PhD Positions

Click here for current PhD opportunities in PHA. But feel free to email me to discuss projects outside these areas and alternative sources of funding.

László obtained his first degree in Chemistry from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He joined the crystallography group at the Chemical Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Science to pursue a doctoral degree. After completing his PhD in 2000, he remained with the same group as a post-doctoral scientist. He moved to the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre in 2006 to work on the design of cocrystals. This work was part of a large collaborative project, the Pfizer Institute for Pharmaceutical Materials Science. He continued his research on pharmaceutical cocrystals at University College Cork before joining UEA in 2011.

László’s main research area is the solid state chemistry of pharmaceutical compounds. Drugs can have several solid forms, which have different properties. Current projects focus on predicting what solid forms a particular drug can form, on the design of new multi-component forms (cocrystals, salts, solvates) and on understanding how molecular and structural characteristics influence the properties of solid materials.

Selected publications

A model for a solvent-free synthetic organic research laboratory: click-mechanosynthesis and structural characterization of thioureas without bulk solvents
Vjekoslav Štrukil, Marina D. Igrc, László Fábián, Mirjana Eckert-Maksić, Scott L. Childs, David G. Reid, Melinda J. Duer, Ivan Halasz, Cristina Mottillo and Tomislav Friščić
Green Chem., 2012,14, 2462-2473
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35799B

Tunable recognition of the steroid α-face by adjacent π-electron density.
T. Friščić, R.W. Lancaster, L. Fábián and P.G. Karamertzanis
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2010, 107, 13216-13221.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0915142107

Improving Mechanical Properties of Crystalline Solids by Cocrystal Formation: New Compressible Forms of Paracetamol.
S. Karki, T. Friščić, L. Fábián, P.R. Laity, G.M. Day, W. Jones
Adv. Mater., 2009, 21, 3905-3909.
DOI: 10.1002/adma.200900533

Cambridge Structural Database Analysis of Molecular Complementarity in Cocrystals.
L. Fábián
Cryst. Growth. Des., 2009, 9, 1436-1443.
DOI: 10.1021/cg800861m

Organic crystal hydrates: what are the important factors for formation.
L. Infantes, L. Fábián, W.D.S. Motherwell
CrystEngComm, 2007, 9, 65-71.
DOI: 10.1039/B612529H