Malte Bøgh Senniksen, our early stage researcher (ESR) 12, is currently researching an animal-free modelling approach to the development of amorphous solid dispersions within the InPharma project. His individual project started in August 2021, where he spent the first 13 months at Fraunhofer ITMP in Frankfurt, Germany, before transferring to F. Hoffmann – La Roche in Basel, Switzerland, for the remainder of his PhD. InPharma is a European Industrial Doctorate (EID) project that brings together academic institutions an industry partners to provide the Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) interdisciplinary training and research opportunities by spending at least half their time in industry. As part of our InPharma on-the-job series, we have organised short interviews with our ESRs to better understand first-hand what a working within an industry-focused doctoral training program looks like.
Can you provide an overview of your current research project?
My research project revolves around formulation development of amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs), to enable drugs to overcome solubility-limited absorption in the human body. The academic part of my project has focused on applying the concepts of the refined developability classification system (rDCS), to assess developability risks for selected model drugs and guide the use of enabling formulations. The industrial part of my project has been focused on utilizing high throughput miniaturized screening methods to investigate ASD performance for drugs in combination with many different excipients in parallel. All done in a material sparing manner. My work in the industry has also allowed me to apply computational tools to predict drug and excipient interactions, in an effort to select the most promising mixtures and limit the experimental workload.
What does a typical day in your research project look like?
A typical day in my research project will consist of consulting the literature, planning experiments, analyzing data and of course going into the lab to conduct the planned experiments. As my project is dependent on a large solid set of data, the primary part of my workday is spent in the lab. This has been a great benefit as it has allowed me to gain new competencies, use state of the art equipment and to collaborate with my scientific peers within the industry.
What benefits do you see of spending half of your doctorate in the non-academic sector?
The opportunity to spend half of the doctorate in the industry has allowed me to understand how theory is put into practice, on a different scale than what is normally possible in academia. Personally, I also see great value in connecting with industry experts for discussions, as they often have a unique goal-oriented perspective on pharmaceutical science. Having a network that spans across the two sectors can also help bridge the well-known research “gap” and allow future collaborations to take place after the end of the project.
How did you find your training within the industry-focused doctoral training program?
I found the training during annual meetings, workshops and virtual meetings very interesting and feel that they have helped me grow to be a better researcher. Getting the chance to present my work to an audience of my scientific peers has had great value and helped me to become more confident in my own work and accomplishments. Furthermore, the training we have received in regard to research project management, an important transferable skill, has helped me to stay organized and in control of my research as an ESR. This is a skill that I expect will be of great value as I continue my career in research.
What are your plans for the remainder of your studies within InPharma and beyond?
My plan for the final time within InPharma is to finish writing up my project findings as research articles for publication as well as for my doctoral thesis. Beyond InPharma, I hope to continue my work in preclinical research where I can apply my competencies in formulation screening and development, either in the industry or academia.