Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu: "Using the very small to tackle the very large"

Drug development is expensive and risky. Only one in 5000 molecules make it from concept to the market and the development of a new medicine costs about one billion US dollars. There is a 90% failure rate at the clinical development stage, when drugs are tested in humans. Inadequate efficacy is a major reason for clinical trial failure and low drug concentrations at the site of disease contribute to poor effectiveness.

Additionally, an estimated half of patients with chronic conditions do not take their medicines as prescribed. A fear of side effects is a major reason for not taking medicines appropriately. Side effects may be minimised if more drug is channelled to the diseased areas of the body and less drug is delivered to healthy tissue.

Overcoming the efficacy and side effect issues may be achieved by controlling where drug molecules go in the body.

Using specially designed nanoparticles that are about a thousandth the width of a single human hair we are able to control, to some extent, where the drug molecules end up when the medicine is administered. As such, we have designed a pain medicine, Envelta™. Envelta™ is being developed as a non-addictive pain killer in order to provide a safer pain medicine when compared to opioids. In the US, 80,000 people die from opioid poisoning annually and in the UK, 40 people die every week from opioid poisoning. We have also designed cancer targeting nanoparticles and other medicines to treat sight threatening illnesses.

Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu is a ground-breaking nanoscientist. Born in London, she moved to Nigeria as a teenager, where she later graduated from the University of Benin with a degree in Ph*rm*cy in 1981. She pursued further studies, earning a master's degree from the University of Lagos and a PhD from University College London’s (UCL) School of Ph*rm*cy.

A renowned expert in pharmaceutical nanoscience, Uchegbu has been instrumental in advancing drug transport technology. Her research led to the development of Envelta™, a potential treatment for pain that addresses the opioid crisis. This innovative work earned prestigious awards, including the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Emerging Technologies prize in 2017.

In her academic career, Uchegbu has held significant leadership roles at UCL, including Pro Vice Provost for Africa and the Middle East and Provost’s Envoy for Race Equality. She played a key role in advancing UCL’s race equality initiatives, which earned the institution a Bronze Race Charter in 2020.

In 2024, Uchegbu became President of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. As a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, she continues to contribute to scientific research and higher education policy globally.

The event is open to all and free to attend.

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception in The Gallery.

This event will take place in the Dining Hall on the first floor of our main building. There is step-free access with a lift and an accessible toilet.

The Science Society hosts a termly series of lay-friendly talks, which help to contribute to an understanding of science and technology - please sign up to their mailing list to keep up to date with their upcoming events.

Photograph by Lloyd Mann.

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