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Staff Profile

Dr Pankaj Singla

Marie Curie Fellow in Drug Delivery

  • Email: pankaj.singla@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: please call me on Teams
  • Address: School of Engineering
    Newcastle University
    NE1 7RU
Background

I have completed my graduation from Punjabi University, Patiala (India). For my PhD, I have joined Prof. Rakesh Kumar Mahajan's research group at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. During my PhD, my research work was focused on improving the drug delivery of hydrophobic drugs using carrier molecules such as polymeric micelles and surface active ionic liquid mixed micelles. I have previously worked with a range of anti-cancer drugs such as Paclitaxel, Artesunate and Quercetin as well as neuroleptic drugs such as Oxcarbazepine, Clozapine and Lamotrigine. In 2020, I have been awarded with Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship in School of Engineering, Newcastle University.


Work email id: Pankaj.singla@ncl.ac.uk

Personal Email: pankee22@gmail.com

Telephone: 44 7747702682

Orcid ID: 0000-0001-6999-1744

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/@evopankaj

Scopus: Scopus link to Pankaj Singla


Education:

PhD award date: 20th February 2020

19 August 2014 to 13 August 2019 (Thesis submission date) PhD in Chemistry

 

11th November, 2014 - 1st October, 2019 INSPIRE fellow

Department of Science and Technology (DST), India

Institute / University: Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India

PhD supervisor: Prof. Rakesh Kumar Mahajan

Thesis title: A comprehensive study on the interaction and solubilization of hydrophobic drugs in amphiphilic triblock copolymers

 

Newton Bhabha placement: As part of my PhD, I undertook a four-month Newton Bhabha placement at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom (August-December 2018). The project comprised the analysis of the effectiveness of polymeric nanocarriers for the delivery of hydrophobic drugs. I learned new skills in the area of polymer synthesis under the supervision of Dr Peeters in the Division of Chemistry. Furthermore, I worked with the group of Prof Slevin in the School of Healthcare Science in Class II lab facilities to familiarize myself with the basic concepts of cell culturing. Moreover, I have presented this research work in three conferences within UK, and I was awarded the best poster prize at the MERCIA symposium, Manchester, UK.

 

23rd June 2011 - 24th June 2013: Master of Science, Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Institute / University: Punjabi University, Patiala, India

Title thesis: Formulations of Mouth Dissolving Tablets of Domperidone using Different Polymers. MSc supervisor: Prof. Vinay Kumar Jain

First class first (Gold medalist)

 

1st August 2008 - 25th May 2011: Bachelor of Science, Biotechnology

Institute / University: Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, India

 

Industrial Experience:

25th June 2013 -18th August 2014: Analyst in R&D (Quality control (Q.C.) department)

Industry name: Consern Pharmaceutical Limited, Ludhiana, India.

Position: Analyst in R&D

Development and validation of analytical methods such as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to determine drug quality analysis. Techniques I used to include High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), flame photometry, aqueous and non-aqueous titrations, and dissolution test methods. Furthermore, I learned about regulations in the pharmaceutical industry, good manufacturing practice (GMP), and tests that are required to bring a drug to market.

 

Academic Experience:

 

7th October 2019 - 30th December 2020 Assistant Professor

Institute / university: Khalsa College, Amritsar, India

Head of Department: Prof. Balwinder Kaur Basra

I taught Bioinorganic and Biophysical Chemistry to the Bachelor and Master class students. I also provide them a fundamental insight of self-assembly of different amphiphilic molecules, proteins and their biomedical applications. I had to come up with new research projects and mentored research projects of two Master students. I was actively engaged with Master students for their research work as well as with my close collaborators (Dr. Rajbir Bhatti) in Pharmaceutical department, Guru Nanak Dev University for different micellar formulations testing in in-vivo models for the treatment of neuropathic pain.

 

Postdoctoral Research experience

 

Research Associate (1st, January-2021- 31st, March-2021): Synthesis and characterization of highly surface active ionic liquids and their mixed micellization behavior with different amphiphilic block copolymers for the solubilization of hydrophobic drugs.

 

Marie Curie Postdoctoral fellow (23-April-2021-present)

 

Teaching


7th October 2019 - 30th December 2020 Assistant Professor

Institute / university: Khalsa College, Amritsar, India

Head of Department: Prof. Balwinder Kaur Basra

I taught Bioinorganic and Biophysical Chemistry to the Bachelor and Master class students. I also provide them a fundamental insight of self-assembly of different amphiphilic molecules, proteins and their biomedical applications. I had to come up with new research projects and mentored research projects of two Master students. I was actively engaged with Master students for their research work as well as with my close collaborators (Dr. Rajbir Bhatti) in Pharmaceutical department, Guru Nanak Dev University for different micellar formulations testing in in-vivo models for the treatment of neuropathic pain.

