Nilesh Patel

Dr Patel research interests can be broadly classified in to respiratory and oral drug delivery (biopharmaceutics). The formulation of medicines for respiratory delivery, and the examination of the fate of medicines delivered by this route using in-vitro models, has been a particular focus in the development of his research career.<br /> Delivering medicines by the inhaled route is advantageous in many ways and provides an opportunity to present many different drug molecules, including nucleic acids for gene delivery, that can be of more benefit when given by this route.<br /> Additionally, Dr Patel has a keen research interest in the fate of drug formulations once they have been orally administered. The understanding of the mechanisms involved in governing drug absorption is still being sought, in particular the effect of food and digestion on how they affect drug absorption. Modelling of the intestinal environment in to which an oral formulation is presented is an area of study that he is actively involved, and interested in.<br /> <br /> Thus, his expertise lies in the formulation of propellant-based aerosol systems for respiratory delivery, the use of respiratory and oral in-vitro cell culture systems to mechanistically study the fate of drug formulations, and the formulation and characterisation of colloidal systems, including microemulsions.<br /> <br /> Particular topics of interest are:<br /> <ul> <li>developing in-vitro models of infection</li> <li>studying the fate or oral lipid-based formulations in-vitro</li> <li>development of a propellant-based gene delivery system</li> <li>the role of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in cancer</li> </ul>

Respiratory and oral drug delivery (biopharmaceutics)