PhD Studentship : Continuous Extrusion Manufacturing for the Development of Pharmaceutical Products

Continuous manufacturing (CM) using Hot-melt extrusion (HME) coupled with 3D printing is an emerging processing technology in pharmaceutical industry due to its wide range of applications. CM offers many advantages over other pharmaceutical processing techniques and pharmaceutical-class extruders have evolved and adapted to mix drugs with carriers for various solid dosage forms as well as for the manufacturing of marketed products.

The aim of the PhD project is to explore the coupling of continuous HME with direct 3D printing for the development of personalised dosage forms and the development of a de-centralised supply chain. 

Some of the project objectives are the following:

1. Identify drug substances and polymers by considering group’s expertise in the field. Further development will be achieved by assessing the effect of critical process parameters (CPP) such as temperature, feed rate, screw rate and screw design on the’ quality and throughput of extruded solid dispersions. The same will be conducted for the 3D printing process (e.g., print speed, nozzle/build bed temperature,)
2. Optimize a continuous scalable manufacturing process through the direct printing of extrudates for the customization of individualised dosage forms.
3. Physicochemical characterization of the extruded formulations by using a wide range of analytical techniques

Year 1:  £18,622 (FT)

Year 2-3: In line with UKRI rate

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