Julian Quodbach

Julian Quodbach

Julian Quodbach is tenure track Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutics at the Utrecht Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is a pharmacist by training with a PhD in Pharmaceutics from the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in Germany (2014). During his PhD, he investigated tablet disintegration processes and developed novel methods to characterize the disintegration process, utilizing, among other techniques, real-time MRI.

After his PhD, Dr. Quodbach worked two years as post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics at Düsseldorf University on the implementation of feedback control systems for fluidized bed processes. In 2015, he began his habilitation period and shifted his focus to additive manufacturing (3D printing) technologies for the preparation of individualized oral medicines. Since then, he has supervised multiple PhD students working on different aspects involving hot-melt filament extrusion, fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing, semi-solid extrusion printing, binder jetting and selective laser sintering (SLS). In 2019, Julian was awarded a research stipend by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to research the manufacturing of three dimensional permeation membranes at Uppsala University, Sweden. In 2020, he returned to Düsseldorf University to continue his habilitation.

In 2022, he joined the Department of Pharmaceutics to continue his research on additive manufacturing technologies for the preparation of medicine and other technologies to facilitate the translation of personalized medicine.

Research

The research of Julian Quodbach focuses on technologies that enable the manufacturing of personalized medicines in industrial and decentralized settings, e.g., compounding centers as well as hospital and community pharmacies. He works on answering cross-disciplinary questions from material science, (process) engineering, and pharmaceutical development to simplify the preparation of high quality, personalized medicines.

Individualization and manufacturing strategies of poorly soluble active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)

Everyone is different – especially in terms of pharmaceutical and pharmacological needs. But the necessity for individualized medication, e.g., for new-born babies, toddlers and small children is not reflected in current manufacturing capabilities. Body composition, (co-) morbidities, gender, metabolism and age all modulate a human’s response to APIs. In this track, we investigate different technologies and applications to enable the manufacturing of high quality oral medicines for everyone. Special attention is given to 3D printing technologies that also permit solubility improvement of poorly soluble drugs that make up 70 % of all APIs in the development pipeline of the pharmaceutical industry.

Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) for additive manufacturing processes

The quality of individualized medication cannot be tested with the same approaches as industrially manufactured medicines. Especially in decentralized manufacturing facilities, e.g., hospital pharmacies or compounding centers, the necessary infrastructure is usually not present. At the same time, the number of quality control samples would be higher than the required medication for a patient. We aim to implement PAT in additive manufacturing equipment to monitor and control the printing processes to ensure printing of highest-quality medicines.

Investigation of tablet disintegration processes

Tablets are frequently designed to disintegrate into smaller fragments upon contact with the gastric fluid. This way, the passage through the pylorus is facilitated and the surface area available for drug dissolution is enlarged. Still, this seemingly simple process is only poorly understood. While the fundamental mechanisms of action of tablet disintegrants are known, the influence of excipients and manufacturing routes is not. We work on elucidating the specific factors and fundamental properties to improve our understanding of this essential step of dosage form performance

Selected publications

  • Windolf, H., R. Chamberlain and J. Quodbach (2022). "Dose-independent drug release from 3D printed oral medicines for patient-specific dosing to improve therapy safety." International Journal of Pharmaceutics.
  • Ponsar, H., R. Wiedey and J. Quodbach (2020). "Hot-Melt Extrusion Process Fluctuations and Their Impact on Critical Quality Attributes of Filaments and 3D-Printed Dosage Forms." Pharmaceutics.
  • El Aita, I., J. Rahman, J. Breitkreutz and J. Quodbach (2020). "3D-Printing with precise layer-wise dose adjustments for paediatric use via pressure-assisted microsyringe printing." European  Journal of Pharmaceuticsand  Biopharmaceutics.
  • Infanger, S., A. Haemmerli, S. Iliev, A. Baier, E. Stoyanov and J. Quodbach (2019). "Powder bed 3D-printing of highly loaded drug delivery devices with hydroxypropyl cellulose as solid binder." International Journal of Pharmaceutics.
  • Korte, C. and J. Quodbach (2018). "Formulation development and process analysis of drug-loaded filaments manufactured via hot-melt extrusion for 3D-printing of medicines." Pharmaceutical Development and Technology.