Modelling and Optimization of Absorption During Coating of Pharmaceutical Tablets

Vacancy Information

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship in the area of Particle Technology, Mathematical Modelling and Process Optimization. The position is in the UCL Department of Chemical Engineering. The studentship, fully funded by EPSRC and tenable for 3 years, is available immediately.

Background

The shelf life of pharmaceutical tablets strongly depends on the measures employed to control the humidity and temperature to which the product is exposed. To this end, one must carefully select the packaging materials and the inactive ingredients in the tablet, as these could promote undesired reactions with the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). Water absorption must also be closely controlled during the film coating process, in which table cores are exposed directly to water. Modelling can significantly assist in this effort. The most recent models for the film coating process permit calculating the amount of available water in droplets at the points of contact with the tablet and describing the physical spreading of the droplets on the surface of the tablet. But even so, there is no fundamental understanding of the physical (and chemical) driving forces that determine if the available water will be absorbed by the tablet or evaporated to the air. This research proposal aims at establishing the impact of the driving forces of such phenomena to enable full prediction capabilities of the film coating process.

This project is a multidisciplinary collaborative effort within the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCL and involves a major pharmaceutical company as industrial partner. Bringing together particle technology, mathematical modelling and process optimization, this research project aims to develop a fundamental model and an optimization framework for the film coating process that will permit: a) to improve and better control the manufacturing process, b) to determine whether tablet specifications (such as formulation, hardness or porosity) can be changed, along with the coating process, to extend the shelf life of products, and c) to identify chemical and physical properties (potentially ingredients) and process conditions for candidate tablets using solely small-scale and lab characterization work on the tablet and coating solution, avoiding completely experimental work at scale and thus reducing development time dramatically. This project will provide a unique training opportunity in the area of pharmaceuticals technology, particle technology, and process modelling and optimization.

PhD Studentship

The Ph.D. student will aim to: a) investigate the driving forces that (could) play a role in the liquid-water sorption process at the point of contact between droplet and tablet, b) develop a fundamental model accounting for these forces and the other phenomena involved in the coating process, c) assist in establishing suitable experimental protocols to identify and estimate the necessary parameters in the model, d) if applicable, conduct small-scale experiments, e) perform parameter estimation for the model, f) incorporate the model within a higher-level model already available for the full system, g) revisit the initial hypothesis regarding the driving forces and determine (with proper statistics) whether the proposed model is sufficient or if structural changes are required, and h) perform a full-system optimization study to determine the optimal design of the tablet, the process, and the handling of the intermediate coated product and the packaging strategy to maximize the shelf life of the product under realistic usage scenarios.

Person Specification

For this position, the candidate should have, or expect to obtain, a first-class MEng, MSc or equivalent degree in Chemical Engineering.

Applications can be directly submitted via the UCL PRiSM portal at the link below:

https://www.prism.ucl.ac.uk/#!/?project=135

If you have any queries regarding the vacancy, please contact Prof Eva Sorensen ([Email Address Removed]) or Dr Luca Mazzei ([Email Address Removed]).