Hanieh is wearing a cream coloured top and a gold necklaces with multicoloured beads. She has short brown hair and brown eyes and is smiling into the camera.

Dr Hanieh Khalili

Associate Professor in Pharmaceutics
Head of the Biotherapeutic Research Group
School of Medicine and Biosciences
Hanieh.khalili@uwl.ac.uk

After completing my PhD in Pharmaceutics department at University College London (UCL) School of Pharmacy in 2012, I joined the Institute of Ophthalmology at UCL to work as a postdoctoral research associate. During my postdoc, I worked in multidisciplinary translational research group, supervised by Profs Sir Peng Tee Khaw and Steve Brocchini, to develop antibody-based medicine such as bispecific antibodies and fusion proteins to modulate ocular healing after surgery and to develop dosage forms to inhibit inflammation, angiogenesis and fibrosis generally within the eye. In 2016, I joined the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience at the University of East London as a lecturer and then senior lecturer in Pharmaceutics. In 2022, I joined the School of Biomedical Science at the University of West London to continue with my academic role.

My research interests lie in the area of drug development and formulation, in general, and with therapeutic applications in particular. I am currently leading a research group focused on the development and formulation of the novel antibody-based mimetics for chronic diseases, such as ocular neovascularisation and uveitis, looking into ways of improving the sustained release profile with enhanced stability and extended duration of action. This translational research is crucial in developing next-generation biotherapeutics with great potential in the improvement of human health and wellbeing. This work will also benefit pharmaceutical companies (Big Pharma) involved in the biotherapeutic manufacturing and formulation.

I served as a peer reviewer for more than 10 research journals and act as topic editor and guest editor for two journals.

  • Qualifications

    • BSc in Chemistry (University of Shiraz, Iran)
    • MSc in Analytical Chemistry (Isfahan University of Technology, Iran)
    • MSc in Drug Delivery (UCL School of Pharmacy, UK)
    • PhD in Pharmaceutics (UCL School of Pharmacy, UK)
    • PGCE (University of East London, UK)

  • Memberships

    Fellow of High Education Academy (FHEA
    Member of Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC

Teaching

Courses taught:

Cardiovascular, pulmonary, and renal pharmacology for L5 Pharmacology course Research Methods for L5 Biomedical science and Pharmacology courses.

Research

See Dr Hanieh Khalili's publications list in the UWL Repository.

Research fields:

  • Antibody-based medicine including monoclonal antibodies, Fc-fusion and scFv development, characterisation and formulation
  • Biotherapeutics formulation and stability determination
  • Bispecific antibody mimetic for ocular disease
  • Antibody fragments scFv and their characterisation
  • Machine learning in Pharmaceutics

Hanieh is also Head of the Biotherapeutic Research Group at UWL.

  • Research and publications

    Publications

    S. Prikalkhoran, D. Guilian, H. Khalili, Storage Stability and Solution Binding Affinity of an Fc-Fusion Mimetic, Journal of Pharmaceutical Science, Nov 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xphs.2024.11.016

    M. Collins , N. Ibeanu, WR. Grabowska, S. Awwad, PT. Khaw, S. Brocchini, H. Khalili. Bispecific FpFs: a versatile tool for preclinical antibody development. RSC Chem Biol. 2024 Sep 27. https://doi: 10.1039/d4cb00130c

    S. Pirkalkhoran, W. Grabowska, H. Kashkoli, R. Mirhassani, D. Guiliano, C. Dolphin, H. Khalili “Bioengineering of antibody fragments: Challenges and Opportunities”  Bioengineering, (2023), 10 (2), 122. https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering10020122

    M. Collins, H. Khalili, “Soluble Papain to Digest Monoclonal Antibodies; Time and Cost-Effective Method to Obtain Fab Fragment” Bioengineering (2022), 9(5), 209; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9050209

    M. Collins, S. Awwad, N. Ibeanu, P. T. Khaw,  D. Guiliano, S. Brocchini,  H. Khalili: “Dual acting therapeutic proteins for intraocular use” Drug Discovery Today, (2021), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2020.10.025.

    H.Khalili:“Using different proteolytic enzymes to digest antibody and its impact on stability of antibody mimetics”Journal of Immunological Methods, (2021), 21:112933.

    C. Picken,S. Awwad, M. Zloh,H. Khalili,and S. Brocchini: “Protein Modification by Bis-alkylation” Chapter 16, Polymer-protein Conjugate book, (2020), Pages 351-385

    H. Khalili P. T. Khaw, S. Brocchini, Sergey K. Filippov: “Comparative thermodynamic analysis in solution of a next generation antibody mimetic to VEGF” RSC advance, (2018), 8: 35787.

    H. Khalili, R. W. Lee, P. T. Khaw, S. Brocchini, A. Dick, D. Copland: “Anti-TNFa antibody mimetic to treat ocular inflammation” Scientific Reports-Nature. (2016), 6: 36905.

    H. Khalili*, S. Brocchini, P. T. Khaw: “Fc-fusion mimetics”, Biomaterials Science. (2016), 4(6):943‐947.

    H. Khalili*, S. Brocchini, P. T. Khaw, A. Khalili, G. Sharma: “ The increased stability of FpFs compared to monoclonal antibodies”, IOVS, (2015), 56: 377.

