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Dr Sara Cordeiro

Job: Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Faculty: Health and Life Sciences

School/department: Leicester School of Pharmacy

Research group(s): Leicester Institute for Pharmaceutical Innovation

Address: ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH

T: +44 (0)116 366 4304

E: sara.cordeiro@dmu.ac.uk

 

Personal profile

Sara Cordeiro is a pharmacist, having obtained her PharmD degree in 2010 from the University of Porto (Portugal). Following that, she obtained her PhD in Drug Research and Development from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), with her thesis focusing on the design, development and optimisation of polymeric nanocarriers for vaccine delivery. During her PhD, Sara also had a 6-month research stay at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (Bellinzona, Switzerland), where she gained expertise in ex vivo and intravital multiphoton microscopy imaging, as well as in basic immunology assays for the evaluation of nanovaccine candidates.

In 2017, Sara joined Prof. Ryan Donnelly's lab at Queen's University Belfast for a postdoc, where she focused on the development of gold nanorod-loaded microneedle arrays for photothermal therapy of basal cell carcinoma. Besides this project, she also collaborated in other work focused on the development of microneedle arrays for the delivery of poorly soluble drugs. During her time at QUB, Sara was also involved with the Postdoctoral Society at the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, being the Chair of this Society in 2019/2020.

Since early 2021, Sara has joined ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ as a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences and is establishing her independent research group with a focus on improving and facilitating patients' lives through the development of drug and vaccine delivery systems that are easy to manufacture and scale-up, highly efficient and administered through non-invasive routes.

Research group affiliations

Leicester Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation for Integrated Care (LIPIIC)

Publications and outputs

A full list of Dr. Cordeiro's publications can be found here: 

Research interests/expertise

Sara's research at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ focuses mainly in 3 lines:
1. Development and application of functional/responsive biomaterials for diagnosis and drug/vaccine delivery
2. Development of delivery systems for "hard to deliver" drugs (injectables, poorly soluble actives, biological compounds, etc.)
3. Applications of 3D printing and microfluidics in pharmaceutical formulation and manufacturing

Areas of teaching

Biopharmaceutics and controlled release
Advanced drug delivery
Pharmaceutical/cosmetic product development
Formulation/process development and scale-up
Design of clinical trials

Qualifications

2020 - PGCert in Higher Education and Teaching, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast (UK)
2017 - PhD in Drug Research and Development, School of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
2010 - PharmD, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto (Portugal)

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ taught

  • PHCO2307 Product Development
  • PHCO3302 Quality Assurance and Quality by Design Principles
  • PHCO3311 Development and Manufacture of Pharmaceutical Products
  • PHAR1702 People and Medicines 1
  • PHAR1703 People and Medicines 2
  • PHCO5307 Advances in Drug Delivery (MSc Pharmaceutical Quality by Design)

Honours and awards

  • First prize of the Presentation Competition at the 2019 QUB Postdoc Showcase – recognising presentation skills, quality of pitch and communication skills
  • Staff Recognition Award (STAR), given by the School of Pharmacy at QUB (June 2019) for “outstanding leadership of networking activities and commitment to outreach” and “mentorship of PhD students”.
  • Best oral presentation at the 1st SPLC-CRS Young Scientist Meeting (Santiago de Compostela, Spain; April 2017)

Membership of professional associations and societies

  • Member of the Controlled Release Society (CRS)
  • Member of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APS)
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
  • Chair of the CRS Young Scientists Committee (2020/2021)
  • Editor-in-Chief of the CRS Newsletter (2021-present)

Externally funded research grants information

  • Xperience 2021 (PARSUK – Portuguese Association of Researchers and Students in the UK) (as supervisor)
  • Wellcome Trust Biomedical Vacation Scholarship 2019 (as supervisor)

Internally funded research project information

  • Gunn & Carter research studentship 2022 (as supervisor)

ORCID number

0000-0003-4809-7916

Other roles

Outreach Lead for Pharmacy

Placements Lead for Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Sciences

sara-cordeiro