Rate My Professor Sumit Dadhwal

Dr. Sumit Dadhwal is a Research Fellow and serves as team leader of the Animal Health Formulations and Product Innovations group at the School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, within the Faculty of Health Sciences. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Otago in 2018, presenting the thesis "Development and Applications of Stimuli-Responsive Drug Delivery Strategies." During his post-doctoral training, Dadhwal worked as a formulation scientist for Elanco Animal Health (previously Bayer Animal Health), where he developed intramammary formulations for dairy cows. In his leadership role, he leverages expertise in synthesis, formulation science, and drug delivery to advance sustained-release veterinary formulations, contributing to pharmaceutical innovations that enhance animal welfare, such as collaborations with Associate Professor Greg Walker on multiple drug projects.

Dadhwal's research specializations include the development and evaluation of novel drug delivery platforms, targeted and disease-specific formulations for bioactive molecules, polymer chemistry, and veterinary formulations. His expertise areas encompass small organic molecule synthesis, block co-polymer synthesis, engineering formulations for biopharmaceuticals, project management, pre-clinical studies, sustained-release veterinary formulations, and intramammary formulations for dairy cows. Key publications include "Liposomes with cyclodextrin channels and polyethyleneimine (PEI) improves cytoplasmic vaccine delivery and induces anti-cancer immune activity in mice" (Journal of Liposome Research, 2022, co-authored with A. Lee and A.B. Gamble), "Synthesis and formulation of self-immolative PEG-aryl azide block copolymers and nanoparticles" (Journal of Polymer Science, 2021), "Alkene-Azide 1,3-Dipolar Cycloaddition as a Trigger for Ultrashort Peptide Hydrogel Dissolution" (ChemBioChem, 2019), "Tetrafluoroaryl azide as an N-terminal capping group for click-to-dissolve diphenylalanine hydrogels" (Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 2020), and "Honey reduces the metastatic characteristics of prostate cancer cell lines by promoting a loss of adhesion" (Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 2018). He has delivered verbal presentations and published abstracts at events such as the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry Conference (2024), New Zealand Controlled Release Society Symposium (2023, 2022), and School of Pharmacy Research Day (2022). Dadhwal received a Division of Health Sciences Accelerator Grant in 2022 ($1,891) for targeted and responsive delivery of antisense oligonucleotides for triple negative breast cancer. Additionally, he holds the position of Secretary for the New Zealand Local Chapter of the Controlled Release Society.