Advanced 3D-Printed Systems and Nanosystems for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering

Lisa Claire du Toit, B.Pharm, M.Pharm, PhD (Wits) is currently an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of the Witwatersrand and Senior Scientist of the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) Research Unit. Prof. du Toit has >190 publications and an h-index of 27 with >2800 citations. Her research outputs have been published in top-ranking impact factor journals in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, which have established her globally as an important contributor to the fields of ocular drug delivery, specifically ocular nanosystems, as well as stimulus-responsive and 3D-printed drug delivery and tissue engineering systems. Prof. Pradeep Kumar (BPharm, MPharm, PhD) is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics at Wits University and a Researcher at the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP). Prof Kumar's multidisciplinary expertise essentially involves core pharmaceutics (drug delivery and nanomedicine) and regenerative medicine (biomaterials design and tissue engineering) concepts along with molecular modelling related to biomedical archetypes. His doctoral thesis was focused on engineering neural devices for spinal cord injury interventions and was awarded the Most Prestigious PhD Degree Award for his research. He has contributed to over 210 publications, 4 editorials, 30 book chapters, and 8 granted patents (H-index: 30). Professor Choonara is the Principal Researcher at the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP). His research prowess served as a catalyst to establish the WADDP and pioneer innovation at the forefront of producing targeted and personalized medicines to treat infectious, hereditary and lifestyle diseases. He received the Top Intellectual Property Creator Award (Department of Science and Technology of South Africa) for pioneering more than 21 internationally granted patents in advanced Drug Delivery Systems, Intraocular Drug-Eluting Devices, 3D-Bioprinted Wound Healing Dressings and Bio-Inks, Targeted Nanomedicines, Neuro-Therapeutics and Bio-Inspired Tissue Engineered Scaffolds. He is also recognized for his scholarly output of more than 275 ISI-accredited publications (H-index=31) in the pharmaceutical sciences. Professor Viness Pillay's research focuses on the design of advanced drug delivery systems as well as polymer-engineered devices for application in neurodegeneration, neuro-regeneration and neuro-trauma. His pioneering approach to molecular modelling as a paradigm is a first-in-the-field of pharmaceutics that allows him to produce cross-cutting patents (43 in total) and innovation in biomaterials, tissue engineering, nanomedicines, and molecular modelling that can be applied to drug delivery systems and 3D-bioprinted matrices. His work has generated several inventions including a neural device for therapeutic intervention in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), novel wound-healing technologies through de-novo tissue regeneration and bio-inks for 3D-printing. Prof Pillay has published more than 300 articles in ISI-accredited international journals with an H-index = 41 and has received numerous accolades in the field.