The Hudson group focuses on the manipulation of the physicochemical properties of small and large active molecules to improve their stability, solubility and dissolution rates with the ultimate goal of improving the bioavailability of active pharmaceutical ingredients. They explore the solution and solid state behaviour of these molecules both during formulation/manufacture into medicines and in biorelevant environments. Their research focuses on the thermodynamics behind aggregation, crystallisation and precipitation in a range of solvents and bio relevant media and develops formulations and structures to control this solution/solid state behaviour. Current Postdoctoral researchers:Dr Jhimli PaulguinDr Poonam RatreyDr Shasha JinCurrent PhD students: Mariana Silva (Marie Curie ITN, Janssen), Amabille Kloc (Marie Curie ITN, TUD, Janssen), Peuli Ghosh (SFI, SSPC), Parth Joshi (PMTC, Allergen), Mariana Diniz (SFI, SSPC), Marta Bergillos (SFI, SSPC), Harsh Barua (SFI, SSPC), Camila Viera (SFI, New Frontiers), Mateo Flores Naranjo (SFI, New Frontiers), Francisco Duarte (IRC), Sara Fatima (SFI, co-supervised with Jennifer Cookman), Former PhD students: Dr Teresa Tierney (IRCSET, SSPC), Dr Raquel Arribas Bueno (SFI SSPC), Dr Pauric Bannigan (SFI CDA),  Dr Vivek Verma (SFI SSPC), Dr Katalin Bodnar (SFI SSPC), Dr Ajay Kumar (SFI, SSPC), Dr Michele Dully (IRC, COOK Medical), Dr James Flynn (SFI, CDA), Dr Sally Ryan (SFI, Curam), Dr Miriama Ceresnakova (IRC, COOK Medical), Dr Aoibhin Ryan (IRC), Former Masters students: Sarah Mallen (SFI CDA),  Tracey Carroll (Sanofi Genzyme),  Former Postdocs:Dr Gesmi Mikovich (SFI CDA), Dr Edel Durack (SFI CDA), Dr Aisling Lynch (SFI SSPC), Dr Ajay Kumar (SFI, SSPC), Dr Malgorzata Tecza (DTIF, EI), Dr Pratikkumar Patel, Dr Promita Bhattacharjee, Dr Vinay Gedi.

Professor Sarah Hudson has worked at the interface of materials and biological systems for over 20 years. Her research journey began investigating the photophysics of DNA complexes with Rhenium in Trinity College Dublin as a Foundational Scholar. From there, her interest in structures and interactions between materials and biology deepened. During her PhD, she worked on designing porous materials for the adsorption and immobilisation of enzymes for biocatalytic applications. As a postdoc, Professor Hudson spent 3 years at Massachusetts Institute of Technology working on developing hydrogels and porous materials for drug delivery applications. Her research has continued at this materials-biological interface, aligning with the core ethos of the Bernal Institute, that structures matter. One of the main applications Sarah targets in her work is the (bio)pharma sector. She has active projects on the production and formulation of advanced therapeutics by bringing together complementary academic and industrial groupings from different disciplines. Sarah is also interested in the commercialization of research to reach real world impactful applications. 

Her vision is to design materials to be used for a wide range of applications, creating a greener, more sustainable world with improved quality of life for all, enabled by the unique environment provided by the Bernal Institute. Sarah has trained over forty-five master, doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, is an inventor on one USA awarded patent, and has published over eighty peer reviewed articles. Sarah currently leads a dynamic team of fifteen researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral fellows) at the Bernal Institute.