Gabriela Schneider Rauber: Motivated to research alternative drug delivery routes by personal experience

Her work combines materials science with biomedicine. This possibility was one of the reasons why Gabriela Schneider Rauber decided to work at CATRIN about two years ago. As a member of the Nanomaterials in Biomedicine research group, she focuses on the development of new pharmaceutical materials in the form of nanopreparations that can, for example, be administered via the skin.

Gabriela graduated as a pharmacist from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil and received her PhD in chemistry from the University of Cambridge. She has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at UFSC and at Politecnico di Torino in Italy, as well as with pharmaceutical companies. The start of her career in Olomouc is linked to a Crystal4skin—ERA Talents Fellowship.

“I research crystal engineering applied to pharmaceutical manufacturing and drug delivery. At the moment, I am interested in how the crystals I’m preparing in the laboratory can be used for alternative delivery routes. This is especially important for patients who cannot take medications orally due to other associated conditions. The work at CATRIN is great because I can fully characterize my synthetic materials and perform bioassays in one place,” she said.

She confessed that her research has been motivated by personal experience. She was close to her mother, who needed palliative care after being diagnosed with a terminal disease. “That experience has shaped my recent career and interests. It has changed my perspective on how medications are administered to patients with specific clinical conditions, especially the elderly,” said the researcher, for whom it is also important to combine career with family life.

She feels very comfortable in Olomouc. “It is a lovely city, which brings a sense of peace, gentleness and grounding! And I have met great people here. I love the parks, the historical centre and the woods around the zoo,” she said.