Mechanical engineering PhD concept developed for use in medical clinical trials

His PhD at the School of Mechanical Engineering, saw him develop a concept to improve the delivery of drugs to treat a condition called chronic rhinosinusitis which affects up to 1.8 million Australians.

Current treatment methods see up to 97% of the drug wasted, because sinus sprays or using a squeeze bottle to administer the medication don’t get the drug where it needs to be to treat the illness. But Oveis’ PhD concept developed a novel idea to apply a tailored acoustic wave to the nebulised medication so that it can enter the nose, travel to and reach the sinuses!

This novel concept will be used in clinical trials conducted by researchers at the University of Adelaide and the Basil Hetzel Institute, who recently received $1.7m in grant funding from the Medical Research Futures Fund.

Now a researcher with the Adelaide Medical School, Oveis together with Professor Peter-John Wormald have received a $375k grant from the Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation to continue this research and refine the cutting-edge technologies to improve the delivery system for clinical use.

Oveis said that he was grateful for the support and facilities he experienced while completing his PhD in the School of Mechanical Engineering.

“I am grateful to my PhD supervisors, Prof Maziar Arjomandi, Prof Benjamin Cazzolato and Dr Zhao Tian who continuously advised and supported me to complete this exciting PhD project,” he said.

“Also, many thanks to Prof Peter-John Wormald, A/Prof Sarah Vreugde, and Prof Alkis Psaltis from ENT Surgery Group at Adelaide Medical School for their support, cooperation and encouragement to continue my PhD project in a translational health research environment to work on the improvement of sinus drug delivery techniques.”

If you are interested in doing research in the biomechanics of targeted drug delivery, you are welcome to contact Oveis Pourmehran.