Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutics
Pfizer Distinguished Chair of Pharmaceutical Technology

Biography

Biography

Dr. Burgess received her B.Sc. degree in Pharmacy from the University of Strathclyde, U.K. (1979) and her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of London, U.K. (1984). She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Universities of Nottingham, U.K. (1984-1985) and North Carolina (1985). Dr. Burgess joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1986 as Assistant and then Associate Professor and moved to the University of Connecticut in 1993. She was promoted to Professor in 1999, appointed Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutics in 2009, before becoming the Pfizer Distinguished Chair in Pharmaceutical Technology in 2018.

Students Advised

  • Major Advisor to 47 Ph.D. and 4 M.S. (major advisor) (43 graduated, 8 current Ph.D. students)
  • Major Advisor to 23 postdoctoral fellows and 12 visiting research fellows (34 previous and 1 current)
  • Major Advisor to 107 undergraduate research students (including 22 honors students) (105 previous, 2 current)

Most senior graduate students have received awards for their research: 19 have received AAPS graduate student research awards; 12 have received the AAPS IPEC Foundation Excipient Graduate Student award; 2 have received Pre-doctoral Fellowship from American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE); 1 has received the outstanding research award from the Diabetes Technology Society; 5 have received UCONN, campus-wide research achievement awards; 2 were winners of the Schering-Plough Science and Innovation Award; 22 have received departmental research awards; 25 have received the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Award from UCONN Graduate School; 4 have received UCONN campus-wide Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the Year Awards and 2 have received UConn Outstanding Senior Women Achievement Award. One postdoc has received the AAPS postdoctoral fellow research award. Seven undergraduate research students have received a total of 13 research awards from UConn Office of Undergraduate Research.

Publications and Presentations

  • 277 referred publications in international journals with 18711 total citations, 8390 since 2017, H-index 74 (data from Google Scholar, June 26, 2023)
  • 710 research presentations
  • 335 invited lectures and presentations, including 24 keynote and plenary addresses

Funding

  • $28.7 million (US) in research funding from government agencies, research institutions and companies, including $6 million in last three years (2020 - 2022)

Founder, DIANT Pharma

Founded in 2019, DIANT Pharma develops proprietary continuous manufacturing technology for nanoparticles with a wide array of applications throughout multiple industries, such as lipid nanoparticles and liposomes for pharmaceutical formulations. Using a proprietary, continuous ethanol-injection system, we are able to form nanoparticles with controlled particle size at high flow rates. We offer a robust, continuous platform for nanoparticle concentration and sterile filtration and have experience with in-line processing and concentrating systems. DIANT also boasts a continuous drug encapsulation technique to achieve ~100% drug encapsulation. We have created modular technology that can be used to produce a variety of complex drug delivery products, and offer technology that is robust and reliable over the entire lifespan of our product.

Dr. Burgess’ key awards and honors

  • 2018 AAPS Dale E. Wurster Award for Excellence in Pharmaceutics Research
  • 2014 AAPS Research Achievement Award in Formulation Design and Development
  • 2014 AAPS Outstanding Educator Award in Pharmaceutical Technology
  • 2014 CRS (Controlled Release Society) Distinguished Service Award
  • 2013 AAPS IPEC Ralph Shangraw Memorial Award, for outstanding research in the area of pharmaceutical excipients.

Dr. Burgess is a fellow of AAPS (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists) and of AIMBE (American Institute for Medical Biological Engineering). She served as elected President of AAPS in 2002 and CRS (Controlled Release Society) in 2009. She is a member of the USP Biopharmaceutics Expert committee and the USP Advisory Panel on Injectables. Dr. Burgess has served on NIH study sections on Drug Delivery and Biomedical engineering, Drug Delivery and Drug Discovery, Gene and Drug Delivery, and Nanomedicene as well as many special study sections for NIDA, NIDDK and NCI (2001- to date). In 2001 she undertook a sabbatical at the Office of Testing and Research at CDER, FDA. She consults for pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic and other industries.

