
Ocular Drug Delivery group (ODD)
Leaders
Group description
The Ocular Drug Delivery (ODD) group develops advanced drug delivery methods for targeted and prolonged drug delivery to both the anterior and posterior segments of the eye. Furthermore, we use computational tools for drug development and preclinical-to-clinical translation to build a quantitative understanding of ocular pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
We are currently pursuing studies in two main research areas: ocular drug delivery systems and ocular pharmacokinetics.
Ocular drug delivery systems
We develop new drug delivery systems based on polymer conjugates, hydrogels, light-activated liposomes, and cleavable peptide linkers which allow us to control and fine-tune drug release. We employ targeting moieties such as peptides selected by phage display and aptamers selected by SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) to target the drug delivery systems to the desired tissue inside the eye. We investigate these technologies in physico-chemical studies, cell assays and preclinical in vivo experiments. Our aim is to develop drug delivery systems that are suitable for various kinds of compounds ranging from small drug molecules to biologicals and gene medicines.
Ocular pharmacokinetics
We study drug permeation, which may be driven by passive diffusion or active transport, across ocular barriers. We investigate ocular drug-metabolizing enzymes, whose unique profile may contribute to e.g. prodrug activation, elimination and toxicity of the ocular medications. We also elucidate the effect of binding to ocular tissues on drug disposition. Furthermore, we build computational models that can predict the most relevant pharmacokinetic properties in relation to a drug’s structure, and can estimate the drug release profiles from a delivery system. We have also used modeling approaches to explore animal-to-man translation of ocular pharmacokinetics. These methods include chemoinformatic models, physiologically-based pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic models and finite element (3D) models. We believe that computational models are becoming increasingly useful tools for ocular drug discovery and development.
Keywords
Leaders
Professors
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Arto Urtti
ProfessorFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Paavo Honkakoski
ProfessorFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Seppo Auriola
ProfessorFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy
Senior Researchers
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Astrid Subrizi
Academy Research FellowFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Elisa Toropainen
Senior ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Eva Maria del Amo Páez
Senior ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Kati-Sisko Vellonen
Senior ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Marika Ruponen
University LecturerFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Mika Reinisalo
Senior ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Tatu Lajunen
Senior ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Veli-Pekka Ranta
University LecturerFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Vijay Kumar Saxena
Senior ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Mikko Gynther
Senior ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy
Post-doctoral Researchers
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Stanislav Kalinin
Postdoctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Arto Merivaara
Postdoctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Natalia Zashikhina
Postdoctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Iuliia Pilipenko
Postdoctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy
Doctoral Researchers
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Amir Sadeghi Boroujeni
Postdoctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Anam Hammid
Project ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Annika Valtari
Doctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Anusha Balla
Postdoctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Jooseppi Puranen
Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Sina Bahrpeyma
Doctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Sonja Korhonen
Doctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Janika Jäntti
Doctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Eetu Valkama
Doctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Ville-Matias Pollari
Doctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Jonna Laitinen
Doctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Teemu Sorsa
Doctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Katja Stenberg
Doctoral ResearcherFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy
Technicians
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Jaana Leskinen
Laboratory TechnicianFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Lea Pirskanen
Senior Laboratory TechnicianFaculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy