Biography

I started my academic education by studying Pharmacy at Tehran University of Medical Sciences and graduated with a doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree. Upon completion of this course, I worked for two years as a Pharmacist manager in a specialized Pharmacy and drug information centre dedicated to anticancer therapeutics.  This experience provided me with useful information on real-life clinical applications of different classes of anticancer drugs and their major shortcomings and pitfalls.  Following this, I worked as a research assistant in the Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences conducting research on optimization of polymeric nanoparticles for anticancer and antimicrobial drug delivery. I also collaborated in some small scale human clinical trials which were conducted in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and one of the teaching hospitals.

I further continued my education by obtaining MSc in Pharmaceutical Science and Medicinal Chemistry from Loughborough University and finally PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from University of Sheffield in 2021. In line with my previous experience, my PhD research was also focused on drug development and cancer research. I worked on the development of new anticancer peptides and new peptide-based nonviral gene delivery systems and in the nanomaterials lab and in the Sheffield RNAi Screening Facility. Upon completion of my PhD, I worked as Formulation Scientist in SiSaf Ltd, a Biopharmaceutical company specialized in development of RNA-based gene therapy products for treatment of rare metabolic diseases.  Having the experience of working in the clinics, academia and industry, I finally Joined the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science at the University of Portsmouth as a lecturer in Pharmaceutical Science in February 2023.

Research interests

My current area of research is nanomedicine with a focus on cancer research. I work on development of smart nanoparticles using peptides and lipids for targeted drug and gene delivery to cancer cells and also development of novel anticancer peptides as selective cancer therapeutics. As such, my research spans over pharmaceutical science, physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, cell and molecular biology and biophysics.

Teaching responsibilities

I am the course leader for BSc (Hons) Pharmacology and I also teach for differnt modules in the MPharm and Pharmacology courses across years 1-3 including formulation and quality assurance, molecules to medicines and current trends in pharmacological sciences.