Wetting and Spreading of Lubricant and Surfactant Mixtures for Ocular Delivery at University of Birmingham

Ocular surface diseases are notoriously challenging to treat, and a major cause of preventable blindness. Aqueous formulations which gel as they spread over the surface of the eye, forming an “ocular bandage”, have potential to promote healing and reduce scarring by simultaneously providing a protective surface and the capability of delivery of therapeutics.

Critical to the success of the formulation is the ability to wet and spread evenly over the eye surface. This project will explore optimal surface wetting capabilities of potential formulations, considering also the safety and environmental impact of the constituent components.

The aim of this project is thus to trial surfactant and lubricant laden formulations for ocular delivery using model substrates of different hydrophobicity and structure to optimise formulation compositions. To achieve this goal:

• The student will work on substrate preparation/modification and characterisation. This can include using such techniques as surface plasma treatment, photo and soft lithography, profilometry, atomic force microscopy.
• Surfactant characterisation can include measurement of dynamic and equilibrium interfacial tension and working with interfacial tension data to find parameters of adsorption isotherm and value of critical micellar concentration.
• Spreading and wetting behaviour of aqueous formulations will be studied by recording spreading process with high-speed video camera and using image processing software. Optionally, some of available in our group velocimetry techniques can be used for flow visualisation inside the drop.
• Design of experiment and/or machine learning techniques can be used to optimise formulations.

This project is aligned with the EPSRC PREMIERE Programme Grant https://premiere.ai joint between Imperial College, UCL and the University of Birmingham. The student will have regular opportunities to interact with the multidisciplinary team at the partner universities and carry out short-term secondments to learn the latest experimental and modelling methods applied to wetting and spreading. The student will have access to state of the art facilities within the School of Chemical Engineering and the Healthcare Technologies Institute, joint between Chemical Engineering and the Medical School.

Supervisor(s): Professor Mark Simmons (m.j.simmons@bham.ac.uk), Dr Nina Kovalchuk, Professor Liam Grover.

Funding Details 

This project is funded by an EPSRC Doctoral Training Grant and is open to UK students only. Stipend and fees are covered at normal EPSRC rates.