Supervisors
- Position
- Associate Professor
- Division / Faculty
- Faculty of Health
Overview
https://research.qut.edu.au/ciic/https://research.qut.edu.au/ciic/Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are one of the fatal diseases of the lungs that have severe impacts on public health, especially for Indigenous people. The currently available antibiotics administered orally for the treatment of LRTIs need high doses with frequent administration and cause dose-related adverse effects.
To overcome this problem, we will investigate the development of ciprofloxacin (CIP) loaded poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEtOx) nanoparticles (NPs) with traces of zinc for potential pulmonary delivery from dry powder inhaler (DPI) formulations. As zinc is a known and promising antibacterial element, this study will investigate the impact of zinc along with a low dose of CIP in understanding the antibacterial effects on the management of lung infections.
Research activities
You're expected to:
- produce traces of zinc and CIP loaded PEtOx NPs and their characterisation
- study the release of CIP and zinc from the PEtOx NPs in in-vitro lung fluid
- analyse the released CIP and zinc by using HPLC and electrochemistry methods, respectively
- write a preliminary draft report.
Outcomes
This study will investigate the release profile of zinc from the NPs and the outcomes will help get a better understanding of the antibacterial effects at a very low drug owing to the presence of a trace amount of zinc in the prepared DPI formulation.
Skills and experience
We'd prefer applicants with a background in:
- pharmacy
- biology
- biomedical science
- microbiology
- chemistry.
Keywords
Contact
Contact the supervisor for more information.