Biomaterials, sensing, therapeutics delivery systems, and tissue engineering
I am a Scientia Senior Lecturer and an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellow (ECF) at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. I completed my Ph.D. in 2015 from the University of Adelaide with a Doctoral Thesis Medal and Dean’s Commendation Letter. After that, I spent two years at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) as...view more
I am a Scientia Senior Lecturer and an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellow (ECF) at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. I completed my Ph.D. in 2015 from the University of Adelaide with a Doctoral Thesis Medal and Dean’s Commendation Letter. After that, I spent two years at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) as a postdoc in Prof. M. J. Sailor’s lab. In 2017, I returned to Australia to the School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland (UQ) as UQ Development Fellow and transitioned to my NHMRC ECF soon after as an independent researcher leader. I have received research grants of ~ AU$3.5 million (AU$1.4 M as Lead Investigator) from various competitive sources. My research expertise lies in porous materials and their composite for biomedical applications with a focus on:
- Porous materials-based drug delivery systems for efficient and targeted delivery.
- Porous materials/Polymer composite scaffolds and implants for tissue engineering
- Porous photonic crystals-based point-of-care sensors for diagnostics and environmental applications.
My Grants
|
Grant/Fellowship
|
Funds
|
Years
|
Source
|
|
| Defense Science Institute-HAC call |
$402,000 |
2021-2022 |
DSTG |
|
| UNSW Industry Network Seed Funding |
$108,000 (including in-kind) |
2021 |
UNSW |
|
| Australia-India Strategic Research Fund |
$574,000 |
2021-2022 |
Australian Dept. of Business |
|
| US Army Research Program (UNSW CIA) |
US$200k |
2021-2022 |
US Department of Defence |
|
|
Discovery Project (CIA)
|
$414,000
|
2020-2022
|
Australian Research Council
|
|
|
Discovery Project (CIC)
|
$510,000
|
2020-2022
|
Australian Research Council
|
|
|
Scientia Academic Fellowship
|
$200,000
|
2020-2024
|
University of New South Wales
|
|
|
UQ-ECR Grant (CIA)
|
$37,000
|
2019
|
University of Queensland
|
|
|
ADRF Grant (2x CIB)
|
$21,000
|
2019 & 2021
|
Australian Dental Research Foundation
|
|
|
Interfaculty Seeding Grant (CIB)
|
$37,000
|
2019
|
HaBS & Medicine Faculty, UQ
|
|
|
Aus-German Exchange (CIB)
|
$20,000
|
2019-2020
|
DAAD-German Academic Exchange Service
|
|
|
Early Career Fellowship
|
$328,000
|
2018-2022
|
National Health and Medical Research Council
|
|
|
Seeding Grant (CIA; 2x CIB; CID)
|
$125,000
|
2018-2019
|
HaBS Faculty, University of Queensland
|
|
|
Research Strategy Funds (CIA)
|
$22,000
|
2017
|
School of Pharmacy, UQ
|
|
|
PACE Start-up Funds (CIA)
|
$10,000
|
2017
|
School of Pharmacy, UQ
|
|
|
UQ Development Fellowship
|
$320,000
|
2017-2020
|
School of Pharmacy, UQ
|
|
|
Overseas Travel Fellowship
|
$5000
|
2014
|
Australian Nanotechnology Network
|
|
My Qualifications
2012-2015: PhD in Chemical Engineering (nanomaterails) - University of Adelaide, Australia
2005-2011: B.Tech + M. Tech (integrated) Nanotechnology and Nanoscience - Amity Univerity, India
My Awards
2019: Awarded $500 performance bonus on CSIRO ON Prime program
2019: Selected as Member of the Young Scientist Committee of the Controlled Release Society (CRS-YSC)
2019: FUJIFILM VisualSonics Travel Award (US$1000) to present my bioimaging work at IUMRS in Perth
2019: Selected for CSIRO ON Prime to develop and commercialize our biosensing tool for prostate cancer
2019: Early Career Researcher of the year award at Princes Alexendra Hospital Health Symposium (1/71)
2019: Best Publication Award from Research Strategies Committee at UQ-School of Pharmacy
2017: Best Business Case Presentation at Australian Nanotechnology Network’s ECR symposium (1 of 4 teams)
2016: University of California San Diego-UCSD finalist for NIH Early Independence award (1 of 2 in UCSD)
2015: Best PhD thesis Medal and Commendation Letter from University of Adelaide, Australia (1 of 15 total)
2012: PhD Scholarship from University of Adelaide (1 of only 15 in ECMS faculty)
2011: Australian Pharmaceutical Science Association Conference APSA best poster nominee (top 10 out of 109)
2011: Silver Medal for Academic Excellence from Amity University, India (2nd in a class of 28)
2010: International Visiting Researcher Scholarship from University of South Australia ($23,000)
My Research Supervision
Supervision keywords
Areas of supervision
Materials for drug delivery, sensing, and tissue engineering.
Currently supervising
- Ayad Saeed: Joint Supervisio - Porous silicon photonic crystals for biosensing
- Yuxue Cao: Joint Supervision – Porous materials for oral delivery of macromolecules
- Masood Ali: Joint Supervision – Composite microneedle platform for transdermal delivery
- Mai Gabr: Co-supervision – Dissolvable silicon structures for topical and transdermal drug delivery
- John Ndayishimiye: Co-supervision – Oral Nitroimidazole formulations
- Liam Krueger: Co-supervision – Advanced drug delivery platforms
- Aun Raza: Co-supervision – Oral Meropenem delivery platforms (Graduated Sept 2021)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3351-7148