Our people
Associate Professor Ali Seyfoddin is a pharmacist by training and a pharmaceutical scientist with well-established expertise in drug delivery and dosage form design. He works with a number of local agricultural and pharmaceutical companies, and has been the founding member of two startups commercialising encapsulated technologies.
Dr Ghada Zidan is a pharmaceutical development scientist, IP scientist and lecturer with a PhD in biomedical sciences from AUT. She has supervised one master's degree student to graduation and is currently supervising two PhD students from the Drug Delivery Research Group.
Project Title – Towards a whole spectrum medicinal cannabis extract: Development of a green extraction method.
Project Title – Optimised feed for New Zealand farmed abalone (Pāua).
Project Title- Formulation of cannabinoids for efficient buccal delivery.
Project Title- Developing efficient formulations for transdermal delivery of cannabinoids.
Other members and affiliates
- Nathan Fehr
MSc project title – Anticancer properties of CBG. - Lizzy Domigan
Honours project title - Developing a Micropropagation System for Cannabis sativa L. - Voice Excelsis
Honours project title - Effect of terpenes on penetration of cannabinoids. - Kathiya Almajarafi
Project title – Transdermal delivery of cannabinoids. - Mithul Patel
Project title – Transdermal delivery of cannabinoids.
- Abby Long (PhD student)
- Soniya Mohamamdi
- Sara Masoomi Dezfooli (PhD student and postdoctoral fellow)
- Lari Dkhar (PhD student)
- Hamideh Gholizadeh (PhD student)
- Shaakila Nordien (MSc student)
- Alaitz Etxabide (Postdoctoral fellow)
- Craig Serpes (Master student)
- Yun Chen (MSc student)
- Caroline Kornelsen, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Little Rock, Arkansas, USA)
- Stephanie Torres (Chapman University, CA, USA)
- Kaitlyn Pierson (University of Tennessee Knoxville)
- Stefan John (University of Tennessee Knoxville)
- Mallory Stevenson (University of Tennessee Knoxville)
- Nadja Kranz (Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany)
- Anna-Francesca Di Meo (Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany)
- Iris van Brakel (Intern, Hogeschool Utrecht)
- Eline Colijn (Intern, The Haque University)
- Ivana Overduin (Intern, The Haque University)
- Soniya Mohammadi (Master student)
- Khiana Coles - Idaho University (Microbiology Intern)
- Tess Kobossen (Intern)
- Kiki van den Brule (Intern)
- Yutao Chen (Summer student)
- Hamideh Gholizadeh (Summer student)
- Hyeon Ji Kim (Postgraduate research student)
- Bessma Sikouk (International intern)
- Constance Hage
- Chloe Bonnot
- Baptiste Clerot
- Amanda Dobson
- Judith Ott (Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany)
- Athan Sanders (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA)
Collaborate with DDRG
There are many ways to get involved in our research. We work with private businesses, and consult and provide expertise for a number of enterprises.