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Vivian Walter Barron

Location
Level 1, Energy Building
Sponsor
3M
Primary Supervisor
Dr Robert Hammond, Chemical & Process Engineering
Qualifications
MEng Chemical Engineering, Leeds

Biography

Vivian’s MEng research project looked at wet formation routes for a ceramic as a possible way of reducing porosity in the microstructure. This involved forming ceramic bodies from dispersion solutions then visually analysing the results using optical and scanning electron microscopes. Vivian enjoyed how the research required creative and adaptive thinking to solve problems that arise when initial research ideas did not work perfectly.

PhD: Understanding and controlling binding of drug particles to inhalation devices

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is predicted to become the third-leading cause of death worldwide by 2023 (sources GINA 2011 Report and Gartlehner et al. (2006), Ann. Fam. Med., 4: 253-262). Hence, a step change in our understanding of how to design digitally, from first principles, delivery devices for inhaled therapies would have huge, positive impact on the benefits of such treatments to patients and on reducing their cost and development time (time to market).
As part of a strategy for digital product-design for the delivery of inhaled medications to patients, the project will develop protocols for better exploiting our fundamental physico-chemical understanding of interaction forces between single particles and particle assemblies to increase the useful, respirable fraction and reduce the chronic wastage of valuable pharmaceutical actives manifested by current inhalation devices.

Outreach, training and other activities:

  • Participated in BeCurious 2020 online outreach programme, leading to video presentation being shown by the National STEM club.
  • Participated in 2018 Summer School in Nottingham, hosted by CDT in Advanced Therapeutics

Publications and presentations:

  • Oral presentation at the BCA/BACG 2021 online joint spring meeting
  • Award for best academic poster at the Drug Delivery to the Lungs (DDL) 2019 conference in Edinburgh.
  • Poster presentation of Masters work at ChemEng Day 2018, University of Leeds

Masters research project in year 1 of CDT:

  • ‘Understanding High Aspect Ratio Crystals’ with Dr Ioannis Fragkopoulos and Professor Frans Muller, Chemical and Process Engineering