The Perinatal Pharmacology Group

The perinatal period represents a critical developmental window during which the health and wellbeing of future generations is laid down. Led by Dr Adeniyi Olagunju, research within the Perinatal Pharmacology Group is focused on broadening our understanding of drug safety and efficacy during pregnancy and lactation. Working across three domains (human-relevant in vitro modelling, in silico modelling and clinical research), our goal is to generate actionable knowledge that will facilitate early recommendations for safe use of long-acting medicines during the perinatal period.

 

Mark Ryan is smiling into the cameraMark Ryan

Mark is a Scientific Data Curator within the Perinatal Pharmacology Group. He is working on new open access initiatives aimed at facilitating access to the clinical development landscape of long-acting therapeutics, and the pharmacokinetic data of therapeutics in human pregnancy. Through these initiatives, we will support the curation of data generated from research within our group, and by collaborators and other scientists in globally representative, open access databases. Mark holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a Master of Research in Advanced Biological Sciences from the University of Liverpool. He previously worked in industry as a biocurator.

Elly Monyo is smiling at the cameraElly (Mariella) Monyo

Mariella obtained her BSc in Physiology & Pharmacology with a minor in Toxicology at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. She is currently doing her MSc in Pharmacology and Toxicology here at the University of Liverpool. In her research project, she will explore differences in fetal exposure resulting from maternal administration of immediate-acting oral versus long-acting injectable formulation of a selected antipsychotic drug.

Philip Bediako-Kakari is smiling into the cameraPhilip Bediako-Kakari

Philip obtained a BSc in Pharmacology and is now enrolled on the MSc Pharmacology and Toxicology programme here at the University of Liverpool. His research project will investigate differences in fetal exposure resulting from maternal administration of immediate-acting oral versus long-acting injectable formulation of a selected antipsychotic drug. He is passionate about the in silico modelling components of the project.

Prajith is looking in to the camera with a friendly smileDr Prajith Venkatasubramanian

Prajith has obtained a Doctorate of Pharmacy and a Masters of Science in Pharmacology and Drug Discover from Coventry University. He is a Research Assistant / Data Curator within CELT as a member of the Perinatal Pharmacology Group. Prajith is working on long-acting antiretroviral therapies and antipsychotics. He collects, analyses, and interprets scientific information from peer-reviewed scientific journals, reviewing submissions & conducts independent research, developing documentation for the user community. Alongside this, Prajith is involved in contributing to the development and expansion of initiatives.

 

Shakir is looking into the the camera with a friendly expressionShakir Atoyebi

Shakir is a Research Associate within the Perinatal Pharmacology group. He is developing mechanistic models to estimate fetal drug exposure during pregnancy towards better understanding of drug fetotoxocity. He obtained a Bachelor of Pharmacy and Master of Science degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria. He is currently completing his PhD studies at the University of Liverpool with the Duncan Norman Research scholarship. For his doctoral studies, he developed physiologically-based pharmacokinetic models to study the disposition of long-acting cabotegravir and rilpivirine during pregnancy. In addition, he explored dosing strategies to overcome drug-drug interactions involving some antiretrovirals in children and pregnant women.

Sulaima El Haj is smiling into the cameraSalima (Sulaima) El Haj

Salima is a PhD student within the Perinatal Pharmacology Group. She is interested in using mathematical and statistical methods to formulate and solve problems. Her research project explores developing a framework for integrated analysis of clinical pharmacology and real-world data for assessing the safety of medicines during pregnancy. She obtained a Master of Pharmacy degree from the University of Nottingham, a MSc in Applied Statistics and Operational Research from Birkbeck, University of London and a MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has a diverse work experience that includes roles in clinical pharmacy and data analysis in several large health related organisations.

 

 

Former group members

Srivarshini Chenumalla is smiling into the cameraSrivarshini Chenumalla

Srivarshini has a background in biotechnology with both BSc and MSc degrees from the Osmania University College for Women, Hyderabad, and considerable wet lab experience. She completed the MSc Bioinformatics course here in 2023 to broaden her knowledge and acquire new computational skills applicable to drug development. Combining her previous experiences and new knowledge from the bioinformatics course, she used in silico models to explore maternal and fetal exposure to antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy.

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