    H. Khalili*, G. Sharma, S. Brocchini, P. T. Khaw: “Storage stability of bevacizumab in polycarbonate and polypropylene syringes”, Nature, Eye (2015), 29: 820-827. *Corresponding author

    C. Ginn, H. Khalili, R. Lever, S. Brocchini: “PEGylation and its impact on the design of new protein-based medicines”, Future Med. Chem (2014), 6(16): 1829–1846.

    H. Khalili, A. Godwin, J. Choi, R. Lever, P. T. Khaw, S. Brocchini: “Fab-PEG-Fab as a potential antibody mimetic” Bioconjugate Chemistry (2013), 24 (11): 1870–1882.

    A. Herrington-Symes, M. Farys, H. Khalili, S. Brocchini: “Antibody fragments: Prolonging circulation half-life special issue-antibody research”, Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology (2013), 4(5): 689-698.

    M. Farys, C Ginn, G Badescu, K Peciak, E Pawlisz, H. Khalili, S Brocchini: Invited book chapter review on “Chemical and genetic modification” in Biological and Drug Products; development and Strategies book; Wiley 2013, Edited by W. Wang and M. Singh.

    H. Khalili, A. Godwin, J. Choi, R. Lever, S. Brocchini: “Comparative binding of disulfide-bridged PEG-Fabs”, Bioconjugate Chemistry (2012), 23 (11): 2262-77.

    H. Khalili, Rafiee Z, B. Rezaei, Sh. Mallakpour: “A simple and rapid spectrophotometric method for the determination of ultra trace amounts of thallium (III) with 4-(4'-N,N-dimethylaminophenyl) urazole as a new reagent”. Ann Chim. (2005), 95 (11-12): 897-903.

    H. Khalili, B. Rezaei, Sh. Mallakpour: “Spectrophotometric Flow Injection determination of trace amounts of thallium with 4-(4¢-N,N-Dimethylaminophenyl) urazole as a new reagent”. The Canadian Journal of Analytical Sciences and Spectroscopy, (2005), 50 (6).

    Funding

    • Royal Society, Research Grant, £20,000 (UK, 2022).
    • Royal Society of Chemistry, Research fund, £4000 (UK, 2022).
    • Equipment fund, £20,000 (Collaboration fund, UK, 2022).
    • Equipment fund, £25,000 (Collaboration fund, UK, 2022).
    • KTP fund from UWL, £3000.

  • Conferences

    Selected podium presentations (from 27 podiums)

    H. Khalili: “Dual acting therapeutic protein for intraocular use” Distinguished speaker at Global Ophthalmology and Eye disease  Drug USA, 2021.

    H. Khalili: “Antibody mimetic; A better antibody-based medicine” Invited plenary speaker at Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery System, Spain, 2017.

    H. Khalili: “Bispecific cytokine antibody mimetics for vascular disease” Invited speaker in an international workshop on cardiovascular biology and translational medicine, Royal College of Physicians, London, UK, 2016.

    H. Khalili: Invited to run a workshop on “Therapeutic antibodies; Fundamental, Efficacy, and Stability”, AryoGen Pharmed Co. Tehran, Iran, 2016.

    H. Khalili: “Antibody mimetic” Invited speaker in MedImmune KTN formulation meeting, Cambridge, UK, 2015.

    H. Khalili, D. Copland, P. T. Khaw, A. Dick, S. Brocchini: “Ocular inflammation; Infliximab antibody mimetic” Podium in Inflammation and Immunity symposium, London, UK, 2015.

    Selected poster presentations (from 48 posters; 2019 posters)

    H. Khalili, et al: “Stability studies of anti-VEGF FpFs obtained from bevacizumab digested with different enzymes”in American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientist (AAPS) Annual Meeting, San Antonio, USA, 2019.

    H. Khalili, et al: “Thermodynamic properties of anti-VEGF F antibody mimetic in the solution”in Control Release Society (CRS) Annual Meeting, Spain, July 2019.

    H. Khalili, et al: “Lyophilisation of an anti-VEGF antibody mimetic to make a solid implant” in Control Release Society (CRS) Annual Meeting, Spain, July 2019.

    H. Khalili, et al: “Binding characterization of bispecific antibody mimetics” in Control Release Society (CRS) Annual Meeting, Spain, July 2019.

  • Research degree supervision

    Completed PhD students:

    • Matthew Collins

    Research students:

    • Camelia Bogdan
    • Arian Farokh Boroojerdi
    • Wiktoria Roksana Grabowska
    • Vaishnavi Jambhorkar
    • Hadeel Kadhim
    • Hamid Heidari Kashkooli
    • Sama Pirkalkhoran

    Available research degree projects:

    • Engineering of bispecific single chain fragment using chemical-recombinant approach 
    • Development of bispecific antibody-based mimetics 
    • Artificial intelligence aided design to develop 3D scaffold for retinal regeneration 
    • Artificial intelligence aided design of 3D printing of immunostimulatory implants for cancer T cell therapy

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