Meetings

British Pharmaceutical Conference 2006

Hannah Pike, Gemma Cleveland and Dawn Connelly share coverage of awards

The 2006 British Pharmaceutical Conference and Exhibition “Personalised medicine in healthcare” took place at Manchester International Convention Centre from 4 to 6 September

BPC 2006 reports

Probing around on the nanometre scale leads to Conference Science Medal

Image Capture

Rob Price and David Thurston

Rob Price (right) receives the Conference Science Medal from David Thurston, science chairman for BPC 2006

Rob Price, a reader at the department of pharmacy and pharmacology, University of Bath, was awarded the Conference Science Medal at the 2006 British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester this week.

The Conference Science Medal is awarded annually to a scientist who is working in a pharmaceutical or allied discipline in industry or academia, who has a proven record of independent research and whose published work shows outstanding promise.

Dr Price founded the pharmaceutical surface science research group at the University of Bath, where his research focuses on developing atomic force microscopy for the study of particulate systems, particularly for inhalation.

In his lecture, entitled “Probing around on the nanometre scale”, Dr Price explained that materials have different properties at the nanometre scale, which cannot be predicted by extrapolating down from the macroscale. “We have got to get down to the nanodimensions in order to really understand these systems,” he explained. “If we can understand the systems then we can begin to manipulate them and to get involved in technology,” he added.

Dr Price explained that a problem in pharmaceutical manufacturing is that scientists modify the properties of particles at the macroscopic scale. “The long-term aim of all of us in this industry is to control the behaviour of particles, not only at the macroscopic level, but also at the microscopic level.”

He concluded: “By probing at the nanoscale, as well as being able to provide fundamental scientific insight into the characteristic behaviour of systems of particles, we can look at the adhesive characteristics of interfaces and how they interact within the system.”