Predicting and visualising the initial gel formation and swelling of matrices using advanced imaging

目前，制药行业对连续制造的兴趣很高，在大多数现代工业中，这一工艺逐渐取代了传统的分步制造工艺。尽管取得了这些进展，但仍存在一些差距和挑战，必须加以解决，才能使连续生产成为制药业的可行方法。为了确保这一过程在缓释制剂方面的稳健性，了解片剂的溶胀动力学非常重要，因为它们可以深入了解药物在体内释放的可能行为。对于工业界和学术界的材料和配方科学家来说，开发一种能够研究和模拟各种亲水性压坯的膨胀动力学的方法将是非常重要的。对这一点的正确理解还将带来更大的洞察力，使设计配方能够提供更高的质量，从而可能降低工业成本，从而增加这项工作的影响。该项目将使用先进的成像技术，如溶解成像、X射线微层析成像和AlconaTM的变焦(FV)光学表面测量仪器，作为验证、鉴定和PAT测试的工具，以生成数学预测模型。

There is currently a high level of interest in continuous manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry with this process gradually replacing the traditional step-by-step manufacturing process in the majority of modern industries. Despite these advances, there are gaps and challenges that must be addressed to enable continuous manufacturing to be a viable approach in the pharmaceutical industry. To ensure the robustness of this process in regards to extended release formulations, it is greatly important to understand the swelling kinetics of tablet compacts as they give insights into the possible behavior of drug release in vivo. The development of a method that allows the swelling kinetics of various hydrophilic compacts to be studied and modelled would be of great importance to material and formulation scientists in both industry and academia. A proper understanding of this would also give greater insights that would allow quality by design formulations that may potentially drive down costs for industry thereby increasing the impact of this work. This project will use advanced imaging techniques such as dissolution imaging, X-ray micro-tomography and a Focus Variation (FV) optical surface metrology instrument from AliconaTM as a tool for validation, qualification and PAT testing in generating a mathematical predictive models.