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The Das Laboratory celebrates the success of students and graduates research and academic achievement.

For news stories about success of current and recent Das Lab members visit our news page:
Das Laboratory news

Past Das Laboratory members

Members are listed alphabetically and include a range of graduates, visitors, and undergraduate students pursuing research with supervision from Dr Das.

Students who worked on research elective papers are listed in their own section:
Elective students

Bishal Adhikari, PhD
Topic: Stability of spray dried powders for inhalation
Co-supervisor: Professor Keith Gordon

  • An Exceptional Doctoral Thesis awarded by the Division of Health Sciences, 2022

Nattanit Aekwattanaphol, PhD, Visiting researcher from School of Pharmacy, Prince Shonkola University, ThailandTopic: Dissolution studies of inhaled preliposomal powders

Dr Ayman Allahham, Visiting Researcher (School of Pharmacy, Kassim University, Saudi Arabia)
Topic: Agglomerate strength distributions for understanding dissolution enhancement by insoluble salt (2012)
Supervisors: Dr Shyamal Das (while at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences), and Professor Peter Stewart

Lily Chen, BPharm(Hons)
Topic: High-dose drug delivery to the lung by engineering drug powders using spray drying technique (2015)

Ayoung Cho, Summer Research Student
Topic: Understanding how drugs are dissolved, (2017, Division of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship)

Matthew Cross, Summer Research Student
Topic: Preparation of low-density particles by spray drying, (2013, New Zealand Pharmacy Education Research Foundation)

Ragdad Daniel, Visiting Researcher (School of Pharmacy, University College, London)
Topic: Understanding the dispersion of drug-alone formulations by tensile strength distributions (2012)
Supervisors: Dr Shyamal Das (while at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences), and Professor Peter Stewart

Angela Ding, BBiomedSc(Hons)
Topic: Improvement of dissolution of poorly water soluble drugs
School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, New Zealand, February 2024 – Present
Co-supervisor: Dr Prakash Khadka

Angela Ding, Summer studentship
Topic: Solid state characterisation of inhaled drugs (2023, School of Pharmacy)

Basanth Babu Eedara, PhD
Topic: Inhalable lipid-drug microparticles for treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, (2019, Co-supervisor: Professor Ian Tucker)
Basanth's PhD research profile

  • Finalist for the Pat Burnell New Investigator Award in DDL 2017 (Edinburgh)

Claire Fan, BPharm(Hons)
Topic: Inhalable powder formulations for treating latent and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis: Formulation and in vitro characterisation (2016)

Louise Fliedel, Visiting Researcher (School of Pharmacy, Paris Descartes University)
Topic: Liposomal powders for respiratory delivery (2017)

Nalini Ganaeswaren, BPharm(Hons)
Topic: Drug delivery to the lung—the influence of lung surfactants on dissolution of drugs (2015)
Students thrive in the culture of a revamped Honours programme

  • Best presenter award in the School of Pharmacy 2015 BPharm(Hons) symposium.

Brittany Hessell, BPharm(Hons)
Topic: Development of dry powder inhaler platform for delivering enzymes (2018)

Prakash Khadka, PhD
Topic: Inhaled rifampicin for treatment of tuberculosis
Co-supervisors: Professor Philip Hill, Dr Jack Dummer and Associate Professor Rajesh Katare

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Das Laboratory
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow in my research group following a Research Associate position at the Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Selected for Flash presentation at Drug Delivery to the Lung Conference 2021
  • Oral presentation at the Otago Medical School Research Society’s PhD Students Awards 2021

Kayla Mendoza, Visiting Researcher (Louisiana, USA)
Topic: Use of spray drying to produce inhalable particles (2014)

Mohammad Abdul Motalib Momin, PhD
Topic: Spray-dried powder particles containing single or combination of drugs for treating multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, (2018, Co-supervisor: Professor Ian Tucker)
Mohammad Momin's PhD research profile

Currently a postdoctoral fellow in the inhalation research group at the Virginia Commonwealth University, USA, Mohammad has also achieved:

Amelie Olivier, Visiting Researcher (Faculté de Pharmacie, Université d'Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand)
Topic: Roflumilast dry powder formulation to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), (2015)

Bhamini Rangnekar, BPharm(Hons), Summer Research Student
Honour's topic: Bedaquiline containing spray dried powder formulations for treating multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (2017)

Summer Research topic: Inhalable multi-drug powder for treating pulmonary tuberculosis, (2015, Division of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship)

Tushar Saha, PhD
Topic: Inhaled drug powders for respiratory infections
Co-supervisor: Professor Miguel Quinones-Mateu (20%)

  • An Exceptional Doctoral Thesis awarded by the Division of Health Sciences, 2024
  • Best Poster Prize at 14th Annual Otago Global Health Institute Conference (2022)
  • Best Postgraduate Paper of the Year 2022 from the Unichem and Life Pharmacy Awards
  • Awarded $3000 travel grant by Drug Delivery to the Lung Conference, UK (2023)

Rishi Shah, PhD student
Topic: Pulmonary delivery of microRNA for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, New Zealand
Co-supervisors:  Associate Professor Rajesh Katare and Associate Professor Greg Walker

