Ayesha Sana

Project: Adaptive Robotic Chemists for Resilient Pharmaceuticals

Supervisors: Gabriella Pizzuto, Anthony Bradley

Sponsor: Bristol-Myers Squibb

What inspired you to pursue this project and join the DAMC CDT?

Robotics has always been a driving force, from completing my Master's at the University of York to teaching it at the University of Sheffield. My desire was always to push that further into research with real-world significance. This project stood out to me immediately not only because of its real-world impact in pharmaceutical development, but because it pushed me into unfamiliar territory. Coming from a robotics background, the chemistry side was a genuine challenge for me, and that was also part of the appeal. The idea of developing intelligent robotic systems for dissolution testing, a process critical to drug development with significant scope for discreet automation, felt like exactly the kind of challenge worth pursuing, one that could truly make a difference.  The human-robot collaboration angle made it even more appealing to me, as designing systems that work alongside people rather than simply replacing them has always felt like the more meaningful approach. The DAMC CDT was a natural fit, with its interdisciplinary community, strong research culture and direct industry partnership creating an environment where I felt my work could truly thrive.

What is your research project about, and what impact do you hope it will have?

My research is focused on automating dissolution testing, a process at the heart of ensuring medicines are safe and effective before they reach patients. What makes the system distinctive is that it is uncertainty-aware and is collaborative by design, meaning the robot handles the process independently when confident, but flags uncertainty and defers to human judgement when needed. This balance between autonomy and human oversight is what makes it both practical and trustworthy in a safety-critical environment. The impact I hope this work will have goes beyond dissolution testing. My ambition is for this to lay the foundation for automating more processes across the pharmaceutical industry and, looking further ahead, the wider NHS, where intelligent systems could enhance consistency and precision in safety-critical procedures, decrease the burden on staff and improve both safety and the quality of patient care.

What has been the most exciting or rewarding part of your PhD journey so far and how does your project benefit from being part of an interdisciplinary CDT?  

Among the most rewarding parts of my PhD so far has been contributing to a colleague's robot manipulation project. Even a small collaboration highlighted how much can be gained when different expertise and perspectives come together. The nature of my project means I constantly need to think across disciplines as robotics, AI and pharmaceutical chemistry all feed into it. The DAMC CDT has made that possible by creating an environment where those disciplines naturally overlap. Being surrounded by researchers from such varied backgrounds means that knowledge gaps can be filled organically and that collaborative spirit is fundamental to how my research will grow and develop.