Mathura Thirugnanasampanthar is a second-year Maplethorpe Research Fellow at King’s College London, working on a nasal spray formulation of ondansetron for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, and the more severe, hyperemesis gravidarum, under the guidance of Prof Ben Forbes and Clinician Dr. Melanie Nana. In addition to the Maplethorpe Fellowship, this work is supported by the MRC Impact Acceleration Award. She completed her PhD in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University, co-supervised by Prof. Myrna Dolovich, P. Eng, associated with the Firestone Institute of Respiratory Health at St. Joseph’s Hospital, McMaster University. Her research on infectious aerosols was presented at three Drug Delivery to the Lung (DDL) conferences, receiving the Pat Burnell Young Investigator’s Award in 2021 and the DDL Award for Best Academic Poster in 2022. Mathura’s current research interests include improving treatment options for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy and hyperemesis gravidarum; nasal delivery for nose-to-brain targeting of small molecules; nasal formulation strategies; and physiologically based pharmacokinetic modelling of small-molecule drugs for intranasal delivery.
