Hello world! My name is Abhinav Thareja. I come from Delhi, the capital city of India. I had always wished to be a scientist and my inherent inquisitiveness for new technologies and a profound proclivity for experimentation eventually led me to pursue a Bachelor’s and Master’s Dual Engineering Degree in Nanotechnology from Amity University in India.

Eventually I developed a keen interest in biomedical applications of nanomaterials, specifically in Nanomedicine approaches for Controlled/Targeted Drug Delivery. I fabricated hydrogel-based stimuliresponsive polymer nanocomposites for topical drug delivery and potential tissue engineering purposes as part of my bachelor’s thesis. For my master’s thesis, I got a golden opportunity to join an internationally acclaimed CNRS laboratory with one of the pioneers in biomedical applications of Nano Metal Organic Frameworks (Nano-MOFs), Dr. Christian Serre in his research group Institute of Porous Materials of Paris at École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France, where I worked for six months. I graduated with my master’s thesis work on controlled delivery of poorly soluble anti-cancer chemotherapeutics using functionalized Nano-MOFs.

To further foster my academic and professional careers with a doctorate in a field pertinent to my background, I have now joined the ORBITAL-ITN consortium as a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher. I am working as a PhD candidate ESR 10 at the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham, UK. My project involves formulation of penetration enhancing polymeric transfection agents for sustained drug delivery of neuroprotective drugs to the posterior segments of the eye mainly to treat retinal damage and diseases like Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD).