Sybil Obuobi

Sybil Obuobi
UiT The Arctic University of Norway · Department of Pharmacy (IFA)

PhD

About

20
Publications
14,822
Reads
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934
Citations
Introduction
Sybil Obuobi currently works at the Department of Pharmacy, UIT, The Arctic University of Norway. Her current research focuses on the design/development of lipid/gel systems as next-generation antimicrobial delivery systems. Her most recent publication is 'Liposomal delivery of antibiotic loaded nucleic acid nanogels with enhanced drug loading and synergistic anti-inflammatory activity against S. aureus intracellular infections'.
Education
January 2014 - January 2018
National University of Singapore
Field of study
  • Drug delivery, Pharmacy
September 2012 - September 2013
Aston University
Field of study
  • Drug delivery

Publications

Publications (20)
Article
Full-text available
The persistence of Staphylococcus aureus has been accredited to its ability to escape immune response via host cell invasion. Despite the efficacy of many antibiotics against S. aureus, the high extracellular concentrations of conventional antibiotics required for bactericidal activity is limited by their low cellular accumulation and poor intracel...
Article
Full-text available
To avert the poor bioavailability of antibiotics during S. aureus biofilm infections, a series of zwitterionic nanoparticles containing nucleic acid nanostructures were fabricated for the delivery of vancomycin. The nanoparticles were prepared with three main lipids: (i) neutral (soy phosphatidylcholine; P), (ii) positively charged ionizable (1,2-d...
Article
Full-text available
Bacterial biofilms are highly protected surface attached communities of bacteria that typically cause chronic infections. To address their recalcitrance to antibiotics and minimise side effects of current therapies, smart drug carriers are being explored as promising platforms for antimicrobials. Herein, we briefly summarize recent efforts and cons...
Article
Full-text available
Nucleic acid-based materials showcase an increasing potential for antimicrobial drug delivery. Although numerous reports on drug-loaded DNA nanoparticles outline their pivotal antibacterial activities, their potential as drug delivery systems against bacterial biofilms awaits further studies. Among different oligonucleotide structures, micellar nan...
Article
Full-text available
Programmable nanoscale carriers, such as liposomes and DNA, are readily being explored for personalized medicine or disease prediction and diagnostics. The characterization of these nanocarriers is limited and challenging due to their complex chemical composition. Here, we demonstrate the utilization of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), w...
Preprint
Full-text available
Nanoscale carriers such as liposomes and extracellular vesicles (EVs) are readily being explored for personalized medicine or disease prediction and diagnostics, respectively. Owing to their small size, such nanocarriers can undergo endocytosis or exocytosis, providing means to either transport cargo to the cells (liposomes) or to serve as a biomar...
Article
Full-text available
Monitoring surgical wounds post-operatively is necessary to prevent infection, dehiscence and other complications. However, the monitoring of deep surgical sites is typically limited to indirect observations or to costly radiological investigations that often fail to detect complications before they become severe. Bioelectronic sensors could provid...
Article
Full-text available
Cage-shaped nucleic acid nanocarriers are promising molecular scaffolds for the organization of polypeptides. However, there is an unmet need for facile loading strategies that truly emulate nature's host–guest systems to drive encapsulation of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) without loss of biological activity. Herein, we develop DNA nanogels with r...
Article
Full-text available
The rapid emergence of drug resistance continues to outpace the development of new antibiotics in the treatment of infectious diseases. Conventional therapy is currently limited by drug access issues such as low intracellular drug accumulations, drug efflux by efflux pumps and/or enzymatic degradation. To improve access, targeted delivery using nan...
Article
Full-text available
Conventional antibiotic therapy is often challenged by poor drug penetration/accumulation at infection sites and poses a significant burden to public health. Effective strategies to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of our existing arsenal include the use of nanoparticulate delivery platforms to improve drug targeting and minimize adverse effects. H...
Article
Full-text available
Hydrogels as artificial biomaterial scaffolds offer a much favoured 3D microenvironment for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM). Towards biomimicry of the native ECM, polysaccharides from Nature have been proposed as ideal surrogates given their biocompatibility. In particular, derivatives from microbial sources have emerged as econ...
Article
There is growing interest in the development of nucleic acid nanostructures as smart functional materials for applications in drug delivery. Inspired by the diverse physical interactions that exist in nature, crosslinked DNA nanostructures can serve as attractive affinity binding networks that interact with therapeutic cargos or living cells. Herei...
Article
Front Cover: A series of albumin nanoparticles with antimicrobial and anti‐biofilm activities are prepared from cationic human serum albumin and polyethylene glycol (PEG). Modulation of surface charges with PEG results in reduced haemolytic activity and thereby improved hemocompatibility. This is reported by Sybil Obuobi, Ying Wang, Jasmeet Singh K...
Article
Protein-based polymeric polyelectrolytes are emerging as alternative synthetic nanoparticles owing to their biodegradability and biocompatibility. However, potential in vivo toxicity remains a significant challenge. Herein an array of protein polyelectrolytes generated from cationic human serum albumin (cHSA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) are synth...
Article
While physically crosslinked polycarbonate hydrogels are effective drug delivery platforms, their hydrophobic nature and lack of side chain functionality or affinity ligands for controlled release of hydrophilic drugs underscore the importance of their chemical compositions. This study evaluates an array of anionic hydrogel systems of phenylboronic...
Article
Statement of significance: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are increasingly explored as therapeutics for drug-resistant and biofilm-related infections to help expand the size and quality of the current antibiotic pipeline in the face of mounting antimicrobial resistance. Here, synthetic peptides rationally designed based upon principles governing th...
Article
Full-text available
Statement of significance: There is a pressing need for a novel and cost-effective delivery system to reduce the toxicity induced by the antifungal agent, amphotericin B (AmB). In this study, phenylboronic acid-functionalized polycarbonate/PEG diblock copolymers were used to fabricate micelles for improved AmB-micelle interaction via the manipulat...
Article
Oxidative stress is a much-appreciated phenomenon associated with the progression of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) due to imbalances in redox homeostasis. The poor correlations between the in vitro benefits and clinical trials of direct radical scavengers have prompted research into indirect antioxidant enzymes such as Nrf2. Activation of Nrf2...
Article
With an ageing population and increasing prevalence of central-nervous system (CNS) disorders new approaches are required to sustain the development and successful delivery of therapeutics into the brain and CNS. CNS drug delivery is challenging due to the impermeable nature of the brain microvascular endothelial cells that form the blood-brain bar...

