Management
Personnel
Dr. Raimar Löbenberg
Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Founder & Director
3-142K, Katz Group Centre for Pharmacy & Health Research
Tel: 780.492.1255
Email: raimar@ualberta.ca
Dr. Raimar Löbenberg is a recognized expert in pharmaceutics, drug development and delivery. He completed his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Technology from University of Frankfurt, Germany and his post-doctorate from University of Michigan, U.S. During his years at Frankfurt and Michigan he worked with Dr. Gordon Amidon (Father of BCS) and Dr. Jennifer Dressman, who are regarded as the pillars of biopharmaceutics and drug delivery science. Since joining the University of Alberta in 2000, he has led various initiatives in the area of Industrial Pharmacy and Biopharmaceutics at the University.
He is an active researcher and a believer in interdisciplinary approach for finding solutions to problems. His collaborative research with Dr. Warren Finlay (Department of Engineering) and Dr. Wilson Roa (Cross Cancer Institute) lead to the breakthrough research on Nano particle “Cluster bombs”. He is President of the Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences, member of the United states Pharmacopoeia (USP) expert committee for Dietary Supplements and Herbal Medicines and Chair of the subcommittee for performance testing of dietary supplements, member of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Steering Committee for Drug Release and Dissolution Testing and Vice-Chair of the Speciality Committee for Pharmaceutical Quality of Traditional Medicines of the World Foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicines.
Dr. Vijay Somayaji
Manager
3-142J, Katz Group Centre for Pharmacy & Health Research
Tel: 780.492.5215
Email: somayaji@ualberta.ca
Dr. Vijay Somayaji has more than 30 years of combined academic and biotech industry experience in various areas, including research and development, product development and quality assurance and quality control. She obtained her Ph.D. in chemistry from Indian Institute of Science and did her post-doctoral work with Dr. H.C. Brown (Nobel Laureate) at Purdue University (USA). At the University of Alberta she worked as a research associate with Dr. L.I. Wiebe (Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences) before joining Biomira Inc. as a senior scientist. She has since worked as a manager of Product Development at AltaRex Corp., as a director of Product Development at Novolytic Inc., as director of Drug Development at Virexx Medical Corp. and as a Quality Assurance and Quality Control consultant for IMbiotechnologies Ltd.
In her various roles, she has managed diverse teams of scientists involved in the characterization of drug substances and drug products, analytical method development (chemical and biochemical), stability testing, clinical sample analyses and support for regulatory documentation. She was involved in auditing several contract manufacturing organizations to ensure good manufacturing practice compliance in quality assurance and quality control aspects. She has extensive hands-on experience in discovery research, formulation of radiopharmaceuticals and therapeutic products, and medical device manufacturing. She has more than 50 publications and has been an inventor of two patents. She has also been involved in successful clinical trial applications for more than four drug candidates.