Research

My PhD research work was focused on the delivery of hydrophobic drugs with polymeric and surface-active molecules. Extending my research work, I am now working on the novel molecular imprinted polymeric nanoparticles for the drug delivery as well as drug candidates itself. Protein-Protein interactions (PPI) plays a major role in cellular signaling pathways, by targeting extracellular proteins present on the cell membranes, one can target these proteins for multiple applications. Nowadays, I am synthesizing novel molecular imprinted polymeric nanoparticles (nanoMIPs) for the estrogen positive breast cancer cells by employing solid phase synthesis. To synthesize cost effective nanoMIPs for cancer therapeutics, one can use epitope (small peptide sequence) rather than whole protein. So, I imprint both epitope (for example: epitope for estrogen alpha receptor) and anti-cancer drug simultaneously to achieve targeted drug delivery. I am also looking whether with these nanoparticles, can we stop the protein-protein interactions responsible for the cancer survival and progression.

 

Research Interests:

 

  • Synthesis of novel molecular imprinted polymeric nanoparticles (nanoMIPs)
  • Comparision of standard antiobodies with nanoMIPs for their detection capabilities and therapeutic potential
  • Affordable drug delivery vehicles using Molecular Imprinted technology
  • Biological properties of nanoMIPs using different human cell lines
  • Polymeric Micelles/Liposomal based drug delivery systems
  • Ionic liquid-Proteins and Protein-Protein interactions
  • Molecular imprinted polymeric nanoparticles-based Biosensors

Prizes and Awards:

 

College Color and Meritorious award: I was awarded with college color in the 1st year of my Master degree for first rank overall at my University by Multani Mal college. Punjabi University also provided me the Meritorious Award, which supplied me with a monthly scholarship.

Gold medalist: for my Master of Science at Punjabi University (2013).

Best poster presentation prize: At the Mercia conference at Manchester Metropolitan University, the company Advion recognized my work the best poster presentation prize (2018).

 

Fundings:

Dr DS Kothari postdoctoral fellowship: In 2021, I was also scored the Indian Postdoctoral funding from University Grant Commission UGC, India.

Marie Curie Postdoctoral Individual Fellowship: I was awarded with Marie Curie Postdoctoral Individual Fellowship from European Union in 2020 under Horizon 2020. The project was worth € 200000 (2021-2023) Project-TEMPER.

Department of Science and Technology (DST) INSPIRE fellowship: I was awarded with this prestigious fellowship from the Indian government (Department of science and Technology (DST), India) that was based both on merit (academic scores) and interviews. The project was worth Indian Rs. 20,00000 = £22,222 for salary) for my junior and senior research DST fellowships (2014-2019).

DST Travel grant: £1,150 to travel from Amritsar (India) to Manchester (UK) to attend my PhD placement programme (2018).

Newton Bhabha placement: I was awarded £10,200 which covered travel costs, salary of four months, and lab consumables. Manchester Metropolitan University covered an additional month of my stay in order to finish my projects (2018)

 

Publications:

 

 

  1. P. Singla, S. Chabba, R. K. Mahajan, A systematic physiochemical investigation on solubilisation and in vitro release of poorly water soluble oxcarbazepine drug in pluronic micelles, Colloids Surf. A, 2016, 504, 479-488. (Impact factor-4.539) (Citations 49)

In this research work, I have screened different pluronic micellar formulations for the solubilisation of the hydrophobic drug Oxcarbazepine (OXC) and probed the effect of length of the corona on the solubilisation of OXC in the core of different pluronic micelles. The study suggests that P84 pluronic micelles can be used as nano drug carrier due to its high loading capacity and stable formulation even after 3 months. Thus, the present findings can prove useful in delivering such type of polar hydrophobic drugs in the different pluronic micelles as optimum size of the corona facilitates the solubilisation of the polar hydrophobic drugs.

 

  1. P. Singla, O. Singh, S. Chabba, V. K. Aswal, R. K. Mahajan, Sodium deoxycholate mediated enhanced solubilisation and stability of hydrophobic drug clozapine in pluronic micelles, Spectrochimica Acta A, 2018, 191, 143-154. (Impact factor-4.098) (Citations 26)

 

  1. P. Singla, O. Singh, S. Chabba, R. K. Mahajan, Pluronic-SAILs (surface active ionic liquids) mixed micelles as efficient hydrophobic QCT drug carriers, Journal of Molecular Liquids, 2018, 249, 294-303. (Impact factor-5.065) (Citations 43)

Pluronic-surface active ionic liquids (SAILs) mixed micelles were explored for the drug delivery of the hydrophobic drug quercetin (QCT) to breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231). The solubility as well as loading efficiency of pluronic F108-SAILs mixed micelles was observed to be significantly higher as compared to individual F108 and SAILs micelles. Moreover, higher cytotoxicity (anti-cancer activity) was observed in the case of micellar QCT than free QCT.

