Dr Samantha Donnellan

Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University

Dr Donnellan has a BSc (Hons) in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow and an MSc from the University of Edinburgh. Samantha’s PhD at Heriot Watt University/Moredun Research Institute was to develop a rapid, low cost assay suitable for screening the anti-mycobacterial properties of nanoparticles (NPs) against mycobacteria. Solid drug NPs (SDNs) of the first line Tuberculosis (TB) antibiotics were developed and screened in the assay and compared to conventional antibiotics. Additionally, the efficacy of the SDNs was monitored intracellularly (within a mycobacterium infected macrophage) and imaged to determine whether these particles co-localised with the mycobacteria.

Before joining Edinburgh Napier as a lecturer in Biomedical Sciences, Samantha worked at The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) from 2016-2021 working in TB drug discovery and the development of new screening tools. In 2020 she was a ‘Key Worker’ in the fight against coronavirus through scientific research, working as part of a drug discovery team. Samantha is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Samantha won LSTMs Director Catalyst Fund, allowing her to gain specialist training in South Africa (Molecular Mycobacteriology Research Unit at The University of Cape Town) and the USA (Harvard University) to focus on her own research.

Samantha’s interests lie in developing a physiologically relevant microfluidics platform for sophisticated drug screening.