Dr Royall's current research explores the relationship between solid state properties and the performance of pharmaceutical materials and medicines.

A major facet of this research involves characterising the amorphous form of drugs in isolation and within their dosage forms. An amorphous drug has a disordered structure, rapid dissolution and therefore has a higher bio-availability compared to its crystalline analogue.

The technical challenges required for analysing amorphous materials has lead to novel expertise in the area of screening poorly soluble drugs for potential development into amorphous medicines. Thermal analysis forms a strong theme throughout all of this work and so new applications and improvements on the state of the art are continuously being transferred into the research environment.

Dr Royall works within the Drug Delivery group which is a centre of expertise for the development of aerosol formulations and the analysis of the fate inhaled particles.

Forming respirable particles by either convergent (particle engineering) or divergent (milling) approaches often involves the formation and control of wholly or partially amorphous regions on the micron or nanometre scale. Thus his research directly impacts on the group’s output as it provides the means by which novel aerosol formulations maybe characterised and thus controlled.

Specific analytical expertise and capability:

• Dynamic mechanical analysis: Powder pocket, humidity control & immersion.
• Differential scanning calorimety
• Solution calorimetry
• Thermogravimetric analysis
• Hot stage microscopy
• Detection & quantification of amorphous / crystalline content
• Screens for amorphous medicine development 

Other interests:

• Measuring the physical properties of chocolate
• Measuring the physical stability of drugs and medicines
• Characterising the dissolution of drug particles within lung fluids