 

  1. P. Singla, O. Singh, S. Sharma, K. Betlem, V. K. Aswal, M. Peeters, R. K. Mahajan, Temperature dependent solubilisation of the hydrophobic antiepileptic drug lamotrigine in different pluronic micelles- A spectroscopic, heat transfer method, small-angle neutron scattering, dynamic light scattering, and in vitro release study, ACS Omega, 2019, 4,11251-11262. (Impact factor-3.512) (Citations 25)

In this work, the solubilisation of lamotrigine (LAM) was reported in five different pluronic micelles viz. P84, P85, F127, F108 and F68 at three different temperatures (37°C, 47°C and 57°C) using different spectroscopic techniques. This is first report in which heat transfer method (HTM measurements) was established for the analysis of morphological changes in the thermo-responsive pluronic micelles in real time manner. HTM measurements were performed during Newton Bhabha Ph.D. placement programme at Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom.

 

  1. O. Singh, P. Singla, R. Kaur, R. K. Mahajan, Tailoring the interfacial and bulk behavior of ionic-liquids with non surface active drug diclofenac sodium, Colloids Surf. A, 2017, 523, 43-53. (Impact factor-4.539) (Citations 15)

 

  1. O. Singh, P. Singla, V. K. Aswal, R. K. Mahajan, Aggregation and morphological aptitude of drug based ionic liquids in aqueous solutions, ACS Omega, 2017, 2, 3296-3307. (Impact factor-3.882) (Citations 13)

 

  1. K. Betlem, A. Kaur, A. Hudson, R. Crapnell, G. Hurst, P. Singla, M. Zubko, S. Tedesco, C. Banks, K. A. Whitehead, M. Peeters, Heat-Transfer Method (HTM): A Thermal Analysis Technique for the Real-Time Monitoring of Staphylococcus aureus Growth in Buffered Solutions and Digestate Samples, ACS Appl. Bio Mater., 2019, 2, 9, 3790–3798. (Impact factor:3.25) (Citations 7)

 

  1. O. Singh, P. Singla, R. K. Mahajan, Impact of Aromatic Counter-Ions Charge Delocalization on the Micellization Behavior of Surface-Active Ionic Liquids, Langmuir, 2019, 35, 45, 14586-14595. (Impact factor-3.557) (Citations 6)

 

  1. P. Singla, S. Garg, R. Bhatti, M. Peeters, O. Singh, R. K. Mahajan, Solubilisation of hydrophobic drugs oxcarbazepine and clozapine in the binary mixtures of lower and higher molecular weight pluronic micelles-A physicochemical, in vitro release and in vitro anti-oxidant study, Journal of Molecular Liquids, 317, 2020, 113816 (Impact factor-6.165) (Citations 12)

The solubilisation of clozapine (CLZ) and oxcarbazepine (OXC) in binary mixtures of low molecular weight pluronics with relatively high molecular weight pluronics have been assessed deploying different state of arts techniques. Antioxidant activity of different formulations was also determined by various antioxidant assays. We suggested that the formulations L64/P84(1:4)/CLZ and L64/F127(1:4)/OXC act as the efficient drug carriers for the drug delivery of CLZ and OXC respectively.

 

  1. J. W. Lowdon, H. Dilien, P. Singla, M. Peeters, T. J. Cleij, B. van Grinsven, K. Eersels, MIPs for Commercial Application in Low-cost Sensors and Assays – an Overview of the Current Status Quo, Sensors and Actuators B-Chemical, 2020, 325, 128973 (Impact factor-7.335) (Citations 47)

 

  1. P. Singla, S. Garg, J. McClements, O. Jamieson, M. Peeters, R. K. Mahajan. Advances in the therapeutic delivery and applications of functionalized Pluronics: A critical review, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 2022, 1;299:102563. (Impact Factor: 12.984)

 

  1. P. Singla, M. Peeters, R. K. Mahajan, Co-delivery of quercetin and paclitaxel drug via tri-block (PEO-PPO-PEO), PVP57-PVA30-PEG13 and di-block (PVP-PVA) copolymeric mixed micelles for drug resistant Breast Cancer, Journal of Addictive Behaviors, Therapy & Rehabilitation, 2018, 7, 2324-9005. (Cite score: 4.79) Conference Presentation

 

  1. P. Singla, V. K. Aswal, K. Betlem, M. Peeters, R. K. Mahajan, Temperature induced solubilization of hydrophobic active pharmaceutical ingredient lamoterigine in different pluronics - A detailed solubilization, SANS, DLS, HTM, in-vitro release and microscopy study, J Clin Exp Oncol, 2018, 7 DOI: 10.4172/2324-9110-C5-020 (Impact Factor:1.96) Conference Oral Presentation.

