Professor Colin McCoy leads three themes within Biomaterials and Drug Delivery in the School of Pharmacy; polymeric medical devices, photoactive biomaterials, and sensor development. Following the completion of his Ph.D. in Chemistry, which included a
publication in Nature, he undertook two years of postdoctoral research with Nobel Laureate Professor, Jean-Marie Lehn, at the Collège de France. He was awarded a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 1999, which he held for 8 years in the School of Pharmacy, and was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2006, Reader in 2009, and Professor in 2012. The major focus of Professor McCoy’s research involves the development of biomaterials that are resistant to infection. In particular, his research exploits triggered drug delivery using light, heat, chemical, or electrical stimuli to either modulate the properties of materials or directly release appropriate bioactive molecules. A further area of research is the development of new materials for
detecting and monitoring species such as drugs, explosives, and biological anions. To achieve this, he uses diverse approaches including surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and delayed lanthanide luminescence. This work is carried out with collaborators in the UK, Ireland, Europe, and the USA.
Louise Carson is a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Science at the School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast. Her current research is focused on the design, development, and characterization of biomaterials for implantable medical devices. She graduated in 2006 with a Master of Pharmacy degree (1st Class Honours) from Queen’s University Belfast and completed her pre-registration training in community pharmacy. In 2007, she returned to the School of Pharmacy to undertake a Ph.D. in the area of medical device-related infection and bacterial virulence. She completed her Ph.D. in January 2011 and, following an industry-funded postdoctoral fellowship, was appointed to a lectureship in Pharmaceutical Science in August 2012. Dr. Carson is a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
