Hagar Labouta, BSc, MSc, PhD

College of Pharmacy research theme

Drug discovery, design, development and delivery

Research affiliations

  • Adjunct professor, Biomedical Engineering, University of Manitoba
  • Scientist, Children Hospital’s Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM)

Keywords

  • Crossing biological barrier
  • Drug delivery
  • Drug targeting
  • Nanomedicine
  • Nanoparticle design
  • Nanotechnology

Research summary

Nanomedicine is a multidisciplinary branch of science that currently receives a lot of attention from researchers in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. The Labouta Lab is using state-of-the-art nanotechnologies and microfluidic lab-on-a-chip models for designing and evaluating nanoparticles (engineered particles on the nanometer scale). The use of nanoparticles in drug delivery offers several advantages, such as site-specific targeting, minimal side-effects, prolonged drug release, and improved drug stability and bioavailability.

Key research areas of the Labouta lab:

  • Drug delivery and tumour targeting
  • Nanoparticle interaction with the placenta for treating maternal and fetal diseases
  • Vascular trafficking of nanoparticles

Biography

Dr. Hagar Labouta is an assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy, with extensive research experience in nanomedicine, drug delivery, and biomedical engineering. Her lab is well-funded by New Frontiers in Research Fund, NSERC and the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Labouta has a strong publication record and is a co-inventor on an international patent for the development of carrier systems for intracellular drug targeting.

Throughout her career, she has collaborated with several multi-disciplinary teams in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, USA, Egypt and Finland. She has also worked with the World Health Organization on two health-related projects.

Education

PhD in pharmaceutical nanotechnology at Saarland University (Germany). She focused on understanding the interaction of gold nanoparticles with skin layers using multiphoton microscopy.

Postdoctoral fellow at the drug delivery department, Helmholtz institute for Pharmaceutical Research (Germany) under the supervision of Professor Claus-Michael Lehr where she focused on the development of cellular bioinvasive nanoparticles for drug delivery and infection control, as well as designing nanoparticle-based inhalations for the treatment of cystic fibrosis.

Postdoctoral scholar at the University of Calgary (Canada), where she focused on other nanomedicinal research areas at the department of chemistry under the supervision of professor David Cramb and the department of biomedical engineering under the supervision of professor Kristina Rinker. The main focus of her research was tumour targeting and designing new platforms and frameworks for the in vitro assessment of cellular toxicity of nanoparticles.

Teaching postdoctoral scholar in STEM education research, faculty of science, University of Calgary (Canada). She received a grant through the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning to study interdisciplinary science learning. 

Awards

  • Interstellar Initiative Award, New York Academy of Sciences (USA)
  • Curriculum award for the Nanoscience Minor Program, Taylor Institute for T & L (Canada)
  • Innovation and Career Development Award, Biomedical Engineering Society (USA) Apotheker Jacob Prize, Saarland and Mainz Universities (Germany)

 

Contact us

College of Pharmacy
Apotex Centre
750 McDermot Avenue West
University of Manitoba (Bannatyne campus)
Winnipeg, MB R3E 0T5 Canada

pharmacy@umanitoba.ca
204-474-9306
204-789-3744