Central nervous system ailments are considered difficult to treat due to ineffective delivery of CNS drugs to specific disease sites. This critical issue arises because of blood-brain-barrier and blood-cerebrospinal fluid-barrier that restricts entry of therapeutic actives across the brain. The consequential low brain bioavailability of drug requires higher doses at frequent intervals which compromise both treatment feasibility and efficacy. In this context, our lab is focusing on development of nanotechnology based treatment modalities for alleviation of neurodegenerative disorders, brain carcinomas and infections which are of prime concern. Particularly, our research is aimed at development of delivery systems based on colloidal nanocarriers, lipid nanoparticles, microemulsions etc. which by virtue of their nanometric size offer enhanced uptake across brain. Further, we are involved in designing targeted nanocarriers exhibiting synergistic uptake across brain barriers owing to their nano size and selective receptor transport. More specifically, we are working in design and synthesis of novel conjugates tagged with ligand molecules as brain transporters and their application towards development of drug loaded smart nanosized delivery systems towards enhancement of drug bioavailability in the brain.  

Radiopharmaceuticals are pharmaceutical compounds that are labeled with radioisotopes and aimed at diagnosis and therapy. Radiopharmaceuticals are composed of a radioisotope and a carrier molecule. After administration radioisotopes emit radiations based on the type of radioisotope and this may further be used for mapping endogenous sites and imaging purposes or in treatment. The research in our group in this area is currently aimed at imaging of different drug molecules post administration in the body by different routes. The method is less tedious than other analytical methods like HPLC, while at the same time having excellent sensitivity. We have already developed and administered technetium labeled drug molecules via intranasal route and received encouraging results. In future we are planning to explore this particular area for diverse dose administration routes and by using other radioisotopes.