Key details
Dr Marie Pettit
Director of Medway Centre for Pharmaceutical Science, Associate Professor in Formulation Science
Dr Marie Pettit gained her PhD from the University of Greenwich in 2013 titled: ‘Towards the development of a multicomponent, nanoscale oral vaccine delivery system targeting infectious bursal disease (IBD)’. She then went on to study a PGCE at the University of Brighton before teaching science at secondary schools in the local area.
Marie returned to the University of Greenwich as a postdoctoral scientist working on formulation development for Veterinary Medicine under Professor John Mitchell. She was promoted to the manager of Medway Centre for Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2013 and has managed industrial contracts with five local pharmaceutical companies during this time, with large income generation. She specialises in analytical chemistry, formulation development of inhaled, parental, and oral medicines. Her group work to good laboratory practise (GLP) standards and perform pre-formulation characterisation of actives, stability testing of formulations, optimise API stability, dissolution and release optimisation, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Marie continues to work closely with Medway Centre for Pharmaceutical Science colleagues Professor Steve Wicks and Professor Joshua Boateng.
Responsibilities within the university
Enterprise
- Manager of the Medway Centre for Pharmaceutical Sciences (MCPS) group.
- Manage five colleagues within the MCPS group.
- Manage large budgets.
- Building collaborations with industrial partners.
Teaching
- BSc pharmaceutical science research projects
- MSc formulation science research projects
- Lecture for Pharmaceutical Product Development
MSc supervision
Fund excellent MSc students to work on MCPS related projects.
- Miss Monika Thummapudi
- Miss Waheeda Jaffar
PhD supervision
- Mr Thomas Shepherd
- Mrs Monique Shepherd-Gorringe
Research / Scholarly interests
Marie’s PhD was focused on molecular biology, cloning, recombinant protein production and formulation of proteins for oral delivery. Marie has ongoing projects with her PhD student working towards long-acting formulations of insecticides for the control of vectors for neglected diseases. Marie has a new inhalation laboratory which she hopes to publish formulations of repurposed drugs to be delivered via the pulmonary route.
Key funded projects
GALVmed – ‘Development of formulations for the treatment of African Trypanosomiasis in cattle’
This was a six-year contract formulating novel anti-trypanosomiasis compounds from universities and companies around the world. The target treatment was for cattle infected with Nagana in sub-Saharan Africa. A lead compound was established and formulated for an immediate release injection. Stability studies to predict a three-year shelf life was performed. The compound / project was purchased by a pharmaceutical company for development. The Medway Science formulation is now in the development phase and we have high hopes this will reach the market.
Consumer Health (company name protected) – ‘Optimisation of formulations for enhanced stability’.
Optimisation of formulations to enhance stability. Development of novel formulation of vitamins for the parental route of administration. Development of tri-layer tablets.
Inhaled drug delivery (company name protected) - ‘Characterisation of two inhaled devices for pulmonary delivery’.
Characterisation of asthma pump devices for delivery of two drugs for COPD. Characterisation of dose delivery in vitro using next generation impaction and breathing simulators.
Formulation for Veterinary medicines (company name protected) – I have worked with this company for five years as Principal Investigator. Formulations for a range of animal diseases have been developed including long-acting injectables, tablets, spot on treatments etc.
Recent publications
MW Pettit, P Griffiths, P Ferruti, SCW Richardson. ‘Poly (amidoamine) polymers: soluble linear amphiphilic drug-delivery systems for genes, proteins and oligonucleotides.’ Therapeutic delivery 2 (7), 907-917.
MW Pettit, PDR Dyer, JC Mitchell, PC Griffiths, B Alexander, B Cattoz, ...’ Construction and physiochemical characterisation of a multi-composite, potential oral vaccine delivery system (VDS).’ International journal of pharmaceutics 468 (1-2), 264-271.
PDR Dyer, AK Kotha, MW Pettit, SCW Richardson. ‘Imaging select mammalian organelles using fluorescent microscopy: application to drug delivery.’ Cellular and Subcellular Nanotechnology, 195-209.
PDR Dyer, AK Kotha, AS Gollings, SA Shorter, TR Shepherd, MW Pettit, .... ‘An in vitro evaluation of epigallocatechin gallate (eGCG) as a biocompatible inhibitor of ricin toxin.’ Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-General Subjects 1860 (7), 1541-1550.
SA Shorter, MW Pettit, PDR Dyer, E Coakley Youngs, ... ‘