The National Measurement Laboratory (NML) at LGC has appointed Dr Zahra Rattray, based at the NML’s Centre for Advanced Measurement Research and Health Translation at the University of Strathclyde as its second Academic in Residence.
Dr Zahra Rattray is a pharmacist and an interdisciplinary translational pharmaceutical scientist with over 15 years' experience of working across the academic, industry and clinical sectors.
She received her PhD in Drug Delivery from the University of Manchester in 2013, and later completed a postdoctoral research position at Manchester, developing new analytical pipelines for profiling antibody stability.
Dr Rattray has significant experience in formulation and drug delivery from her time at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and during her postdoctoral research at the Yale School of Medicine Cancer Centre respectively.
Valuable link
In her current position as Senior Lecturer at Strathclyde, Dr Rattray explores protein engineering for improved developability and efficacy and develops bioanalytical measurements for profiling the nanoparticle protein corona, as well as studying patterns of genetic alterations giving rise to chemoresistance in breast cancer.
As an NML Academic in Residence, Dr Rattray will be a core part of NML’s Centre at Strathclyde and a valuable link in developing the relationships between the Centre and the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors in Scotland and across the UK to support reliable innovation and ensure accuracy and validation of methodology in drug delivery research.
Dr Rattray said: "Through our extended network and working with the NML’s extended network, we can potentially create collaborations that will really drive this effort forward and underpin it.”
New opportunities
Since 2019 Dr Rattray has been collaborating in research with several teams in the NML, including on the development of a comprehensive system to advance nanomaterial metrology for next generation diagnostics and therapeutics.
She is also exploring new opportunities to work with our Northern Cell Metrology Hub at the University of Leeds around cell metrology, as well as with other stakeholders, including the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre, based in Glasgow.
Dr Rattray will also be working closely with other academics in the Centre at Strathclyde, linking with researchers in other LGC business units, as well as increasingly establishing links with other NML Academics in Residence, such as Professor Neill Liptrott at the University of Liverpool.