Asma Buanz

Dr Asma Buanz BSc (Pharm), MSc, PhD

Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Dr Buanz holds a PhD in Pharmaceutics and an MSc in Drug Delivery from the School of Pharmacy, University College London (UCL), and a Bachelor degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benghazi (Libya). She worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher and then a Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Engineering at UCL School of Pharmacy before joining University of Greenwich in April 2022. She is pharmacist by training and worked as a community pharmacist before undertaking her postgraduate degree.

Pharmaceutical science Science

Awards
  • Clarivate™ 2021, Highly Cited Researcher 2021. Recognizing the pioneers in their fields over the last decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™
  • The Royal Society of Chemistry - Thermal Methods Group, 2018, Mackenzie-Redfern Bursary. The Bursaries are awarded to the three best entries for the 2018 Cyril Keattch Award from early career scientists working in the field of thermal analysis or calorimetry to present a paper at a TMG TAC National Conference.
  • The AstraZeneca Prize for best academic performance, The School of Pharmacy, University of London, 2009. The award was for best academic performance for the master’s in science in Drug Delivery in the session of 2008-2009 (joint).

Recognition

Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC)

Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Member of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research / Scholarly interests

Research interests include:

  • Novel techniques for engineering drug delivery systems (eg inkjet and 3D printing)
  • Advanced characterisation of pharmaceuticals (eg thermal analysis, spectroscopy and combined techniques)
  • Crystallisation in confinement

Key funded projects

  • 2021: Host Principal Investigator, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, HEC Post-Doctoral Fellowship. Project: Fabrication and optimization of bicalutamide loaded nanoparticles for Enhancing solubility and dissolution for treatment of prostate cancer.
  • 2020: Co-investigator on Interreg 2 Seas programme grant (€5 million) towards advancing healthcare using 3D printing with researchers from UCL and in collaboration with the universities of Cambridge, Delft, Ghent, Leiden and Lille (£213,525 to UCL).
  • Characterisation of Pharmaceuticals with in situ Differential Scanning Calorimetry-synchrotron X-ray diffraction (DSC-PXRD). Re-current funding from Diamond Light Source - the UK's national synchrotron light source facility. Grants are awarded for 3 days' beamtime per successful proposal (equivalent to ca. £50K). Previous successful proposals are:
    • 2021: Principal investigator grant no. MG28460; Co- investigator grant no. MG28321.
    • 2020: Principal investigator grant no. MG25748.
    • 2019: Principal investigator grant no. MG23947; Co-investigator on Diamond Light Source grant no. MG21819;
    • 2017: Co-investigator grants no. EE17450 and EE18720;
    • 2015: Co-investigator grant no. EE12735
  • PhD projects - ongoing collaborations as a co/secondary supervisor with researchers at UCL:
    • Mucoadhesive self-targeted polymersomes for bladder cancer – PhD project funded by Newton-Mosharafa Fund.
    • Formulating poorly soluble drugs; a novel mixed carrier approach - PhD project funded by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Advanced Therapeutics and Nanomedicines.
    • Developing a siRNA formulation platform - PhD project funded by EPSRC CDTin Advanced Therapeutics and Nanomedicines.