Matthias G. Wacker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacy of the National University of Singapore (NUS). Initially, he studied Pharmacy at Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany) where he obtained his doctoral degree in pharmaceutical technology. As a principal investigator, he has joined Jennifer Dressman and Jörg Kreuter in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology, Goethe University. There he accomplished his habilitation1 exploring the rational design of nanocarriers and was awarded the Venia legendi in pharmaceutical technology. Before joining NUS, he headed the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Nanosciences of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology in Frankfurt. Currently, he serves the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics and the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology as an editorial board member. Further, he is a scientific advisor to the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences editors and was guest editor for the Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology and Frontiers in Chemistry. He was honored with the Eudragit® Best Paper Award (2014) and the Phoenix Pharmaceutics Science Award (2017) in recognition of his research excellence. From 2020-2025, he is a member of the General Chapters – Dosage Forms Expert Committee and the Expert Panel on New Advancements in In-Vitro Product Performance Testing of the United States Pharmacopeial Convention. Also, he is co-founder and scientific advisor of the NUS spin-off company DissometRx Pte. Ltd. which develops novel release test methods for the pharmaceutical industry. His research focuses on the development and characterization of nanomedicines following a quality-by-design approach. He explores new biopredictive release methods that can be used to forecast the in-vivo performances of complex oral and injectable dosage forms. This allows the optimal formulations to be selected in development and for clinical translation.
LI Zhuoxuan
Ph.D. / Research Fellow
National University of Singapore / Wet Science Building (S9) / Level 15
Pharmacy Research Laboratories
Harshvardhan MODH
Ph.D. / Key Safety Lead and Research fellow
National University of Singapore / Wet Science Building (S9) / Level 15
Pharmacy Research Laboratories
GAN Jun Hao Kennard
Senior Research Fellow
National University of Singapore / Wet Science Building (S9) / Level 15
Pharmacy Research Laboratories
Namrata DHAKAL
Pharmacist, Ph.D. student
National University of Singapore / Wet Science Building (S9) / Level 15
Pharmacy Research Laboratories
LEONG Kok Liang Dylan
Pharmacist, Ph.D. student
National University of Singapore / Wet Science Building (S9) / Level 15
Pharmacy Research Laboratories
Elena FECIORU
External Ph.D. student (PHAST-Eurofins)
Mail: fecioru [a] em.uni-frankfurt .de
David LI
Pharmacist, Ph.D. student
National University of Singapore / Wet Science Building (S9) / Level 15
Pharmacy Research Laboratories
Shakti NAGPAL
M.Pharma, Ph.D. student
National University of Singapore / Wet Science Building (S9) / Level 15
Pharmacy Research Laboratories
WANG Tianqi
MSc student
National University of Singapore / Wet Science Building (S9) / Level 15
Pharmacy Research Laboratories
Chantal WALLENWEIN
Pharmacist, Ph.D. student
Mail: wallenwein [a] em.uni-frankfurt.de
Alumni
Research Fellows
- Bassam AL MESLMANI
- Mukul ASHTIKAR
- Maria GOMES
- Saeed SHANEHSAZZADEH
- Perumal Samy RAMAR
Ph.D. students
- Susanne BEYER
Thesis title: Development of nanoparticulate drug formulations for the therapy of Multiple Sclerosis. - Laura JABLONKA
Thesis title: Development of physiology-based release and pharmacokinetic models for liposomal drug delivery systems - Christine JANAS
Thesis title: Development of an apparatus for in vitro testing of drug release from colloidal drug carriers. - Fabian JUNG
Thesis title: Development of a physiology-based pharmacokinetic model for micro- and nanoparticulate dosage forms with special consideration of environmental aspects. - Lisa NOTHNAGEL
Thesis title: Development of patient-friendly drug formulations of R-flurbiprofen for the therapy of Multiple Sclerosis. - Marc-Phillip MAST (All but dissertation)
- Fiona GAO (All but dissertation)
Ph.D. students (Co-Supervisor)
- Xie KIRSAMER
- Monica VILLA-NOVA
1 The term habilitation is derived from the Medieval Latin “habilitare“, meaning “to make suitable, to fit” and, in the German system, is obtained after several years of independent research. It is required to obtain the “venia legendi“, the permission to lecture at a university.