Joseph Nicolazzo

Position

Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Graduate Research
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics
Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Joseph Nicolazzo graduated with a PhD in 2004 from Monash University (Australia) focusing on buccal mucosal drug delivery. He joined the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University in 2007 as a Lecturer, where he is now an Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Graduate Research. While he has some continuing interest in buccal mucosal drug delivery, his main research focus is on central nervous system (CNS) drug delivery, the role of drug transporters at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in facilitating and limiting drug access into the CNS, how transport across the BBB alters in neurodegenerative diseases, and how the BBB may be exploited to reverse pathology associated with Alzheimer’s disease. He is the author of 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is regularly invited to international conferences in the field of BBB biology, including Gordon Research Conference – Barriers of the CNS and International Conference on Cerebral Vascular Biology. Joseph is President of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association, Editor (Expert Reviews and Theme Issues) of Pharmaceutical Research, and an Editorial Board Member of Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, and Fluids and Barriers of the CNS. He received the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Young Investigator Award (2009), Early Career Research Award (2013) and Excellence in Postgraduate Supervision Award (2018).

Using a suite of in vitro, in situ and in vivo models, my research is broadly classified into:

• Understanding the factors affecting BBB transport of drugs and endogenous molecules
• The involvement of intracellular trafficking proteins in facilitating molecular transport across the BBB
• The impact of Alzheimer's disease and motor neurone disease on BBB transport of drugs and endogenous molecules
• Exploring molecular targets at the BBB that can be utilised to reverse cognitive dysfunction associated with Alzheimer's disease

Unit coordinator, PHR2021 (How Medicines Work III)

Lecturer

- PHR1022 (How Medicines Work II)

- PHR2021 (How Medicines Work III)

- BPS2041 (Drug Delivery and Pharmacokinetics)