Professor Alastair Florence

Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences

Personal statement

Director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation (CMAC) and associated 45 PhD Doctoral Training Centre. Leads the new world-class CMAC National Facility within the Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) at the University of Strathclyde offering access to academic and industrial users to state-of-the art processing, analysis and characterisations facilties and support. Expertise in crystallisation and physical form control and characterisation of pharmaceuticals spanning polymorphism, solvate, co-crystal and salt formation and studies of amorphous systems. Extensive experience in the formation of pharmaceutical particles in continuous processes using a range of technologies as part of the CMAC programme. Interests also in the development and application of new technologies to control and monitor crystallisation and pharmaceutical solids.

Approaches for the characterisation of particles are also widely used and physical analysis of crystalline pharmaceuticals with a focus on the influence of crystallisation processes on structure and critical pharmaceutically relevant attributes that dictates product performance. Exploitation of X-ray powder diffraction techniques for phase identification, structure determination from powder diffraction data and in-situ phase surveys including local order using variable-temperature X-ray powder diffraction are key areas.

Has published over 120 peer reviewed research papers in these areas and currently supervises a large multidisciplinary research group including pharmacists, chemists and chemical engineers.

Expertise

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Prize And Awards

Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (FRPS): Recipient; 2024
Best Poster Award @ CMAC Annual Open Day 2018: Recipient; 25/10/2018
Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain Conference Science Medal: Recipient; 9/2004

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Publications

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Publications

Quality by digital design to accelerate sustainable medicines development: Mustoe Chantal L, Turner Alice J, Urwin Stephanie J, Houson Ian, Feilden Helen, Markl Daniel, Al Qaraghuli Mohammed M, Chong Magdalene WS, Robertson Murray, Nordon Alison, Johnston Blair F, Brown Cameron J, Robertson John, Adjiman Claire, Batchelor Hannah, Benyahia Brahim, Bresciani Massimo, Burcham Christopher L, Cardona Javier, Cottini Ciro, Dunn Andrew S, Fradet David, Halbert Gavin W, Henson Mark, Hidber Pirmin, Langston Marianne, Lee Ye Seol, Li Wei, Mantanus Jérôme, McGinty John, Mehta Bhavik, Naz Tabbasum, Ottoboni Sara, Prasad Elke, Quist Per-Ola, Reynolds Gavin K, Rielly Chris, Rowland Martin, Schlindwein Walkiria, Schroeder Sven LM, Sefcik Jan, Settanni Ettore, Siddique Humera, Smith Kenneth, Smith Rachel, Srai Jagjit Singh, Thorat Alpana A, Vassileiou Antony, Florence Alastair J; International Journal of Pharmaceutics (2025); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.125625
Investigation of aerosol jet printing for the preparation of solid dosage forms: Turner Alice J, Prasad Elke, Florence Alastair J, Halbert Gavin W; International Journal of Pharmaceutics Vol 671 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.125288
Probing the interplay between drug saturation, processing temperature and microstructure of amorphous solid dispersions with synchrotron X-ray phase-contrast tomography: Bordos Ecaterina, Das Gunjan, Schroeder Sven LM, Florence Alastair, Halbert Gavin W, Robertson John; International Journal of Pharmaceutics Vol 669 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2024.125018
Optimisation of additively manufactured coiled flow inverters for continuous viral inactivation processes: Barrera Maria Cecilia, Leech Damien, Josifovic Aleksandar, Tolouei Anita, Alford Gareth, Wallace Martin J, Bennett Nicholas, Wildman Ricky, Irvine Derek J, Croft Anna, Özcan Ender, Florence Alastair J, Johnston Blair, Robertson John, Brown Cameron J; Chemical Engineering Research and Design Vol 213, pp. 126-136 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2024.11.040
A hybrid system of mixture models for the prediction of particle size and shape, density, and flowability of pharmaceutical powder blends: Salehian Mohammad, Moores Jonathan, Goldie Jonathan, Ibrahim Isra, Mendez Torrecillas Carlota, Wale Ishwari, Abbas Faisal, Maclean Natalie, Robertson John, Florence Alastair, Markl Daniel; International Journal of Pharmaceutics: X Vol 8 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpx.2024.100298
Flow‐Xl : a new facility for the analysis of crystallization in flow systems: Turner T D, O'Shaughnessy C, He X, Levenstein M A, Hunter L, Wojciechowski J, Bristowe H, Stone R, Wilson C C, Florence A, Robertson K, Kapur N, Meldrum F C; Journal of Applied Crystallography Vol 57, pp. 1299-1310 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1107/s1600576724006113

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Research

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Professional Activities

Finance and Public Administration Committee: Speaker; 17/12/2024
Association for Crystalization Technology (ACT) 25th Larson Workshop: Invited speaker; 30/9/2024
PharmaTech Integrates 2024: Participant; 19/9/2024
2024 Process Development Symposium Europe | AIChE: Invited speaker; 26/6/2024
CMAC Summer School 2024: Participant; 12/6/2024
ACHEMA 2024: Participant; 10/6/2024

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Projects

DPN-MED: Digital Plug-and-Produce Network for Sustainable Medicines Development and Manufacturing: Fitzpatrick, Stephen (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) Johnston, Blair (Co-investigator) Markl, Daniel (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2025 - 30-Jan-2025
DPN-MED: Digital Plug-and-Produce Network for Sustainable Medicines Development and Manufacturing: Fitzpatrick, Stephen (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) Johnston, Blair (Co-investigator) Markl, Daniel (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2025 - 30-Jan-2025
SHARPEN: SHARing data to accelerate Pharmaceutical manufacturing Efficiency across trusted Networks: Johnston, Blair (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) Markl, Daniel (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2026
EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber-physical Systems for Medicine Development and Manufacturing (CEDAR): Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator) Cardona Amengual, Javier (Co-investigator) Hoskins, Clare (Co-investigator) Markl, Daniel (Co-investigator) Perrie, Yvonne (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2024 - 30-Jan-2032
A Regulatory Science Network for the Digital Transformation of Medicines Development and Manufacturing (10113547): Markl, Daniel (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) Johnston, Blair (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2024
DTP 2224 University of Strathclyde | El-Habbak, Omar: Brown, Cameron (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) El-Habbak, Omar (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2027