Réka Géczy

Short presentation

Project Overview:

The major goal of this project is the production of monodisperse, pharmaceutical grade nanoparticles using a microfluidic approach. In particular, I am interested in hybrid lipid-polymer nanoparticles encapsulating siRNA for the cleavage of the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α).

Background:

Nanoparticles represent a highly desirable class of drug carriers due to their potential to deliver poorly soluble drugs, control release kinetics, and perform targeted delivery. However, major challenges in the clinical translation of nano-carriers are issues with the consistency and reproducibility of the product, that is, consistently attaining a high drug load and homogeneous size distribution. Current bulk fabrication is performed in cumbersome sequential steps of carrier assembly, drug loading, purification, etc. leading to significant waste of the material, as well as a broad size distribution that negatively impact the release kinetics of the drug; consequently, drug production.  

To circumvent the challenges faced in bulk fabrication techniques, recent research has turned towards microfluidic fabrication of drug nanoparticles. Microfluidics has the potential to produce drug carriers with tunable size characteristics, higher drug encapsulation yield, continuous particle production, and the elimination of post-production procedures such as purification, or size adjustments.

With the expertise of our research group in the area of microfluidics, cell biology and animal studies, we will work in a highly interdisciplinary environment to tackle nanoparticle drug delivery on multiple fronts, such as microfluidic chip engineering, formulation design and preclinical evaluations.  

CV

Education

March. 2017 - Present
University of Copenhagen and University of British Columbia 
Copenhagen, Denmark and Vancouver, Canada
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Sept. 2014 - Dec. 2016
University of Copenhagen 
Copenhagen, Denmark 
Degree: Master of Science in Biochemistry 

Sept. 2010 - May 2014
Denison University 
Granville, Ohio, United States 
Degree: Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry

Research Experience

Mar. 2017 - Mar. 2020 
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Denmark
Graduate Researcher
Ph.D. Thesis Title: Microfluidic Approaches to Design Nanoparticles for Pharmaceutical Applications

Nov. 2015 - Nov. 2016 
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Denmark
Graduate Researcher
M.Sc. Thesis Title: Structural Characterization of DNA-Templated Silver Nanoclusters

Sept. 2012 - Aug. 2014 
H&N Instruments, Newark, Ohio, USA
Undergraduate Researcher 
B.Sc. Thesis Title: Development of a Highly Sensitive Chip-Based Assay for the Early Detection of Kidney Damage and Pancreatic Cancer

Jan. 2012 - Aug. 2012 
Denison University, Granville, OH, USA
Undergraduate Researcher
Title: Synthesis of Electron Rich Conjugated Naphthalene Molecules for the Use in Organic Photovoltaic Cells

Professional Experience

Nov. 2016 – March. 2017 
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Assistant Lecturer
Courses: General Chemistry for Life Sciences, Chemistry for Animal Science

Oct. 2015 – Feb. 2017 
Novo Nordisk Foundation for Basic Metabolic Research, Copenhagen, Denmark
Research Student Assistant

Jan. 2011 - Jan. 2012 
Cellular Technology Limited, Shaker Heights, OH, USA 
Laboratory Assistant