Helen Burt

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Helen Mary Burt is a British-Canadian pharmaceutical scientist who specializes in drug delivery using nanotechnology. She holds the Angiotech Professorship of Drug Delivery at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and serves as Associate Vice President of Research and Innovation at UBC. Her work focuses on creating new ways to deliver medicines more precisely and safely in the body.

Born in Manchester, England, Burt first became interested in pharmacy after a hospital visit during high school. She studied pharmacy at the University of Bath and later moved to Canada to pursue graduate research at UBC, where she studied how crystal properties affect dissolution. She joined the UBC faculty in 1980.

Burt’s research explores nanotechnology-based drug delivery. She has investigated nanocrystalline cellulose, a material with a large surface area and reactive groups, which can bind drugs and control their release. This technology has potential applications in wound dressings and other medical treatments.

She also collaborated with Sitka Biopharma on STK-01, a polymer nanoparticle system designed to deliver chemotherapy (Docetaxel) directly to bladder cancer. The therapy advanced to clinical trials in 2017.

Beyond her research, Burt helped found the Centre for Drug Research and Development in 2004, which later became adMare BioInnovations to help translate scientific discoveries into industry. In 2011, she was appointed Associate Vice President of Research and Innovation at UBC, a role that supports research leadership and innovation at the university.

Burt has received several prestigious awards for her contributions, including the NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation (2006), the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences Award of Leadership (2009), and the Killam Faculty Research Award for Science at UBC (2009). In 2020, she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her impact on science and health.

Her work includes influential publications on nanocrystalline cellulose for drug binding and controlled release, as well as reviews on the use of nanotechnology and polymer nanoparticles for drug delivery.