Prof. Dr. Martin Kuentz

    Activities at the FHNW

     Lecturer in Pharma Technology

    Teaching

    Martin Kuentz teaches at the School of Life Sciences on the bachelor level a course on industrial processes in the life sciences. This first semester course is mainly about the processes in drug discovery, development, scale-up, and manufacturing of active compounds.

    Another course on the bachelor level is about the chemistry and pharmaceutical profiling of active compounds.  Martin Kuentz also teaches on special topics in quality management and registration and he takes part in a master module where he lectures on poorly water soluble drugs and on how these compounds can be formulated orally.

    Prof. Kuentz has attended several courses in University didactics and gained a certificate from the University of Basel (2008), which is part of the habilitation program.

    Research

    Loading

    Profile

    Martin Kuentz is since 2007 a professor of pharmaceutical technology at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. He leads a research group in the area of Quality by Design of oral dosage forms with a particular focus on lipid-based formulations and oral solid dispersions. Several projects in the research group target a better understanding of oral formulation performance. Particular interests are about gaining insights into the formulation microstructure and to study drug release, which involves in vitro digestion in case of lipid-based systems. Different non-invasive analytical tools are used such as, for example, Raman spectroscopy, UV imaging, ultrasound analysis, and diffusing wave spectroscopy. Pharmaceutical systems are further studied by different surface analytics, e.g. inverse gas chromatography and different imaging techniques. The research group was in several projects making use of mathematical modelling to gain a better understanding of dosage form performance, which should ultimately provide guidance to pharmaceutical scientists.

    Prior to his academic assignment, Dr. Kuentz spent almost seven years in pharmaceutical research at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. in Basel. He was a senior scientist and departmental coordinator of assigned galenical development projects. Prof. Kuentz had among different functions the role of a global contact person in the area of lipid-based drug delivery systems. Martin Kuentz earned his Ph.D. in 1999 in the group of Prof. Leuenberger at the University of Basel (Switzerland), where he also graduated earlier as a pharmacist in 1995.

    Prof. Kuentz has published more than 90 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and has given numerous scientific presentations at international congresses.

    Prof. Kuentz is a member of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Pharmazeutischen Verfahrenstechnik” (APV), the Swiss Society of Industrial Pharmacists (GSIA), and of Catedra Iberoamericana-Suiza de Desarrollo de Medicamentos (CISDEM).

    • 2014 IPEC Foundation Best Manuscript of the Year Award, AAPS, San Diego, USA 2014
    • Price for the best poster at the 3rd 3. GALENUS WORKSHOP IN GREIFSWALD, Germany 2014
    • Best poster award in the category of Pharmaceutical Technology at the Swiss Pharma Science Day (Bern, Switzerland) in the years 2012, 2014, and 2015

    The various patents can be inferred from the contribution list in different databases or for example via Google Scholar.

    ORCID 0000-0003-2963-2645

  • Institute for Pharma Technology and Biotechnology

    FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
    School of Life Sciences
    Institute for Pharma Technology and Biotechnology

    Hofackerstrasse 30

    CH - 4132 Muttenz