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Rising Stars Colloquium: Jennifer Cookman

Event Details:

Monday, March 15, 2021
1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT

This event is open to:

Faculty/Staff

Liquid Phase Electron Microscopy as an Innovative Tool to Probe Pharmaceutical Crystallisation 

Jennifer Cookman

Abstract: Liquid Phase Electron Microscopy (LPEM) allows visualisation of nanoscale events suspended in their native liquid environment, hermetically sealed from the high vacuum environment of the TEM. Since the inception of this technique, LPEM coupled with state-of-the-art detectors has revealed new fundamental information e.g. nanoparticle growth processes, electrochemical dynamics, and catalysis events. Organic materials are notoriously challenging to image using Transmission Electron Microscopy without the aid of specialised techniques like low dose acquisition or direct electron detectors, due to their propensity for irreversible damage from the electron beam and poor mass contrast. However, when probing their inception at the nanoscale it is hypothesised that the electron beam irradiation is significant in adapting the local chemistry through radiolysis, to allow nucleation to occur. In the pharmaceutical industry, a thorough understanding of an API polymorphism is required to fully identify the most beneficial crystal structure of a particular API that will treat the ailment through optimum bioavailability and dosage. By observing in situ the API nucleation on the nanoscale we can begin to unravel the preceding and intermediate stages that lead to the formation of the most stable polymorph, and in what conditions we can capture and study the less stable or transient polymorphs. Establishing a combined and deep understanding of the radiation chemistry and crystallisation mechanisms commanding the formation of these life-saving organic molecular crystals will lead to a more thorough analysis of how to harvest more beneficial polymorphs of existing drugs. Herein, I present the use of LPEM to reveal fundamental and somewhat surprising observations of the nucleation and growth of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), Flufenamic acid in its native growth solution.

Bio: Jennifer completed her PhD in 2017 in University College Dublin under the supervision of Prof Kenneth Dawson. Her thesis was entitled “Characterisation and categorisation strategies for anisotropic gold nanoparticle for applications in biology” and focused on utilising electron tomography followed by post processing to extract biologically influential parameters (e.g. surface area, volume, batch-to-batch and in-batch shape variations) of nanoparticle morphologies from their single particle 3D models. Jennifer is currently a postdoctoral researcher in electron microscopy in the University of Limerick in Ireland working on an EU funded project called MagnaPharm. She investigates the crystallisation mechanisms of pharmaceutical crystals in an applied magnetic field using Liquid Phase Electron Microscopy to reveal initial inception of crystal nucleation and subsequent growth while investigating the polymorph selectivity and radiolysis influences from the surrounding solvent. For Jennifer’s most recent publications on this work please see DOI: 10.1039/C9NR08126G and DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-75937-2

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