Jia Ni Shi, Master of Pharmacy
Topic: Understanding mechanofusion processes by surface energy characterisation, (Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Australia, 2011–2013. Other supervisor: Professor Peter Stewart)

Michelle (Pui Shih) Li , BPharm(Hons)
Topic: Inhaled dry powder of biologics, (2019)

Sim Jee Thien, Summer Research Student
Topic: Triple combination powder for treating multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, (2015, Fred Fastier Grant Fund)

Meike van der Veen, Visiting Researcher (University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands)
Topic: The effect of added lactose fines on the dispersion performance of salmeterol xinafoate containing adhesive mixtures for inhalation (2013)
Supervisors: Dr Shyamal Das (while at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences), and Professor Peter Stewart

Nicole Wood, Summer Research Student
Topic: How much drug will dissolve in the lung after inhalation? (2018, Division of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship)

Nicole Wood, BPharm(Hons)
Topic: Is vaping safe?

Boya Zhang, Summer Research Student
Topic: How much drug will deposit in the lung after inhalation? (2018, Fred Fastier Grant Fund)

Past Das Laboratory elective students

Professor Shyamal Das also supervises undergraduate students pursuing a research elective.

2025

Topic: How do we calculate lung dose in vitro?
Jonah Smith, Peter Guo, Xin Pei Tay, Darren Nam, Tammie Sibanda

2024

Topic: Vaping- prevalence and awareness among university students
Omar Baalousha, Wonje Lee, Lucas Lin, Thomas Wilson and Andrew Ye

2023

Topic: New inhaled antibiotic opportunity
Fiona Zhang, Jacob Rae, Joyce Ma, Xingcheng Gu and Jansen Cao

2022

Topic: Diseased lung fluids
Joshua Lin, Eugene Kwon, Phoebe Ngu, Rawaa Elhanafy and Minyoung Kim

2021

Topic: Effective treatment of heart diseases using inhalers
Nico Ritmeester, Jackson Lee, Nuvindi Basnayake, Raynesh Prasad, Micah Woodfield and Sophie Withers

Topic: Role of informal suppliers in emergencies
Isaac Soh, Lucy Tang, Alana Sewell, Sarah Whitehead and Anis Arina Jasmin Md Ramli.

2020

Topic: Vaping - prevalence and awareness among university students
Kristen Leong, Hsah Mohammed, Devon Burgess, Miqi Ou Yang and  Ben Watkinson

2019

Topic: Gene delivery to the Lung
Mark Albert, Cheuk Hin Tam, Ying Hui Chien, Krystal Ern Cqi Tay, Jareb Milner and Julian Smith

2018

Topic: Current status of high dose inhalers
Gaurav Mann, Farrukh Sarwar, Marina Li, Nicholas Thong and Renukka Anurithan

2017

Topic: Supporting students' English language development for pharmacy practice
Rachel Fowlie, Nok Yi Cheung, Leo He and Jin-Seog Lee
Co-supervisors: Megan Anakin, Dr James Green, Aynsley Peterson and Anita Olivier

2016

Topic: Patentability assessment: Drug combinations for treatment of tuberculosis via pulmonary delivery
Prema Samarasan, Najwa Nurdiyana Abdubrani, Pharathiny Sandrasagaran and Fatin Nabilah Mariyo

2015

Topic: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a new drug formulation for its treatment
Silvia Jin, Joshua Smith, Reuben Teo, Samuel Wagener and Phillip Sacheun

Topic: Dry powder inhaler devices for pulmonary drug delivery
Annie Akepogu, Leanne Liu, Hana Shin, Rebecca Lovelock and Ryan Smith

2014

Topic: The use of spray drying technique for producing powders for inhalation
Vibhuti Patel, Kadyn Lowe, Amina Al-Bahar, Patrick Clark, Susan Lim and Davence Yu

Publications

Islam, R., Das, S. C., & Pletzer, D. (2026). Combating multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae: Current therapeutic regimens and future directions. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 81(3), dkag064 . doi: 10.1093/jac/dkag064 Journal - Research Article

Baral, P. K., Dummer, J., Pletzer, D., & Das, S. C. (2026). Inhaled antibiotic and biologic formulations targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Pharmaceutica Acta Helvetiae, 18, 162. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics18020162 Journal - Research Other

Komal, K., Hanton, L. R., Glass, M., & Das, S. C. (2025). Influence of different amino acids on the aerosolization, stability and cytotoxicity of spray-dried cannabidiol dry powder for inhalation. Pharmaceutics, 17(9), 1120. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics17091120 Journal - Research Article

Komal, K., Chen, S., Hanton, L. R., Glass, M., & Das, S. C. (2025). Preparation and in vitro characterization of inhalable cannabidiol dry powder for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 682, 125892. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.125892 Journal - Research Article

Su, C., Saha, T., Sinha, S., Hird, C. P., Smith, S. X. Y., Quiñones-Mateu, M. E., & Das, S. C. (2025). Inhalable spray-dried dry powders combining ivermectin and niclosamide to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 671, 125302. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.125302 Journal - Research Article

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