Pharmacy Practice Laboratory

Lab Overview

The Pharmacy Research Laboratory is an applied research environment designed to support faculty-led research, final-year projects, and early-stage innovation in pharmaceutical sciences. Its mission is to enable focused experimental work in drug delivery, nanomedicine, extraction technologies, green chemistry, and advanced preparative methods.

The laboratory occupies an important position within the UNIC ecosystem because it connects research training with translational pharmaceutical themes. It allows students and researchers to design literature-driven protocols, generate experimental data, characterise advanced systems, and explore solutions to contemporary pharmaceutical challenges. The laboratory provides a bridge between teaching laboratories and more specialised analytical or translational platforms.

Its strength lies in enabling small-scale, hypothesis-led work where formulation concepts, extraction methods, particle characterisation, and preparative workflows can be tested with scientific discipline. This makes it relevant to pharmaceutical innovation, natural products research, nanocarrier development, and applied biomedical collaborations.

Research & Innovation Focus

The laboratory supports research and teaching innovation in novel drug delivery systems, nanomedicine, liposomal and polymeric carrier development, green extraction, ultrasound-assisted processing, homogenisation, fraction collection, and spectroscopic assessment. It is particularly valuable for projects that require iterative experimental design, rapid method adaptation, and characterisation of nano- or micro-scale systems.

Dynamic Light Scattering enables the assessment of nanoparticle size distribution and zeta potential, providing critical information for the development of colloidal systems and targeted carriers. Microwave and ultrasound extraction technologies allow researchers to explore more efficient, lower-solvent, and potentially greener approaches to extraction and processing. These capabilities give the laboratory strong relevance for projects involving natural products, formulation innovation, and translational pharmaceutics.

Core Capabilities

The laboratory enables:

• Development and characterisation of nanoscale drug delivery systems.
• DLS-based measurement of particle size distribution and zeta potential.
• Microwave-assisted extraction and green chemistry workflows.
• Ultrasound extraction, homogenisation, fraction collection, and preparative processing.
• UV spectroscopic assessment and general analytical support.
• Rotary evaporation, dry ice manifold workflows, vacuum-supported processing, heating, drying, and controlled sample handling.
• Small-scale formulation, experimental protocol development, and final-year research projects.
• Integration with analytical, pharmacognosy, pharmaceutical technology, and medicinal chemistry laboratories.

Collaboration Opportunities

The Pharmacy Research Laboratory is positioned for collaboration with pharmaceutical companies, nanomedicine developers, natural products researchers, biotech startups, EU-funded consortia, and interdisciplinary academic groups. It can contribute to early-stage feasibility work, formulation screening, extraction optimisation, carrier characterisation, student-industry projects, and translational research packages.

Its value is strongest where partners require an agile academic research environment capable of moving from concept to experimental proof-of-principle.