
Dr Christine Dufes
Reader
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
Prize And Awards
- Fellowship of the Royal Society of Biology
- Recipient
- 7/2023
- “Strategic Themes and Impact” award at the Strathclyde Images of research competition
- Recipient
- 6/2023
- Nomination at the Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Awards 2023
- Recipient
- 4/2023
- Nomination and short-listing at the Strathclyde Women+ in Leadership Networks #CelebrateHER Awards 2023
- Recipient
- 3/2023
- Nomination and short-listing at the Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Awards 2022
- Recipient
- 5/2022
- “Outstanding Woman Researcher in Nanomedicine” award
- Recipient
- 12/2021
Publications
- Transferrin-bearing, zein-based hybrid lipid nanoparticles for drug and gene delivery to prostate cancer cells
- Maeyouf Khadeejah, Sakpakdeejaroen Intouch, Somani Sukrut, Meewan Jitkasem, Ali-Jerman Hawraa, Laskar Partha, Mullin Margaret, MacKenzie Graeme, Tate Rothwelle J, Dufès Christine
- Pharmaceutics Vol 15 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15112643
- Preparation of zein-based nanoparticles : nanoprecipitation versus microfluidic-assisted manufacture, effects of PEGylation on nanoparticle characteristics and cellular uptake by melanoma cells
- Meewan Jitkasem, Somani Sukrut, Almowalad Jamal Mohammed J, Laskar Partha, Mullin Margaret, MacKenzie Graeme, Khadke Swapnil, Perrie Yvonne, Dufès Christine
- International Journal of Nanomedicine Vol 17, pp. 2809-2822 (2022)
- https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S366138
- Lactoferrin- and dendrimer-bearing gold nanocages for stimulus-free DNA delivery to prostate cancer cells
- Almowalad Jamal, Laskar Partha, Somani Sukrut, Meewan Jitkasem, Tate Rothwelle J, Dufès Christine
- International Journal of Nanomedicine Vol 17, pp. 1409-1421 (2022)
- https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S347574
- Limited impact of the protein corona on the cellular uptake of PEGylated zein micelles by melanoma cancer cells
- Meewan Jitkasem, Somani Sukrut, Laskar Partha, Irving Craig, Mullin Margaret, Woods Stuart, Roberts Craig W, Alzahrani Abdullah R, Ferro Valerie A, McGill Suzanne, Weidt Stefan, Burchmore Richard, Dufès Christine
- Pharmaceutics Vol 14 (2022)
- https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics14020439
- Report on webinar series cell and gene therapy : from concept to clinical use
- van der Walle Christopher F, Dufès Christine, Desai Arpan S, Kerby Julie, Broadhead Joanne, Tam Alice, Rattray Zahra
- Pharmaceutics Vol 14 (2022)
- https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics14010168
- Emergence of cationic polyamine dendrimersomes : design, stimuli sensitivity and potential biomedical applications
- Laskar Partha, Dufès Christine
- Nanoscale Advances Vol 3, pp. 6007-6026 (2021)
- https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NA00536G
Teaching
Christine Dufès teaches on the Master of Pharmacy and on various MSc postgraduate degrees.
- UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING (MPharm)
- Being a Pharmacist (Years 2-4, MP220, MP320, MP420)
- Normal function of the gastrointestinal system (Year 2, MP221)
- Normal function of the nervous and endocrine systems (Year 2, MP223)
- Management of Infection and Infectious Diseases (Year 3, MP321)
- Management of CNS Conditions (Year 4, MP422)
- POSTGRADUATE TEACHING (MSc)
- Drug discovery and development in cancer (MSc Cancer studies, MP988)
- Novel therapeutics and Biopharmaceuticals (MSc Advanced Drug Delivery, MP818)
- Advanced Topics In Drug Delivery (MSc Advanced Drug Delivery, MP952)
- Bioanalysis, biotechnology and quality management (MSc Pharmaceutical analysis, MP919)
Research Interests
Design and development of novel targeted drug- and gene-based nanomedicines for cancer therapy and brain delivery
Professional Activities
- Invited plenary speaker at the 4th International Conference on Nanomaterials Applied to Life Sciences (Granada, Spain)
- Speaker
- 14/2/2024
- Invited keynote speaker at the 5th International Conference on Traditional Medicine (Nashik, India)
- Speaker
- 4/1/2024
- UKRI (External organisation)
- Advisor
- 28/11/2023
- External examiner for the MSc Pharmaceutical Analysis Technology & biopharmaceuticals programme of King’s College London
- Examiner
- 11/2023
- UKRI Talent Peer Review College (External organisation)
- Member
- 8/2023
- Invited talk at the Meeting of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (39th Reunión Bienal de Química), Zaragoza (Spain)
- Speaker
- 25/6/2023
Projects
- NMR-BASE: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for Biomolecule Analysis in Supported Environments
- Parkinson, John (Principal Investigator) Burley, Glenn (Co-investigator) Dufès, Christine (Co-investigator) Irving, Craig (Co-investigator) Jamieson, Craig (Co-investigator) Scott, Fraser (Co-investigator) Seib, Philipp (Co-investigator) Taladriz Sender, Andrea (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2024
- Development of targeted nanomedicines to treat prostate cancer
- Dufès, Christine (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2016 - 30-Jan-2019
- Development of novel gene delivery systems for brain targeting by intravenous administration
- Dufès, Christine (Principal Investigator) Pickard, Ben (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2016 - 30-Jan-2019
- The Role Of S1P4 And SK1 In Triple Negative Breast Cancer
- Pyne, Nigel (Principal Investigator) Dufès, Christine (Co-investigator) Pyne, Susan (Co-investigator)
- 06-Jan-2013 - 05-Jan-2014
- Development of tumour-targeted gene delivery systems for intravenous cancer therapy
- Dufès, Christine (Principal Investigator)
- "Cancer kills more people in the UK than any other disease: one cancer sufferer dies every 15 minutes, which adds up to over 35 000 people a year.
The possibility of using genes as medicines to treat cancer is currently limited by the lack of safe and efficacious delivery systems able to deliver therapeutic genes selectively to tumours by intravenous administration, without secondary effects to healthy tissues.
On the basis that iron is essential for tumour cell growth and can be effectively carried to tumours by using specific iron-carrier receptors present in abundance on the surface of cancer cells, we demonstrated that the use of iron-carriers linked to a highly promising gene delivery system resulted in gene expression mainly in the tumours after intravenous administration. This led to a rapid and sustained tumour regression over one month, with disappearance of 90% of the tested tumours and regression of the remaining ones in a laboratory model.
Building on the promising results already obtained, the proposed project aims to develop new systems by modifying the iron-carrier, and to evaluate their anti-cancer efficacy on cancer cells in vitro and in vivo after intravenous administration.
This innovative research would potentially have a major impact on healthcare, as there is currently no gene medicine commercially available for the intravenous treatment of cancer." - 01-Jan-2012 - 31-Jan-2015
- Evaluation and Optimization of a novel non-viral gene delivery system for brain targeting by intravenous administration
- Dufès, Christine (Principal Investigator)
- Evaluation of a novel non-viral gene delivery system for brain targeting by intravenous administration
- 01-Jan-2012 - 31-Jan-2015
Contact
Dr
Christine
Dufes
Reader
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
Email: c.dufes@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3796