Questions

Questions (4)
Question
I'd like to find out thoughts on what it means for a hydrogel in terms of structural properties, strength, etc when there is no change in the storage modulus after adding a drug but there is a drastic increase in its loss modulus. There is clearly an increase in pore size under SEM but in terms of rheology, what specific characteristics are influenced? How best can I discuss how the drug influences my gel?
Question
I am currently trying to optimise gel formation using single stranded DNA synthesised and dissolved in range free water. I am having a problem with the formation. Basically when I add my single stranded DNA together to anneal and form the individual pairing scaffolds (Y-scaffold with L-linker), I can visibly see some precipitation after heating at 95 oC. I have not tried any salt concentration for this run. With another run I tried 100mM NaCL with 20mM tris added but could not form the gel either. Basically they should anneal together..Can anyone offer any idea for my optimisation?
Question
I am currently trying to transfer ~ 260kDa protein, using 1x transfer buffer with 0.1% SDS as recommended. I find that the protein ladder lanes disappear after 45 minutes and 2 hrs; the conditions I use are as follows: 7.5% gel, 350mA constant current. Can anyone help explain what is going on, whether the current is too high or is something else wrong with the protocol? 
Question
Hi,
After using a stripping buffer for 12 min at rtp, my band of interest (~50kDa) still appeared together with the housekeeping band (Beta actin). Is this still ok? Or is there a way to remove it altogether?

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