Editorial memberships

  • International Journal of Pharmaceutics (2004-Date)
  • The AAPS Journal (1999-Date)
  • AAPS Pharm Sci Tech (2001-Date)
  • The Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology (2003-Date)
  • Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology (1997-Date)
  • Journal of Microencapsulation (1997-Date)
  • Current Drug Discovery (1998-Date)
  • Critical Reviews in Therapeutic Drug Carrier Systems (2004-Date)
  • Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology (2006 – Date)
  • The Journal of Drug Delivery and Transformational Research (2011-Date)
  • Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (2011-Date)

Patents

Patents

  1. J. Burgess, X. Wang, Q. Bo, M.S Suh, M. Kastellorizios. "Dissolution adapter and method of use". This patent has been licensed to Sotax. July 21, 2021.
  2. J. Burgess, X. Wang. “Long-acting injectable in situ forming biodegradable implants comprising non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs”. United States Provisional Patent Application, 63/285,169. December 2, 2021.
  3. P. Costa, D.J. Burgess. “System and Method for Single-Pass Operation of Membrane Holder”. United States Patent Application, PCT/US2022/032113. Pending June 3, 2022.
  4. J. Burgess, J. He, Q. Bao. “Implantable medical catheter with enhanced biocompatibility and longevity”. United States Patent Application, PCT/US2021/051257. Published September 21, 2021.
  5. V. Lalla, D.J. Burgess, T Li. “Long-acting local anesthetic formulation”. United States Patent Application Reference Number: 1137586. Filed May 2018.
  6. P. Costa, D.J. Burgess. A Continuous Processing System and Methods for Internal and External Modifications to Nanoparticles United States Patent Application Reference Number: 17/286,956. Filed April 2021.
  7. P. Costa, D.J. Burgess. “Systems and methods for continuous manufacturing of liposomal drug formulations”. United States Patent #10,632,072, issued April 2020. This patent has been licensed to and developed by a private company. The product is commercially available.
  8. Bhardwaj, D.J. Burgess “Dialysis adapter cell and method of use” University of Connecticut. United States Patent #8318506 B2, issued 2012. This patent has been licensed to and developed by a private company. The product is commercially available.
  9. Jain, F. Papadimitrakopouolos, D.J. Burgess, D.H Grantham “Implantable biosensor and methods of use thereof” University of Connecticut. United States Patent #8,914,090, issued December 16, 2014. This patent has been purchased by and is being developed by a private company.
  10. Moussy, D. Kreutzer, D.J. Burgess, J. Koberstein, F. Papadimitrakopolous and S. Huang "Control of implant/tissue interactions for better integration of implants into the body" University of Connecticut, United States Patent #6,497,729, issued December 24, 2002. This patent has been purchased by and is being developed by a private company.

Active Grants

2023 – 2024  UConn CRISP(Clinical Research and Innovation Seed Program) FY22, $48,170.45, Co PI, (PI, Rajesh Lalla)

“Clinical testing of a novel formulation of a topical anesthetic for oral mucositis pain in patients with cancer”

2022 – 2024  FDA, Grant #75F40122C00163, $709,554, PI

“Correlative 3D Imaging and AI analysis to establish critical performance attributes of polymeric microsphere products in support of performance evaluation”

2022 – 2024  CPPR, $97,962, PI

“Spray-freeze-dried mucoadhesive microparticles for oral delivery of proteins/peptides”

2021 – 2024  FDA, Grant #75F40121C00133, $1,310263, PI

“Enhancement and validation of in vitro – in vivo correlation method for long acting injectable drug products to accelerate their generic development”

2020 – 2025  FDA, Grant #2U01FD005443-06, $1,255,000, PI

“Development of real-time and accelerated dissolution methods for a long-acting levonorgestrel intrauterine system”

