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Dr Vivek Verma
Dr Vivek Verma
Position: Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Engineering
Process and Chemical Engineering
Biography
Profile Summary
Dr Vivek Verma is the UCC Futures Pharmaceuticals Lecturer in the Process and Chemical Engineering Department within the School of Engineering and Architecture. A leading young researcher in the field of (bio)pharmaceutical nucleation and crystallisation, Dr Verma was awarded the prestigious Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowship in 2021 funded by the European Union to collaborate with Professor Jerry Heng in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. He is currently funded by the Science Foundation Ireland through the SFI-IRC Pathways Fellowship, focussing on the templated crystallisation of oligonucleotide drugs.
Throughout his research career, Dr Verma has published several high impact papers in leading peer-reviewed research journals including, crystal growth and design, CrystEngComm, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Chemical Engineering Journal, etc. Two of these publications have been featured on the front covers of ‘CrystEngComm’ and ‘Chemical Engineering and Technology’. He is also an inventor, with a US patent (US20230111202A1) granted for a nanoparticle generation and isolation technology.
As a reviewer for journal like Powder Technology, CrystEngComm, Crystal Growth & Design, Journal of Molecular Liquids, etc., Dr Verma contributes to the scientific community beyond his own research. He has also mentored early career researchers, including supporting a successful Marie Sklodowska Curie Action's (MSCA) postdoctoral fellowship application. In 2018, he organised the ‘British association of Crystal Growth student day’ conference at the University of Limerick, Ireland.
Dr Verma’s current research focusses developing a platform for the sustainable purification and separation of (bio)pharmaceuticals, alongside exploring secondary processing of (bio)pharmaceuticals and investigating peptide self-assembly for innovative drug delivery technologies.
Education:
2014: Integrated BS-MS (Chemistry), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India
2018: PhD (Pharmaceutical Science), University of Limerick, Ireland
Employment History:
May 2024 – till date: Lecturer, UCC
October 2021 – April 2024: Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellow, Imperial College London, UK (with Prof. Jerry Heng)
June 2019 – September 2021: Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Limerick, Ireland (with Dr Luis Padrela)
January 2019 – May 2019: Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Limerick, Ireland (with Prof. Kevin Ryan)
September 2018 – September 2018: Visiting Research Scholar, Purdue University, USA (with Prof. Zoltan Nagy)
July 2017 – September 2017: Intern, FMC International, Cork, Ireland
Awards and Esteems:
2024: Best Presentation at the Annual Post-doc Symposium, Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, UK
2022: Best Poster Prize at the Annual Post-doc Symposium, Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, UK
2018: Annual BOC Postgraduate Prize by the Department of Chemical Sciences, the University of Limerick (for excellence in teaching and research)
2016: Munster heat winner for all Ireland “Thesis in 3: The Elevator pitch for a PhD”
2013: Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc) Summer Research Fellowship
2009: DST INSPIRE-SHE Fellowship from the Government of India to pursue Integrated BS-MS from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune (IISER Pune), India
Funded Projects:
- Soft Template Mediated Peptide Crystallisation (ASPIRATION), Horizon 2020 Marie Skodowska Curie Individual Fellowship, European Commission, Grant agreement ID: 101026339, (Grant Amount: €224,933.76); September 2021- August 2023. URL: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101026339
- Template Assisted Crystallisation of Oligonucleotide Drugs (EMERALD), SFI-IRC Pathways Fellowship (Grant amount: €564,727.00), April 2024 – August 2027.
Research Interests:
-Sustainable Purification of (bio)Pharmaceuticals
-Peptide Self Assembly
-Crystal Engineering
-Secondary processing of (bio)Pharmaceuticals
-Engineered surfaces
-Lipid nanoparticles
Selected ('Top 5') Research Outputs/Publications:
Patents:
1. Luis Padrela, Vivek Verma, Kevin Ryan, Particle Coating Method, 2023, US20230111202A1.
Papers:
1. Enshu Liang, Vivek Verma, Mingxia Guo, Lihong Jia, Emily J Guinn, Jerry YY Heng*, Sequence-dependent dipeptide solubility in ethanol-water and DMSO-water solutions, Journal of Molecular Liquids, 2024, 402, 124742, DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2024.124742
2. Enrico Spoletti, Vivek Verma, Chiara Cappuccino, Matteo Lusi*, Solid Solution Polymorphs afford two High-Soluble Co-Drug Forms of Tolbutamide and Chlorpropamide, Chemical Communications, 2023, 59, 14321-14324, DOI: 10.1039/D3CC04725C
3. Frederik J Link, Ethan Errington, Vivek Verma, Jerry YY Heng*, The role of mixing and surface hydrophobicity on the operation of a continuous tubular slug flow crystalliser for lysozyme, Chemical Engineering Journal, 2023, 473, 144363, DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2023.144363
4. Vivek Verma*, Isha Bade, Vikram Karde, Jerry YY Heng*, Experimental Elucidation of Templated Crystallization and Secondary Processing of Peptides, Pharmaceutics, 2023, 15, 1288, DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15041288