The 35 graduates of the BSc Clinical Pharmacy are the first to complete the innovative five-year programme, which combines science, clinical practice and inter-professional education with hands-on placements in community healthcare settings.

Created to equip the next generation of clinical pharmacists in China with the skills needed to improve patient care and respond to growing healthcare demands identified within the Healthy China 2030 policy, the programme is delivered through a collaboration between The University of ԰������ and China Pharmaceutical University (CPU) in Nanjing. Its distinctive five-year dual award structure draws on the strengths of both institutions.

The students, who joined the programme’s first intake in 2021, studied in both countries. They began with foundational training in China, continued with advanced clinical teaching in ԰������, and then returned to China to apply their skills in practice.

Clinical pharmacists play a vital role in modern healthcare, working alongside doctors, nurses and other professionals to ensure patients receive the safest and most effective medicines. While the role is well established in the UK, it is still developing in China, where demand for highly skilled pharmacy professionals continues to grow.

These graduates enter the workforce at a time of increasing pressure on healthcare systems worldwide. The World Health Organization has identified a major global shortage of health workers, driven by ageing populations and rising levels of chronic disease. Medication errors also remain a serious challenge, costing an estimated $42 billion each year and often reflecting shortages in workforce capacity and medicines expertise. Strengthening the pharmacy workforce is therefore essential to improving patient safety and delivering more effective, patient-centred care.

A University of ԰������ delegation, including Professor Keith Brennan, Vice-Dean for Internationalisation, joined senior leaders from CPU at the graduation event to show their support for the programme. Both institutions see it as critical to delivering long-term benefits for healthcare systems in China and the UK.

Professor Keith Brennan said: “This first cohort demonstrates how international partnerships can help co-develop the future healthcare workforce. Together with our colleagues at CPU, we are supporting the development of highly skilled clinical pharmacists who will play a vital role in improving patient outcomes and strengthening healthcare systems.”

Professor Rong Hu, Dean of School of Basic Medicine and Clinical Pharmacy at China Pharmaceutical University and Honorary Professor of the University of ԰������ said: “It is wonderful to see our first cohort graduate. I would like to express our sincere gratitude to The University of ԰������ for two years of dedicated teaching and support. We wish all graduates every success in their future careers and look forward to their contributions to global healthcare.”

Professor Li-Chia Chen said: “We are incredibly proud to see our first graduates. These students represent the future of clinical pharmacy in China, equipped with the skills, confidence and international perspective needed to improve patient care and support more patient-centred healthcare in the community.”

The partnership marks a significant step forward in developing the clinical pharmacy workforce in China, while strengthening long-term links between the UK and China in health education, research and innovation.

• Read more about our teaching partnerships in China

The study at the University’s NanoCell Biology Lab at the Centre for Nanotechnology in Medicine is published in the influential journal .

Though not expected to replace animal models completely, human organoids could soon lead to significant reductions in research animal numbers, the team led by cell biologist and nanotoxicologist Dr Sandra Vranic argues.

Grown in a dish from human stem cells, lung organoids are multicellular, three-dimensional structures that aim to recreate key features of human tissues such as cellular complexity and architecture.

They are increasingly used to better understand various pulmonary diseases, from cystic fibrosis to lung cancer, and infectious diseases including SARS-CoV-2.

However, their ability to capture tissue responses to nanomaterial exposure has until now not been shown.

To expose the organoid model to carbon-based nanomaterials, Dr Rahaf Issa, lead scientist in Dr Vranic’s group, developed a method to accurately dose and microinject nanomaterials into the organoid’s lumen.

It simulated the real-life exposure of the apical pulmonary epithelium, the outermost layer of cells lining respiratory passages within the lungs.

Existing animal research data has shown that a type of long and rigid multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) can cause adverse effects in lungs, leading to persistent inflammation and fibrosis - a serious type of irreversible scarring in the lung.

Using the same biological endpoints, the team’s human lung organoids showed a similar biological response, which validates them as tools for predicting nanomaterial driven responses in lung tissue.

The human organoids enabled better understanding of interactions of nanomaterials with the model tissue, but at the cellular level.

