Abhijit Date, PhD

Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences

Abhijit Date, Ph.D., M.Pharm.Sc. is an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics track and the Director of the Drug Preformulation, Repurposing and Delivery (D-PReD) research laboratory at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, R. K. Coit College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona. He is a drug delivery scientist by training with vast experience in the development and pre-clinical evaluation of conventional and novel drug delivery systems including nanomedicines. He is listed as an inventor on 4 US patents or patent applications. He has more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and 4 book chapters to his credit. He received the Student Choice Award for Teaching in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy, University of Hawaii Hilo in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 and he was a recipient of the Johns Hopkins Center for Nanomedicine research excellence award in 2016. He serves as the Topic Editor for International Journal of Molecular Sciences and editorial board member of Current Nutraceuticals.

The ongoing projects in the D-PReD research group include 1) drug repurposing and reformulation for the treatment of genital and ocular herpes simplex virus infections 2) drug repurposing and reformulation for the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis, 3) drug repurposing and reformulation for the treatment of systemic and mucosal candidiasis and 4) drug repurposing and reformulation for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. The D-PReD research group has strong ties with highly reputed collaborators with expertise in virology (University of Illinois Chicago), mycology (University of Minnesota & University of California Los Angeles), and cancer biology (Penn State Cancer Institute) to facilitate the translation of repurposed drugs.

Education & Post Graduate Training: 

Post-doctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 2017

Postdoctoral Fellow, Creighton University School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, 2014

Visiting Research Scholar and Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University, 2011

Ph.D. (Tech.), Pharmaceutics, University of Mumbai, 2011

M.Pharm.Sc. Pharmaceutics, University of Mumbai, 2005

B.Pharm.Sc. Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Mumbai, 2002

Areas of Research: 
  • Oral Drug Delivery
  • Ocular Drug Delivery
  • Vaginal Drug Delivery
  • Nanomedicine
  • Self-assembling nanocarriers
  • Ionic Liquids
  • Drug Repurposing
  • Infectious Diseases

Select Publications

2021

Sutar Y, Fulton SR, Paul S, et al. "Docusate-Based Ionic Liquids of Anthelmintic Benzimidazoles Show Improved Pharmaceutical Processability, Lipid Solubility, and Activity against ." ACS Infect Dis. 2021;7(9):2637-2649. PMCID: PMC8884109  PMID: 34467755
Josyula A, Omiadze R, Parikh K, et al. "An ion-paired moxifloxacin nanosuspension eye drop provides improved prevention and treatment of ocular infection." Bioeng Transl Med. 2021;6(3):e10238. PMCID: PMC8459599  PMID: 34589607

2020

Kim YChun, Shin MD, Hackett SF, et al. "Gelling hypotonic polymer solution for extended topical drug delivery to the eye." Nat Biomed Eng. 2020;4(11):1053-1062. PMCID: PMC7655548  PMID: 32895514
Yadavalli T, Mallick S, Patel P, Koganti R, Shukla D, Date AA. "Pharmaceutically Acceptable Carboxylic Acid-Terminated Polymers Show Activity and Selectivity against HSV-1 and HSV-2 and Synergy with Antiviral Drugs." ACS Publications. 2020.

2019

Hoang T, Date AA, Ortiz JOrtiz, et al. "Development of rectal enema as microbicide (DREAM): Preclinical progressive selection of a tenofovir prodrug enema." Eur J Pharm Biopharm. 2019;138:23-29. PMCID: PMC6428633  PMID: 29802984

2018

Date AA, Halpert G, Babu T, et al. "Mucus-penetrating budesonide nanosuspension enema for local treatment of inflammatory bowel disease." Biomaterials. 2018;185:97-105. PMCID: PMC6193453  PMID: 30236840

2017

Kates M, Date A, Yoshida T, et al. "Preclinical Evaluation of Intravesical Cisplatin Nanoparticles for Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer." Clin Cancer Res. 2017;23(21):6592-6601. PMCID: PMC6487844  PMID: 28808039
Date AA, Rais R, Babu T, et al. "Local enema treatment to inhibit FOLH1/GCPII as a novel therapy for inflammatory bowel disease." J Control Release. 2017;263:132-138. PMCID: PMC5661937  PMID: 28159515

2016

Date AA, Hanes J, Ensign LM. "Nanoparticles for oral delivery: Design, evaluation and state-of-the-art." J Control Release. 2016;240:504-526. PMCID: PMC5064878  PMID: 27292178

2015

Date AA, Shibata A, McMullen E, et al. "Thermosensitive Gel Containing Cellulose Acetate Phthalate-Efavirenz Combination Nanoparticles for Prevention of HIV-1 Infection." J Biomed Nanotechnol. 2015;11(3):416-27. PMCID: PMC5996982  PMID: 26307825