E-mail: margarita.strimaite.13@ucl.ac.uk

Biography

Mary completed an integrated master’s programme in Chemistry at UCL in 2018, achieving a second class honours (upper division). Her Master’s project, supervised by Prof Claire Carmalt and Prof Derek Tocher, was based on using metal organic frameworks for encapsulation of non-crystalline compounds, in order to conduct structural analysis using single crystal X-ray diffraction.

In September 2018, Mary was accepted to the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) advanced therapeutics and nanomedicines programme at the UCL School of Pharmacy, sponsored by the EPSRC. As part of this programme, she undertook a project supervised by Dr Gareth Williams exploring the self-assembly process of drug-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles from spray dried microparticles. Mary then went on to do an industrial placement at Intract Pharma, supervised by Prof Abdul Basit and Colm O’Reilly, developing a dissolution test to demonstrate the bacterial enzyme responsiveness of the dual-trigger Phloral® enteric coating.

Research

Currently, Mary is in the third year of an interdisciplinary PhD supervised by Prof Gareth Williams (UCL School of Pharmacy) and Dr Gemma-Louise Davies. Her research is focused on generating multifunctional inorganic nanoparticles for theranostic (diagnostic and therapeutic) treatment. These nanoparticle platforms are based on layered hydroxides of rare-earth elements, which allows them to exhibit imaging (MR and NIRF) and photo responsive functionalities, as well as the ability to be loaded with anti-cancer drugs.

Publications

M. Strimaite, C.L.G. Harman, H. Duan, Y. Wang, G.-L. Davies, G.R. Williams, “Layered terbium hydroxides for simultaneous drug delivery and imaging”, Dalton Transactions, 2021, 50, 10275-10290. DOI

Funding

Mary’s PhD is supported by the EPSRC-sponsored Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Therapeutics and Nanomedicines.