Graphene oxide (GO), a flat, thin and flexible form of carbon nanomaterial, was found to be momentarily trapped out of harm’s way in a substance produced by the respiratory system called secretory mucin.

In contrast, MWCNT induced a more persistent interaction with the alveolar cells, with more limited mucin secretion and leading to the growth of fibrous tissue.

In a further development, Dr Issa and Vranic based at the University’s for in Medicine are now developing and studying a ground-breaking human lung organoid that also contains an integrated immune cell component.

Dr Vranic said: “With further validation, prolonged exposure, and the incorporation of an immune component, human lung organoids could greatly reduce the need for animals used in nanotoxicology research.

 “Developed to encourage humane animal research, the 3Rs of replacement, reduction and refinement are now embedded in UK law and in many other countries.

“Public attitudes consistently show that support for animal research is conditional on the 3Rs being put into practice.”

Professor Kostas Kostarelos, Chair of Nanomedicine at the University said: “Current ‘2D testing’ of nanomaterials using two-dimensional cell culture models provide some understanding of cellular effects, but they are so simplistic as it can only partially depict the complex way cells communicate with each other.

“It certainly does not represent the complexity of the human pulmonary epithelium and may misrepresent the toxic potential of nanomaterials, for better or for worse.

”Though animals will still be needed in research for the foreseeable future, ‘3D’ organoids nevertheless are an exciting prospect in our research field and in research more generally as a human equivalent and animal alternative.”

, led by Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in collaboration with the Laboratory of Soft Biolectronic Interfaces at EPFL in Lausanne and ԰������’s National Graphene Institute (NGI), mixed carbon nanotubes with a water-based, defect-free solution of graphene, by a team led by Professor Cinzia Casiraghi.

Electrodes are frequently used in medicine to monitor or deliver electrical impulses inside and outside the human body, however performance is currently limited by the rigidity of devices that do not match the soft springiness of living tissue, a property known as viscoelasticity. Electrodes may detach under movement or require greater current to affect their intended target because their shape does not fit precisely to the host site.

The key, according to lead authors Ms Christina Tringides and Professor David Mooney from Harvard, was a hydrogel that could mimic the viscoelasticity of tissue, alongside a conductive ink that could also perform well under flexion.

Replacing rigid metals

Tringides and Mooney, in collaboration with the  in ԰������, identified a mixture of graphene flakes and carbon nanotubes as the best conductive filler, replacing the use of traditional rigid metals.

“Part of the advantage of these materials is their long and narrow shape," explained Tringides. "It’s a bit like throwing a box of uncooked spaghetti on the floor – because the noodles are all long and thin, they’re likely to cross each other at multiple points. If you throw something shorter and rounder on the floor, like rice, many of the grains won’t touch at all.”

While the carbon nanotubes used are commercially available, the graphene flake suspension is a process patented by The University of ԰������, currently exploited for printed electronics and biomedical applications. This work demonstrated that you need both materials to achieve optimal electrode performance - carbon nanotubes or graphene alone would not suffice.

Cinzia Casiraghi, Professor of Nanoscience from the NGI and Department of Chemistry at ԰������, said: “This work demonstrates that high-quality graphene dispersions - made in water by a simple process based on a molecule that one can buy from any chemical supply - have strong potential in bioelectronics. We are very interested in exploiting our graphene (and other 2D materials) inks in this field.”

Collaborative effort

Kostas Kostarelos, Professor of Nanomedicine and leader of the Nanomedicine Lab, added: “This truly collaborative effort between three institutions is a step forward in the development of softer, more adaptable and electroactive devices, where traditional technologies based on bulk and rigid materials cannot be applied to soft tissues such as the brain.”

This research in ԰������ was supported by the EPSRC Programme Grant  and the International Centre-to-Centre grant with Harvard. Other funders include the: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, Bertarelli Foundation, Wyss Center Geneva, and SNSF Sinergia. 

Advanced materials is one of The University of ԰������’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships that are tackling some of the biggest questions facing the planet. #ResearchBeacons

[Main image copyright of Wyss Institute at Harvard University]