Pharmacists are providing increasingly patient-centered clinical services such as Pharmacists Prescribing for Minor Ailments (PPMA). However, several factors delay pharmacists’ ability to implement PPMA including integration with workflow and time constrains. Technology solutions aim to support PPMA can be important innovative tools to help pharmacists to perform PPMA. The aim of this project is to examine the feasibility and potential impact of a new clinical innovative software tool to support pharmacists for minor ailment prescribing.

The bacteria living in our gastrointestinal system, the gut microbiome, play a key role in human health and disease. Multiple studies demonstrated altered gut microbiome in patients with constipation or abdominal pain but knowledge of a clear cause-effect relationship or underlying mechanism are lacking. We found previously that microbiota from patients with irritable bowel syndrome induces altered gut function, low-grade inflammation and abdominal pain.

Gene therapy has the potential to effectively treat a wide range of ocular disorders. However, the introduction of foreign therapeutic genes to cells is incredibly challenging. Compared to viral vectors, non-viral vectors (NVV) are far less immunogenic and less toxic. However, NVV are less efficient than viral vectors at delivering therapeutic genes because they must overcome numerous cellular barriers. An appropriate design of the components of the NVV will enhance the properties of the vector to improve delivery into the cell.

Nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA offer exceptional opportunities to fight against infectious and genetic diseases. To use nucleic acids effectively in a clinical setting, one needs to use effective delivery vehicles that can deliver the nucleic acids into the diseased cells. This project will develop effective delivery systems for this purpose. The delivery systems will be used to deliver RNA and DNA based therapeutic agents in 2 diseases, namely Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and hematological cancers.

New evidence about psychedelic remedies has increased the number of patients who potentially can benefit from therapies using these drugs. In clinical trials worldwide, the findings are reported on psychedelic medications for treating illnesses such as addiction, depression, anxiety, and mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If psychedelic drugs are orally administered, the bioavailability can significantly decrease due to the first-pass metabolism of the liver.

The new regulations for pharmacies had catastrophic consequences for the ability of normal pharmacies to compound prescribed preparations for patients using drug powders. Most pharmacies have stopped to offer compounding services at all. This leaves a gap in the ability to provide timely access to needed medicines. The proposed research work will develop an individually packed drug solution which can be filled into compounding bases.

Our aim is to use machine-learning to improve treatment of post-surgical pain in children and adults. Most people addicted to opioids were initially exposed through the treatment of pain from trauma and/or surgery. The opioid crisis is reaching the pediatric population, in whom effective post-surgical pain management, with less reliance on prescription of opioids, is more important than ever. Recent advances in machine-learning, combined with approaches to patient-oriented research, provide significant prospects for a learning health system.

Ribosome biosynthesis is one of the most multifaceted and energy-demanding processes in biology. It involves over 250 factors that transiently associate with the nascent pre-ribosome in a well-orchestrated manner. Importantly, increased ribosome biogenesis has a critical role in cancer initiation and progression. Owing to the advances in cryo-electron microscopy, this pathway's detailed mechanism started to be revealed, setting the grounds for new therapeutic interventions. The current project seeks to develop chemical probes for WD repeat proteins, a new drug target class.

The lymphatic system serves an integral role in fluid homeostasis, lipid metabolism and immune control of the human body. Lipid based nano-carriers employing lymphatic voyage offer multitude of advantages like enhanced bioavailability, selective targeting to localized as well as metastatic conditions, controlled delivery and others. Lipid-based nano-carriers have been tested on various experimental various in-vivo, in-vitro, ex-vivo and in-silico models. The in-vivo models provide the best drug transport estimation, but they are both invasive and irreversible.

Skeletal muscle is a dynamic tissue that undergoes many regeneration processes during our lifetime. Loss of skeletal muscle is known as muscle atrophy or sarcopenia and is directly related with quality of life and life expectancy. There are very few diagnostic tools to identify muscle atrophy and the ones available are time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, the most used diagnostic measure for accessing muscle atrophy and recovery is physical examination for patients with a certain mobility status.