Dr Ankit Parikh

Ankit is a pharmaceutical academic scientist with research experience centred around translational pharmaceutical science. His research interest is concerned with the utilization of drug delivery science for the development of challenging therapeutics for a preclinical and clinical study. He has proven track record in developing drug delivery systems for neurological disorders, cancer and infectious diseases, and veterinary formulations. Moreover, he has supervised 21 research students at various levels. My papers are in high impact factor journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Drug Delivery, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Drug Design, Development, and Therapy, Drug Delivery, and Translational Research and journal of pharmaceutical sciences.

A number of actives and formulations from his research group have reached from lab to clinical trials and market. During PhD study, he has developed two patented technologies (patent number: CN107308133A and WO2017157350A1) which has been licenced to Biotech company Suzhou Auzone and WuxiAPPtec, China. Currently, they have invested US$4 million to develop into the drug for the treatment of and Alzheimer’s disease, ischemic stroke, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (IND will be filed in the middle of 2019). Furthermore, he was also involved in industry-sponsored project (Bova Australia and UK) for development, technology transfer and scale-up of patented lipid-based long-acting formulations (Patent number: WO2017096426A1) for treating gastric ulcers.  Currently, the equine product has established a new benchmark in the treatment of equine gastric ulcers and is the first product to have a high level of clinical success in thousands of horses in the UK and Australia.

 My main duties in the pharmaceutical lab include.

·         Development and validation of analytical methods using HPLC with UV-visible, PDA, Fluorescence and evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD), LC/MS-MS, UV-Visible spectrometer, Fluorescence spectrophotometer and ELISA technique. 

·         Preformulation study including solubility study, stability study (Hydrolysis, Oxidative, Photolytic, Thermal, with Plasma, excipient compatibility, and packaging material compatibility).

·         Formulation development, and optimization of novel drug delivery system including Nanotechnology-based formulation including Micelles, Lipid-based formulations such as self-microemulsifying drug delivery systems (SMEDDS), Solid Lipid Nanoparticles and Nanostructured Lipid Carriers, Polymeric nanoparticles, Nanosuspension; Microparticles, Solid Dispersion, In-situ gel with aqueous and non- aqueous base.

·         Formulation development, and optimization of conventional drug delivery system including solid dosage form like Tablet including sustained or controlled release and fast dissolving, Capsule; liquid dosage form like Suspension, and solution with aqueous and non- aqueous base, and emulsion; and Semi-solid dosage form like ointment, cream, and gel with aqueous and non- aqueous base.

·         Formulation development and optimisation Oral including Baccal, Parenteral including IV, IM and SC, Topical, Transdermal and Pulmonary administration. 

·         Characterization of developed formulation including dissolution study with USP Type 2 units, Franz cell and dialysis bags, disintegration study, hardness, Zetasizer, DSC study, XRD study, SEM study, TEM study, NMR study, and stability study as per ICH guideline.

·         In-vivo evaluation of the performance of formulation including Pharmacokinetic study, Safety and efficacy study with normal and disease mice and rat models.

·         Maintain daily comprehensive records of work performed and results of studies.

·         Write applications for animal ethics and human ethics boards.

·         Participate in preparing grant applications for categories 1, 2 and 3.

·         Preparing peer reviewed journal articles.

·         Attend meetings, seminars and conferences.

·         Support the group in meeting objectives of publishing and dissemination of research outcomes through preparation of peer reviewed journal articles and conference papers for submission.

·         Mentor or Supervise PhD, master and honours degree students, interns and visiting scholars.

My key achievements include,

·         Best Poster Award for title "Development of Novel Curcumin Formulation (NCF) for Cancer and Alzheimer Disease" for 2017 HDR Research Poster Competition at University of South Australia.

·         Best Poster Award for title "Formulation, Optimization and Characterization of lipid nanoparticles of Clioquinol for Alzheimer's disease" for 2015 Division of Health Sciences Research Showcase at University of South Australia.

·         Featured as an Enterprising Faces in a special edition of Enterprise magazine and Research edge magazine of the University of South Australia in 2015.

·         Featured in the worldwide media release of my research (>30 science news alert) in 2015.

·         Recipient of Young Innovator Scientist Award for title "Long lasting in situ injectable depot preparation" for Young Innovators Choice Competition 2011 organised by Institute of Chemical Technology, India.

·         Best Paper Award for title "Toxicokinetics: A stupendous approach in drug discovery" at national conference on “Drug Discovery: PK-PD Perspective"2011 organised at Nirma University, India.

·         Best Poster Award for title" Toxicokinetics: A stupendous approach pharmacoinformatics" for state level symposium Pharmaescapade 2011 organised at Sigma Institute of Pharmacy, India.

·         Best paper Award for title "Novel Targeted drug delivery systems - new age weapons for bladder diseases" for International level online competition Pharmashine-2011 organised by PharmaTutor and Organization of Pharmaceutical Unity with BioAllied Sciences (OPUBS), India.

·         Best Poster Award for title" Novel drug delivery systems for protein and peptide drugs delivery" for state level symposium Pharmaescapade 2010 organised at Sigma Institute of Pharmacy, India.

·         Best Poster Award for title" Biohydrogen: A boon for mankind" for National level Symposium (Chemozale 2009) organised at Nirma University, India.       

·         Awarded merit-based free registration to the 12th Quality in Postgraduate Research (QPR) Conference in 2017.

·         Recipient of Travel Grant sponsored by Fujian Kangshimei Co, China in 2016.

·         Recipient of HDR Travel Grant from University of South Australia in 2016.

·         Recipient of AICTE PG Scholarship for conducting Master by research course work.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy The University of South Australia

• Master of Pharmacy Gujarat Technological University

• Bachelor of Pharmacy Nirma University