Dr Defang Ouyang

Lecturer in Pharmaceutics

Aston University, Aston Triangle
Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK

• Room: MB357B
• E-mail: d.ouyang@aston.ac.uk
• Telephone: +44 (0) 121 204 4021

Teaching Activity on the MPharm Programme

PH1404: Formulation and optimisation of medicines - liquid dosage forms
PH1408 (Module coordinator): Professional development
PH4701: Pharmaceutics and drug delivery

Qualifications & Education

• 2011 - 2012 Postgraduate Certificate of Professional Practice (PGCPP) in Higher Education, Aston University, UK 
• 2007 - 2010 PhD, School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Australia (Supervisor: Dr. Harendra S. Parekh and Prof. Sean C. Smith)
• 2002 - 2005 MSc (Pharmacy), Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, China (Supervisor: Prof. Weisan Pan)
• 1996 - 2000 BSc (Pharmacy), Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, China
  

Employment

• 2011 - date Lecturer in Pharmaceutics, Aston University, UK
• 2005 - 2007 Research scientist, Shenzhen Main Luck Pharmaceutical Inc., China
• 2000 - 2002 Engineer, Tianjin Huajin Pharmaceutical Company, China
  

Research interests

Member of the Medicines Research Group.

Dr Ouyang has pioneered the application of molecular modeling techniques in the field of drug delivery - 'computational pharmaceutics' -  to explore the mechanism of drug delivery at the molecular level and then develop novel drug delivery systems. Computational pharmaceutics has great potential to shorten the time-consuming process of formulation development and decrease high cost of formulation development by reducing trial-and-error in the conventional experiments.

• Cyclodextrin formulation. Cyclodextrins are a family of cyclic oligosaccharides, which are widely used for the solubilization of poor-soluble drugs. Molecular modeling techniques are able to screen the optimal formulation. 

• Solid dispersion formulation. Solid dispersion refers to the dispersion of one or more drug molecules (usually poorly-soluble drugs) in the carriers at the solid state by different preparation methods (e.g. hot melt-extrusion method). Molecular modeling techniques are used to predict the long-term physical stability, and then screen the optimal formulation. 

• Non-viral gene delivery systems. The key to gene therapy is the development of safe,efficient and biocompatible non-viral vectors for gene delivery. Our novel simulation approaches are able to extend our understanding of key mechanistic aspects of gene-carrier complexation, thereby advancing the rational design of non-viral gene delivery systems. 
  

External Activities

Book editor of <Computational Pharmaceutics - the application of molecular modeling in drug delivery> (John Wiley & Sons Ltd); Reviewer of <Int. J. Pharm.>, <J. Pharm. Pharmacol.>, <Drug Dev. Ind. Pharm.>, <BMC Biotechnology>, <Pharmaceutics> and <Biomacromolecules>; Reviewer of French National Research Agency (ANR) and BBSRC (UK); Guest editor of Special Issue "Gene Therapy" of <Pharmaceutics>; Member of The Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UK), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and The Controlled Release Society (CRS); Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Selected publications

Papers

• A. ElShaer, D. Ouyang, P. Hanson and A. R. Mohammed, Preparation and evaluation of amino acid based salt forms of model zwitterionic drug ciprofloxacin. Journal of Pharmaceutics & Drug Delivery Research. 2013, 2, 1;
• L. Gan, J. Wang, M. Jiang, H. Bartlett, D. Ouyang, F. Eperjesi, J. Liu, Y. Gan, Recent advances in topical ophthalmic drug delivery with lipid-based nanocarriers. Drug Discovery Today. 2013, 18(5-6), 290-297;
• D. Ouyang, Investigating the molecular structures of solid dispersions by molecular dynamics simulations with the simulated annealing method, Chem. Phys. Lett., 2012, 554, 177-184;
• H, Zhang, D. Ouyang, V. Murthy, Y. Wong, Y. Wong, Z. P. Xu and S. C. Smith, Hydrotalcite Intercalated siRNA: Computaional Characterization of the Interlayer Environment. Pharmaceutics, 2012, 4, 296-313; 
• D. Ouyang, H. Parekh and S.C. Smith, Investigating cationic vector-RNA complexation by all-atomic molecular dynamics simulation. CRS Newsletter, 2012, 29(3), 10–11.
• Y. Perrie, R. K. Badhana, D.J. Kirby, D. Lowry, A. R. Mohammed and D. Ouyang, The impact of ageing on the barriers to drug delivery. J. Control. Release, 2012, 161,389-398;

• D. Ouyang, H.Zhang, H. Parekh and S.C. Smith, The Effect of pH on PAMAM Dendrimer-siRNA Complexation – Endosomal Considerations as Determined by Molecular Dynamics Simulation. Biophys. Chem., 2011, 158, 126–133;

• D. Ouyang, H.Zhang, H. Parekh and S.C. Smith, Structure and Dynamics of multiple polymers-siRNA Complexation by Molecular Dynamics Study. J. Phys. Chem. B., 2010, 114, 9231–9237
• D. Ouyang, H.Zhang, D.Herten, H. Parekh and S.C. Smith, Structure, Dynamics and Energetics of siRNA-Cationic Vector Complexation: A Molecular Dynamics Study. J. Phys. Chem. B., 2010, 114, 9220–9230.
• D. Ouyang, H.Zhang, D.Herten, H. Parekh and S.C. Smith, “Flexibility of Short-Strand RNA in Aqueous Solution as Revealed by Molecular Dynamics Simulation: Are A-RNA and A’-RNA Distinct Conformational Structures?” Aust. J. Chem., 2009, 62, 1054-1061.
• D. Ouyang, N. Shah, H. Zhang, S.C. Smith and H. Parekh, “Reducible Disulphide-Based Non-Viral Gene Delivery Systems”, Mini-Rev. Med. Chem., 2009, 9, 1242-1250.

Invited lectures and oral presentations

• Computational Pharmaceutics - How to Apply Molecular Dynamics Simulation in Drug Delivery. School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham. (Birmingham, UK, December 13, 2012).
• Computational pharmaceutics - the application of molecular modeling in drug delivery. 5th Midlands Biophysics Network Symposium. (Birmingham, UK, April 18, 2012).
• Computational pharmaceutics. Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing (ARCHA) seminar. (Aston University, UK, December 7, 2011).
• The Effect of pH on PAMAM Dendrimer-siRNA Complexation – Endosomal Considerations as Determined by Molecular Dynamics Simulation. 7th Annual Conference of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials (ARCCFN). (Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, November 25-26, 2010).
• Structure, Dynamics and Energetics of siRNA-polymer Complexation: A Molecular Dynamics Study. 6th Annual Conference of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials (ARCCFN). (Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia, November 9-11, 2009).