Isaac Rad

Isaac completed his Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) in 2017, and after a holidayesque internship in the Whitsundays, returned to UQ to begin an intercalated Doctor of Medicine/Doctor of Philosophy degree.

His research is focused on ultrasound-mediated drug delivery into immune-privileged organs, including the brain and eye. Initially, he used high intensity focused ultrasound to deliver plasmid-loaded dendrimer nanoparticles across the blood-brain barrier, with the eventual intention of using gene therapy to improve memory formation and rescue glucose hypometabolism in Alzheimer’s disease.

After completion of his milestone, he pivoted toward research closer to therapeutic application, and is now working under the supervision of Dr Parekh and Dr Tupally to progress an acoustofluidic drug delivery platform toward clinical trials. This technology uses a combination of ultrasound and echogenic liposomes for targeted treatment of retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. Capable of delivering therapeutics directly into diseased portions of the retina, this drug delivery platform may minimise the cost, side effect profile, and dosing schedule of currently used intravitreally injected medications.

A brief project synopsis based on a 3MT competition, is available here: https://youtu.be/_INjKJicXuc