Aaron J. Courtenay
Aaron J. Courtenay
Aaron J. Courtenay is a Northern Irish pharmacist, academic, and researcher. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy at Ulster University and Course Director of the Master of Pharmacy Hons (MPharm) programme. He is Research Lead for the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, and co-founding co-Director of the Centre for International Health Innovation and Partnership at Ulster University.[1]
Education and early career
Courtenay qualified as a pharmacist, joining the PSNI register in 2013. After working in Maghaberry Pharmacy for a short time he returned to Queen's University Belfast and completed a PhD by research in Pharmacy looking at the use of advanced hydrogel systems for transdermal drug delivery of biotherapeutic macromolecules, with a focus on pharmaceutics, drug delivery, and formulation science.[2] As a post-Doctoral Research Fellow he worked with a number of international pharmaceutical companies, such as GSK, Teva Pharmaceuticals, LTS manufacturing, Johnson & Johnson and working as part of the QUB-Randox Centre of Excellence for engineering on the development of new drug delivery and diagnostic systems. He began his academic work focusing on biocompatible polymers and drug delivery systems before transitioning to developing advanced hydrogel systems for epigenomic diagnostics, biomarker detection and precision fluid and mucosal sampling. Moving to Ulster University in 2020 he became involved in clinical pharmacy education, and healthcare systems development implementation.
Academic career
Dr Aaron J. Courtenay is a Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead for Research in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Ulster University.[3] He serves as Course Director for the MPharm (Hons) programme, and has transitioned the course in line with GPhC and PSNI regulatory requirements for the Initial Education and Training of undergraduate pharmacy students (IET 2021), incorporating clinical skills training and independent prescribing to "prescriber ready" status. In addition he has led on the implementation of experiential learning across Northern Ireland, working with Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland Centre for Pharmacy Learning and Development, the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Northern Ireland Clinical Education Pharmacy team in hospital sector, General Practice Pharmacy Federations, and Community Pharmacy sector. Under his leadership, the programme received full accreditation in March 2025 from the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for the maximum six years with no conditions.[4]
Research and innovation
Dr Aaron Courtenay has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and conference papers, and his work is cited more than 3,500 times.[5]
His research includes the development of biomarker-capturing diagnostic hydrogels for oral fluid analysis to detect disease.[6] As principal investigator, he secured funding from Cancer Horizon UK’s Lean Launch Programme to create proof-of-concept diagnostic tools.[7] Dr Courtenay has successfully secured research funding from a range of research council, industry, and charity-based sources. Notable grants include those from the MSD Merck Investigators Studies Programme, the Commonwealth Partners for Antimicrobial Stewardship, THET, and Cancer Horizons UK. Dr Courtenay works with research teams across the UK and Ireland, Ghana, Austria, Indonesia, Egypt, and Jordan drawing on funding sources from host settings. Dr Courtenay has established significant industry collaborations with companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Teva, GSK, Lohmann Therapie Systemie, Randox Laboratories, and Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MSD). He has been supported by BBSRC, the Royal Society of Chemistry, CW Young fund, and the Department for the Economy for Northern Ireland. As a UK Global Health Fellow, he led impactful health partnerships for example, between Ulster University and KNUST University Hospital in Ghana, influencing national antimicrobial stewardship policies and helping to develop KNUST as an Antimicrobial Stewardship Centre of Excellence in Ghana.
Global health
Dr Aaron Courtenay is co-founder of the Centre for International Health Innovation and Partnership (CIHIP) at Ulster University. Through the Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS) programme, he led collaboration with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana to establish a Centre of Excellence in antimicrobial stewardship.[8] He was appointed a Global Health Fellow by the Office of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer in England.[9]
Professional and governance roles
Dr Aaron Courtenay is an Expert (Pharmacist) member of the Northern Ireland Research Ethics Committee b and serves as Vice-Chair, having contributed as Northern Ireland representative for ad-hoc specialist Research Ethics committee convened to review SARS-CoV-2 human infection challenge studies. (ORECNI).[10] He is a board member of the Pharmacy Forum Northern Ireland.[11]
Editorial contributions
Dr Aaron Courtenay was invited as Guest Editor for a special issue on antibiotic drug delivery systems in the journal *Pharmaceutics* and serves on its topical advisory panel.[12]
Selected publications
- Courtenay AJ et al. “A diagnostic hydrogel platform for minimally invasive detection of oral inflammatory markers.” *J. Biomed. Mater. Res.*, 2023.
- Courtenay AJ et al. “Advances in microneedle-based systems for targeted drug delivery.” *Drug Deliv. Transl. Res.*, 2022.
- Obed Amponsah, Courtenay AJ, et al. “Impact of Antimicrobial Stewardship Interventions in Ghanaian Hospitals.” *Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control*, 2023.
References
- ↑ Ulster University. "Aaron Courtenay". Ulster University. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ Ulster University. "Academic profile: Aaron Courtenay". Ulster University. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ Ulster University. "Research leadership team". Ulster University. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ GPhC. "Accreditation outcomes". GPhC. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ Google Scholar. "Aaron Courtenay – Google Scholar Citations". Google Scholar. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ Courtenay, A.J. (2023). "A diagnostic hydrogel platform for oral biomarkers". Journal of Biomedical Materials Research. 111 (4): 765–776. doi:10.1002/jbm.b.35000. PMID 35061311 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Cancer Horizon UK (2022-10-05). "Lean Launch winners 2022". Cancer Horizon UK. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ Commonwealth Pharmacists Association. "CwPAMS Ghana partnership". Commonwealth Pharmacists Association. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ Chief Pharmaceutical Officer. "Global Health Fellows 2024". Department of Health and Social Care. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ ORECNI. "Committee members, Vice-Chair". ORECNI. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ Pharmacy Forum Northern Ireland. "Board members". PFNI. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
- ↑ MDPI Pharmaceutics. "Special Issue: Antibiotic Drug Delivery Systems". MDPI. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
External links
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