A research assistant from Turkey’s Firat University, Israfil is being supervised by Professor Mohan Edirisinghe who heads the department’s very prolific Biomaterials Processing Laboratory.
Israfil’s research into forming polymer nanospheres using a V-shaped microfluidic junction device (pictured here) could facilitate enhanced drug delivery. The process has already proven useful to anchor drugs such as Itraconazole, Terconazole and Vericonazole. Some of this work is done in collaboration with the UCL School of Pharmacy.
Israfil said “In current work we are using other biodegradable polymer systems to make this processing and forming method even more generic and versatile. We are also working towards optimizing the process parameters in order to further control the polydispersity of the nanospheres and to prepare different types of monoporous nanospheres.”
His work has been funded through a scholarship from the Islamic Development Bank, a major global research funder.
Before studying for his PhD, Israfil was a material science engineer working in Libya, Iraq, Ukraine as well as his native Turkey. After a career in the private sector, he returned to academic research and is now committed to ‘changing the world’ through contributions to scientific innovation.
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