2020 – 2023  FDA, Grant #75F40120C00021, $973,184, PI

“Impact of polymer attributes on the performance of in situ forming implants improve scientific approaches to evaluate generic drugs”

2020 – 2023  FDA, Grant #75F40120C00201, $349,364, PI

“Continuous manufacturing platform for the processing of liposomal nanoparticles”

 

1988 – 2023  113 completed grants with 23 million

Recent Invited Presentations

  1. In vitro release methods for in situ forming implants and LAI suspensions. 15th Sotax User Seminar, Westborough, MA. June 8th, 2023.
  2. Factors influencing drug release from microspheres and liposomes and potential reasons for product failure. HHS Talent Development Learning Center, virtual scientific course. May 19, 2023
  3. In vitro release testing and in vitro-in vivo correlation of LAI suspensions. International Consortium for Innovation & Quality in Pharmaceutical Development. Virtual presentation. May 5th, 2023.
  4. In vitro release testing and IVIVR for in situ forming implants. International Consortium for Innovation & Quality in Pharmaceutical Development. Virtual presentation. May 4th, 2023.
  5. Moving to PAT & continuous manufacturing of complex parenterals. 2nd Annual LNP Formulation & Process Development Summit. Boston, MA. April 17, 2023.
  6. Delving into continuous manufacturing & scale up techniques in LNP, Workshop leader. 2nd Annual LNP Formulation & Process Development Summit. Boston, MA. April 19, 2023.
  7. In vitro-in vivo correlation of the long-acting injectable suspensions. Office of Generic Drugs, FDA. January 2023.
  8. Impact of polymer source variations on parenteral microsphere drug product performance. Office of Generic Drugs, FDA. November 2022.
  9. Continuous manufacturing platform for nanoparticle-based therapeutics. 12th Global Summit on Regulatory Science (GSRS) 2022 Conference. Singapore, October 21st, 2022
  10. Continuous manufacturing of complex parenterals. 12th American DDF Summit, 2022. Keynote presentation. San Diego, September 26th, 2022
  11. Challenges in biowaivers for complex parenteral therapeutics. DISSO AMERICA, Westchester, MA. September 21st, 2022
  12. Continuous manufacturing of complex parenterals. Bio-Manufacturing Innovation Summit 2022. New Brunswick, NJ. July 8, 2022
  13. “Addressing the challenges in Biowaivers for parenteral drugs”. 5th Annual Biowaivers & Bioequivalence Virtual Workshop. August 25, 2022
  14. “IVRT method development for API suspension products and validation with in vivo models”. FDA-CRCG Conference, Virtual event, June 29, 2022
  15. “In vitro release testing and IVIVC development for long acting injectables”. SPDS Conference, Virtual event, June 23, 2022
  16. “Development of novel micro- and nanoparticle-based therapeutics”. AAPS NERDG 2022. Windsor, CT, April 22, 2022.
  17. “Current status and gaps in biopredictive in vitro method development and in vivo models for LAI mechanistic understanding”. AAPS virtual event, Patient-Centric Design of Long-Acting Injectable Drug Products. March 9, 2022
  18. “Parenteral drug products - IVIVC and development in vitro release testing”. The 5th PQRI/FDA conference on advancing product quality. Virtual event, December 1st, 2021
  19. “Importance of excipient functionality in long-acting complex parenterals”. IPEC, Virtual Meeting. June 9, 2021
  20. “Recent advances in in vitro release testing and IVIVCs for complex parenterals”. SPDS (Society for Pharmaceutical Dissolution Science), Keynote presentation, Virtual Meeting. May 14, 2021
  21. “Comprehensive analysis of intraperitoneal insulin catheter obstructions”. Keynote presentation at 2019 China Pharmaceutical Conference, Yantai China. October 2019.
  22. “Continuous processing of liposomes using a coaxial-jet in Co-flow”. Keynote presentation at 2018 China Pharmaceutical Association Conference, Guangzhou, China. December 3, 2018.