Dr. Carsten Ehrhardt

Dr. Carsten Ehrhardt is Professor in Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin. He was elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 2013. Carsten has obtained his Ph.D. degree in Biopharmaceutics from Saarland University in 2003. His research is focused on lung drug disposition, pulmonary epithelial transport and molecular origins of airways disease. He has edited 1 book and (co-)authored 113 peer-reviewed publications, 12 book chapters and more than 250 abstracts and conference proceedings. Carsten has given over 150 invited oral presentations at research institutions, international conferences and workshops. He is a member of Gesellschaft für Wehrmedizin und Wehrpharmazie (VdSO), Deutsche Pharmazeutische Gesellschaft (DPhG), American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM), American Physiological Society (APS) and Japanese Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (JSSX). Carsten is the proud recipient of honours and awards from DPhG, APS and Galenus Foundation. He is Section Editor of European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Associate Editor of Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery. He actively serves on the Editorial Boards of European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Research, and Pharmaceutics.

  AEROSOL   ALVEOLAR EPITHELIAL-CELLS   ALVEOLAR EPITHELIUM   Asthma, Cystic Fibrosis, obstructive airways, interstitial lung diseases, pulmonary fibrosis   Biomedical sciences   Biopharmaceutical aspects of drug delivery systems   BRONCHIAL EPITHELIUM   Cell and tissue development   Drug development and evaluation   IN VITRO MODEL   In vitro testing, trial methods   INHALATION   IN-VITRO CULTURE   LIPOSOMES   LUNG   Membrane transport, structure and dynamics   Physiological and physiochemical barriers to drug absorption   Physiology   Respiratory System

I have established an international reputation in the field of Pulmonary Biopharmaceutics. The scientific aim of my work is to describe the behaviour of drugs following their administration to the lung as inhaled aerosols, i.e. lung drug disposition and pulmonary epithelial transport. Moreover, I have developed a keen interest in the molecular origins of lung disease. Over the last 20 years, the incidence of lung-related diseases and the morbidity due to these conditions is increasing at more than 5% per year. With 1 in 7 people in Ireland having an undiagnosed lung condition and Ireland having the third highest death rate from lung disease in Europe, causing 1 in 5 deaths, the potential impact of my work becomes clear. In my lab we primarily employ pre-clinical models. We have established organotypic in vitro, ex vivo and experimental in vivo models, which allow a wide array of discovery and development studies. Inter alia, we have been credited with pioneering the development of primary cultures of human alveolar epithelial cells. The expertise of my laboratory includes techniques from the areas of pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, electrophysiology, cell and molecular biology and immunocytochemistry. The unique combination of cell physiological basis and pharmaceutical application has led to numerous research collaborations, nationally and internationally, as well as to a continuous stream of visiting researchers to my laboratory. At the moment, we are involved in a number of international, multidisciplinary, translational studies into the role that drug transporters play in the pathogenesis of lung diseases. In this context, we are studying, e.g. the role of ergothioneine and its physiological transporter OCTN1 in the development and progression of tobacco-related chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study brings together researcher from TCD, St. James's Hospital, Brigham Young University, University of Kanazawa and University Medical Center Groningen and is financially supported by a Clinical Investigator Award from the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI). My lab continuously publishes in in high ranking peer-reviewed journals in the subject areas of Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology and Physiology. One of the highlights of our endeavours so far was the invitation to publish a review article in Nature Chemistry (Zelikin et al. 2016). Another of our publications (Paszko et al. 2011) achieved highly cited paper status according to Essential Science Indicators, i.e. it has received enough citations to place it in the top 1% of its academic field based on a highly cited threshold for the field and publication year. Chapters from Drug Absorption Studies, a book edited by me and published by Springer in 2008, were downloaded >85,000 times, placing it in the top 25% most downloaded eBooks in the relevant eBook Collection in 2016. My total research grant income as PI amounts to more than 3.2 million euros, of which >440,000 euros were secured in the last three years. In addition, I am involved as co-PI in a number of international collaborations, e.g. a NFB Life Sciences grant from NFB with Dr Oliver Langer from Austrian Institute of Technology, TÜBITAK grant with Dr Ayca Yıldız Peköz from Istanbul University and a Lung Foundation Netherlands grant with Dr Irene Heijink from the University of Groningen.