RESEARCHER PROFILE (Filmed November 2023)
Dr Felicity Han, Research Fellow
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
University of Queensland, Australia
Applying nanotechnology to chronic pain management
Dr Felicity Han is a Research Fellow and Leader in Pain Relief Innovation, at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in the University of Queensland. Dr Han’s research interests sit at the interface of drug delivery and the pain field. Her overarching research goal is to improve the quality of day to day life of patients suffering from chronic pain, by applying nanotechnology to the development of novel highly effective pain-killer products for improving chronic pain management.
Dr Han’s team have developed five different techniques to produce painkiller-loaded nanoparticles and nanofibers aimed at improving pain relief for patients where available pain-killers either lack efficacy or produce dose-limiting side-effects. With the use of their nanoparticles, Dr Han’s team aim to turn a small but potent peptide that has been on the market for over a decade into an oral treatment for improving pain management that currently lacks efficacy in patients. T
Dr Han’s research focuses on developing drug-products to solve one of the largest unmet medical needs in the pain field through the use of sustainable materials. Her team are currently working on developing multifunctional sutures including biodegradable pain relief sutures and innovative novel nanoparticles, which deliver innate-immune targeting peptides for the treatment of cancer and cancer-related pain. Their research also investigates the role of C5a and C3a in the pathogenesis of chronic pain including neuropathic pain, cancer-related pain, low back pain, and OA pain.
Dr Han works in collaboration with other leading Australian and international researchers to stay at the forefront of the drug delivery systems field and the pain field. They also provide a preclinical evaluation of novel compounds and formulations.
Dr Han enjoy’s volunteering within the academic community, most notably as Head of the SBMS ECR Committee and Treasurer for The Queensland Chinese Association of Scientists and Engineers (QCASE). Currently, she is serving as a guest editor of Pain Research and Management.
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Impact of NextSense Institute Research in the field of sensory disabilities
NextSense has a 165 year history of providing services and education for individuals with sensory impairments. With the support of donations, NextSense provides vital support for children and adults, more cochlear implants than any other service in Australia, and is a world leader for research, technology and professional education in the fields of visions and hearing loss.
NextSense clinicians are actively involved in a number of leading research projects—both independently and in collaboration with local and international organisations. The NextSense Institute, part of NextSense is Australia’s leading centre for research and professional education in the field of sensory disabilities.
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Lasers, microbiology and dental materials in clinical dental practice
Professor Laurence Walsh AO is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland, holding an adjunct title at Griffith University and a part-time position as the Chief Dental Officer at Dentroid, which is based in Canberra. In addition to these roles, he serves on several committees of the Dental Association and is the current president of the Australian Society for Laser Dentistry.
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Neonatal respiratory trials in sick & preterm newborn infants
Prof Brett J. Manley leads and collaborates on large national and international randomised clinical trials in neonatology. He previously collaborated on 4 randomised trials of nasal high-flow as non-invasive respiratory support for preterm and term infants, all of which were published in N Engl J Med. Recently he led the PLUSS trial of intratracheal budesonide for extremely preterm infants, that recruited in 21 NICUs across 4 countries, the results of which were published in JAMA. PLUSS was awarded the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance Trial of the Year in 2025. Another passion of his is mentoring and supervising early career researchers to undertake their own clinical trials.
