I was born in Accra, Ghana and began my undergraduate study at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2005, reading for a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree. After spending one year as an intern Pharmacist at the KorleBu Teaching Hospital, and developing a keen interest in drug formulation, i enrolled on the MSc. AS:MIT program in 2010. My study has been related to a wide variety of subjects, ranging from statistics to the ‘Real world analysis’, and will culminate in a research project on Understanding the cellular interactions of Poly[oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylate]s under the supervision of Dr. M. I. Gibson. Outside the lab, i often participate in "AS:MIT pub times" (many of those), football and Shotokan Karate.

Thesis outline

Many medicines fail to reach the market due to poor biodistribution, limited solubility and toxicity/immunogenicity. This high attrition rate is very wasteful in terms of drug development costs coupled with the fact that some potentially very useful drugs cannot be made available to the patient. The conjugation of stimuli-responsive polymers to such compounds gives the opportunity to "on demand" trigger carrier - cell interactions. By tuning the polymer (or nanoparticle) structure this can lead to e.g. cell uptake, excretion or drug release. This holds great promise as an aid in the rational design of therapeutic agents (e.g. anti-cancer agents) with desirable pharmacokinetic profiles. My research seeks to exploit stimuli-responsive (especially thermo-responsive) polymers and understand the effects they have on biological systems, using biomimetic techniques. Image taken from J. Mater. Chem., 2007, 17, 3987-4001.

CONTACT:

Email: Y.Saaka@warwick.ac.uk

Address: Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Library Road, Coventry, CV4 7AL

EDUCATION:

BPharm., Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana. 2005-2009

MSc. AS:MIT, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. 2010-2011

OUTSIDE THE AS:MIT LAB:

University of Warwick Shotokan Karate (Link), 2010-2011.

Karate Union of Great Britain (K.U.G.B.), Central Region Championship, 2011. Award of Dan Grade; Silver medal, Men's Kyu-Grade Kata; Bronze medal, Men's Team Kumite.

British Universities and Colleges Sports (B.U.C.S.), Karate, 2011. Silver medal, Intermediate Men's Kata.