Photogenic: A Technicolor Dissertation à la Marco Tjakra

Marco Tjakra, originally from Indonesia, studied Biomedical Engineering in Chongqing University, China and graduated with Master of Engineering degree in 2020. His previous research involves signalling pathway in the neurovascular unit with relation of hemodynamic force and toxicology. During bachelor studies in Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia, Marco investigated antimicrobial compound from essential oil to combat oral biofilm forming bacteria.

In 2020, Marco joined Uppsala University's research environment in Molecular Pharmaceuticals via the COLOTAN doctoral program. Through his supervisor Christel Bergström, Professor and Director of SweDeliver, Tjakra took an active role in the international competence center, which also provided new colleagues and the opportunity to a four months stay at Merck's laboratories in New Jersey.

“That I initially chose Uppsala was due to the university's reputation in the pharmaceutical sciences, and joining SweDeliver has added great value for both my research and professional development. The scientific exchange within the center adds important context, and having access to industry expertise and perspectives is a key success factor,” states Marco Tjakra.

SweDeliver quickly established itself as a world-leading research and competence center in drug delivery. With financial support from Vinnova, Uppsala University's Faculty of Pharmacy forms the center's academic hub. 14 industry partners participate in the work and provide expertise, infrastructure, and industrial perspectives and needs within SweDeliver's three central research areas: Parenteral, Oral and Aerosol drug delivery.

At SweDeliver's absolute core, an international group of PhD students and postdocs are working with access to technology and supervision from prominent researchers in both academia and industry. SweDeliver's priority tasks include attracting, training and retaining the leading researchers of the future, and this December, two new PhD students were recruited to the center.

In his work, Marco Tjakra has focused on Oral Drug Delivery. The possibility to swallow drugs is preferred by many patients and often has a positive effect on medical adherence. Still, oral drug delivery faces many challenges, but following the launch of SweDeliver, Uppsala University and partners have advanced the boundaries of what is possible. With Marco's thesis, the center launches the next important advance: A new method to predict how drugs are absorbed in the colon.

“Research has long been limited to studies primarily on pigs and dogs, which are associated with high costs and data that are rarely fully applicable to humans. In my doctoral project, we have established that the pig's colon is more closely related to humans, and consequently developed an artificial mucus similar to the human mucus that protects our colon from bacteria, among other things, but also makes drug absorption more difficult,” says Marco Tjakra.

Unlike natural colon mucus that only exists in strictly limited quantities, this artificial mucus can be reproduced both simply and cost-effectively. A joint recipe ensures that individual differences between animals will not affect the results, and using 3D printers, the thickness of the mucus layer can be controlled in detail. This enables both mapping of particle movements in the mucus and calculation of drug concentrations in different parts of the body - while in parallel reducing the need for animal studies.

“Our results are ready to be applied and relevant in both academic and industrial research. We recently presented our work at a conference in Japan, which attracted great interest, and the method is already being used by, among others, the University of Tromsø. At the same time, our studies continue to open new doors, and we are currently preparing to adapt our mucus to both different ages and disease states.”

“Following my dissertation, I could definitely see myself staying in Uppsala, but as for now, I prefer to keep all professional doors open,” states Marco Tjakra. We at the Faculty of Pharmacy would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to Marco for a job excellent done, an inspiring dissertation and a dinner that makes us long for southeastern latitudes.

Text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Jiaxi Zhao