 

  1. Prabhu A, Crapnell RD, Eersels K, van Grinsven B, Kunhiraman AK, Singla P, McClements J, Banks CE, Novakovic K, Peeters M. Reviewing the use of chitosan and polydopamine for electrochemical sensing, Current Opinion in Electrochemistry, 2022 Apr 1;32:100885. (Impact Factor: 7.271)

 

  1. P. Singla, S. Garg, N. Kaur, N. Kaur, V. K. Aswal, E. Velliou, M. Peeters, R. K. Mahajan. Unusual Solubilization Capacity of Hydrophobic Drug Olanzapine in Polysorbate Micelles for Improved Sustained Drug Release, Journal of Molecular Liquids, Manuscript Number: MOLLIQ-D-21-07322 [Under Revision]. (Impact Factor: 6.165)

 

  1. J. McClements, L. Bar, P. Singla, Francesco Canfarotta, A. Thomson, J. Czulak, R.E. Johnson, R. D. Crapnell, C. E. Banks, B. Payne, S. Seyedin, P. L.-Pérez, M. Peeters, Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Nanoparticles Enable Rapid, Reliable, and Robust Point-ofcare Thermal Detection of SARS-CoV-2, Accepted in ACS Sensors, (Impact Factor: 7.711)

 

  1. J. Kaur, P. Singla, I. Kaur, Labrasol Mediated Enhanced Solubilization of Natural Hydrophobic Drugs in Pluronic Micelles: Physicochemical and In Vitro Release Studies, Submitted to Journal of Molecular Liquids (Impact Factor: 6.165)

 

 

Presentations at International Conferences, Workshops, and Symposia:

 

Poster presentations:

  1. Poster presentation in 5th National Symposium on Advances in Chemical Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar on 2nd-3rd February, 2016.
  2. Attended Workshop on Amphiphilic Molecules and Self-Assembly: Principles and Applications, Panjab University, Chandigarh from 22nd-28th March, 2016.
  3. Poster presentation in International Conference on Harnessing Engineering, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Growth, Panjab University, Chandigarh on 30th September-1st October 2016.
  4. Poster presentation in Silver jubilee conference on Study of Matter Using Intense Radiation Sources and Under Extreme Conditions, DAVV University, Indore on 3rd-6th November,2016.
  5. Poster presentation in International conference on Recent Advances for Quality Enhancement in Science and Technology, Hans Raj Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Jalandhar on 16th-17th January, 2017.
  6. Poster presentation in Symposium on Recent Trends in Chemical Sciences, Amritsar, 27th January 2017.
  7. Poster presentation at 20th CRSI National & 11th RSC-CRSI Symposium in Chemistry, Gauhati, 3rd-5th February 2017.
  8. Attended Workshop on Principles, Chemical and Biological Applications of NMR on 13th March 2018-17th March 2018, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
  9. Poster presentation at the 7th National Symposium on Advances in Chemical Sciences, Amritsar, 26th-27th March 2018.
  10. Poster presentation at Bioinspired Materials 2018 conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, on 10th October 2018.
  11. Poster presentation at the MERCIA symposium, Manchester, UK, on 12th December 2018 (Best Poster Prize).
  12. Poster presentation at the 8th National Symposium on Advances in Chemical Sciences, Amritsar, 15th-16th February 2019.
  13. Attended Workshop on Waste Water Treatment: Approaches, Management and Capacity building on 3rd July-5th July, 2019, jointly organized by Panjab University, Chandigarh, India and University of Hull, Hull, UK.
  14. Participated in 101st DAE BRNS-IANCAS 7 days National workshop on Radiochemistry and Applications of Radioisotopes, on 17th February-23rd February 2020, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
  15. Organize and attended the UGC sponsored National Seminar on “Recent Advances in Chemical Sciences” RACS-V on 26th February, 2020 at Khalsa College Amritsar and my Master students (working project under my supervision) got Best Poster Award. 

 

Oral presentations:

  1. Oral presentation at the 6th National Symposium on Advances in Chemical Sciences, Amritsar, 6th-7th March 2017.
  2. Oral presentation at the 7th National Symposium on Advances in Chemical Sciences, Amritsar, 26th-27th March 2018.
  3. Video Presentation in World Drug Delivery and Novel Therapy summit, Toronto, Canada on 25th-26th, October, 2018.
  4. Oral and poster presentation in International conference on Nanotechnology, Edinburgh, Scotland on 3rd-4th December, 2018.
Publications