Dr Zahra Rattray

Senior Lecturer

Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences

Personal statement

Senior Lecturer in Translational Pharmaceutics I am a pharmacist by training with experience of working within the hospital, community and industry sectors. I have contributed to a diverse molecule portfolio spanning pre-clinical to late-stage development during my time at AstraZeneca and in collaboration with Patrys Ltd at the Yale School of Medicine (PAT-DX1). My research team has two overall interests; i) Analytical characterization of parenteral formulation attributes and in vivo performance: A key challenge in the commercial translation of newly-discovered drugs is understanding the key performance indicating characteristics crucial to their biological performance and how they interact with living systems. We are interested in developing new tools to profile these performance characteristics. Areas of research interest in my lab are summarized as follows; Understanding the environmental and physicochemical determinants of solution-phase formulation stability for antibody and suspension formulations. Determining key critical quality attributes in particle design to inform optimal in vivo performance. Analytical evaluation of nanomedicine interaction with biological media, and the mechanism of cellular uptake in two- and three-dimensional cellular models. Applying novel imaging modalities for evaluating drug and nanoparticle biodistribution, and impact on tumor response. The interplay between the tumour microenvironment and nanomedicine in vivo performance with a view to developing biorelevant in vitro tests. ii) DNA repair agents and the nuclear import pathway, and their role in cancer: We are interested in screening the functional and phenotypic role of DNA repair mutations. We also develop new small molecule drugs against various nuclear import transporters known to be elevated in cancer.

Expertise

Has expertise in:

Expertise

I am an interdisciplinary pharmaceutical researcher with experience in developing injectable drugs (antibodies, small molecules, and nanomedicines). I have significant expertise in the analytical characterization of critical quality attributes for these products and the design of pre-clinical studies for evaluating biological performance (biopharmaceutics).

Equipment Capabilities

My laboratory hosts a Malvern Panalytical NanoSight NS300 and Archimedes Resonant Mass Measurement, which are both used to measure particle size and concentration. If you would be interested in accessing these technologies, please get in touch (zahra.rattray@strath.ac.uk).

I am also Director for the new EPSRC Multiscale Metrology Suite (modular setup including Field Flow Fractionation, Inductively-coupled mass spectrometry, Light Scattering and Raman) for Next-Generation Health Nanotechnologies (EP/V028960/1). For more information or to access this facility, please get in touch.

Prizes and awards

European Crucible: Seed Funding Award- Developing new tools for evaluating nanoscale biological interactions: Recipient; 6/2021
European Crucible: Scottish Cohort: Recipient; 1/5/2021
Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy: Recipient; 9/2020
Strathclyde Chancellor's Fellow: Recipient; 1/9/2018
Postdoctoral fellowship: Recipient; 1/2014
Widening participation award holder: Recipient; 10/2010

More prizes and awards

Publications

Sex differences in colon cancer metabolism reveal a novel subphenotype: Cai Yuping, Rattray Nicholas J W, Zhang Qian, Mironova Varvara, Santos-Neto Alvaro, Hsu Kuo-Shun, Rattray Zahra, Cross Justin R, Zhang Yawei, Paty Philip B, Khan Sajid A, Johnson Caroline H; Scientific Reports Vol 10 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61851-0
ENT2 facilitates brain endothelial cell penetration and blood-brain barrier transport by a tumor-targeting anti-DNA autoantibody: Rattray Zahra, Deng Gang, Zhang Shenqi, Shirali Anupama, May Christopher K, Chen Xiaoyong, Cuffari Benedette J, Liu Jun, Zou Pan, Rattray Nicholas JW, Johnson Caroline H, Dubljevic Valentina, Campbell James A, Huttner Anita, Baehring Joachim M, Zhou Jiangbing, Hansen James E; JCI Insight Vol 6 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.145875
Metabolic dysregulation in vitamin E and carnitine shuttle energy mechanisms associate with human frailty: Rattray Nicholas JW, Trivedi Drupad K, Xu Yun, Chandola Tarani, Johnson Caroline H, Marshall Alan D, Mekli Krisztina, Rattray Zahra, Tampubolon Gindo, Vanhoutte Bram, White Iain R, Wu Frederick CW, Pendleton Neil, Nazroo James, Goodacre Royston; Nature Communications Vol 10 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12716-2
Evaluation of temporal aggregation processes using spatial intensity distribution analysis: Rattray Zahra, Zindy Egor, Buzza Karen M, Pluen Alain; Protein Self-Assembly Methods and Protocols (2019) (2019); https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9678-0_11
Re-engineering and evaluation of anti-DNA autoantibody 3E10 for therapeutic applications: Rattray Zahra, Dubljevic Valentina, Rattray Nicholas, Greenwood Deanne L, Johnson Caroline H, Campbell James A, Hansen James E; Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Vol 496, pp. 858-864 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2018.01.139
A DNA-damaging lupus autoantibody synergizes with PARP inhibitors against DNA repair-deficient tumor cells: Rattray Zahra, Patel Jaymin M, Noble Phillip W, Dubljevic Valentina, Greenwood Deanne L, Campbell James A, Hansen James E; Cancer Research Vol 78, pp. 2773 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1158/1538-7445.AM2018-2773

More publications

Professional activities

EPSRC Peer Review College (External organisation): Member; 6/7/2021
Royal Society of Edinburgh's Young Academy of Scotland (External organisation): Chair; 4/2021
Frontiers in Medical Technology (Journal): Guest editor; 6/2022
Neill Liptrott: Host; 9/3/2022
Pharmaceutics seminar series: The early investigation of parenteral drug products: Speaker; 28/1/2022
Girl's voice: Interviewee; 21/1/2022

More professional activities

Projects

Multiscale Metrology Suite for Next-generation Healthcare Technologies (EPSRC Strategic Equipment): Rattray, Zahra (Principal Investigator) Bruns, Nico (Co-investigator) Faulds, Karen (Co-investigator) Graham, Duncan (Co-investigator) Halbert, Gavin (Co-investigator) Hoskins, Clare (Co-investigator) McArthur, Stephen (Co-investigator) Perrie, Yvonne (Co-investigator) Reid, Stuart (Co-investigator) Seib, Philipp (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2024
SPRINT: A SuPer-Resolution time-resolved ImagiNg and specTroscopy facility for rapid biomolecular analysis: Li, David (Principal Investigator) Chamberlain, Luke (Co-investigator) Chen, Yu (Co-investigator) Cunningham, Margaret Rose (Co-investigator) Gould, Gwyn (Co-investigator) Hoskisson, Paul (Co-investigator) McConnell, Gail (Co-investigator) Rattray, Zahra (Co-investigator) Van de Linde, Sebastian (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2022
Lisa van Den Dreist- FRAME AWARD: Development of a gene expression bioinformatics pipeline to identify driver mutations of colorectal cancer: Rattray, Zahra (Principal Investigator) Rattray, Nicholas (Principal Investigator); Competitively awarded FRAME summer studentship with stipend (£2,500); 22-Jan-2021 - 29-Jan-2021
Erasmus+: Host for Ahmed Gaafar: Rattray, Zahra (Principal Investigator) Rattray, Nicholas (Principal Investigator); 17-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2021
The impact of KPNA2 overexpression on breast cancer cellular phenotype (RSE Reboot): Rattray, Zahra (Principal Investigator) Rattray, Nicholas (Co-investigator); 08-Jan-2021 - 07-Jan-2021
Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis: Rattray, Zahra (Principal Investigator); Malvern Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis for particle size and concentration measurement; 16-Jan-2020

More projects

Address

Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
Robertson Wing

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