicines. The aim of this project is to systematically develop a family of materials able to provide simultaneous imaging (magnetic resonance and/or fluorescence) and therapy functions (photothermal and/or chemotherapy). To do this, the great richness of the periodic table will be exploited to synthesise a range of nanoparticles based on metal hydroxides. These will contain transition metal and rare earth elements to provide MRI, fluorescence and photothermal functionalities. The particles will also be loaded with anti-cancer active pharmaceutical ingredients for chemotherapy, and subsequently investigated in terms of their functional performance.