Supercritical fluid technology and how it is used for nanomedicines and drug discovery
Dr James R Falconer is an academic at the School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland. He completed a PhD in 2013 from the University of Auckland, NZ and during his studies developed an interest in alternative solvents. As a post-doc he patented a veterinary product with Argenta Global whilst also working as a teaching fellow at the University of Auckland. In 2015 he moved to Brisbane and has been building a research team of honours and HDR students at UQ. His field of research is drug delivery, with a special interest in the use of Supercritical Fluid (SCF) technology as an alternative solvent method to prepare nanomedicines. Supercritical fluids offer practical and green solutions in the field of drug delivery and discovery. A number of supercritical processes, including rapid expansion of solutions, particles from gas saturated suspensions, solvent-antisolvent precipitation, amongst others, have been utilised extensively for poorly aqueous soluble pharmaceuticals (Class II drugs). This presentation will explore supercritical fluids and James’ pharmaceutical research areas, namely difficult to formulate drugs e.g. near brick dust molecules and thermolabile compounds, and selective extraction of potential bioactives i.e. drug discovery.