When Shilpa George was a child, her mother was a biology teacher.
“I think that is where my fascination with living systems really started, about how the body works, how it responds, how it heals,” George said. George is graduating this spring with a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from CU Anschutz Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and her fascination has now become a career.
During her undergraduate studies at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, (BITS Pilani) India, George developed a strong interest in drug delivery, particularly therapies designed for the eye. As she studied ocular medications, she was fascinated that many treatments fail to reach their full potential because of how they are delivered. That realization sparked a deeper interest in the critical role drug delivery systems play in determining whether a medication truly works.
“By the end of my undergrad, I knew I wanted to keep working on problems like these, and a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences felt like the natural next step,” she said. CU Anschutz Pharmacy's focus on nanomedicine was the perfect fit for George to study. Nanomedicine uses tiny, engineered materials to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease. Because these materials are small enough to interact with cells and biological molecules, they can deliver drugs more precisely, improve imaging, and support tissue healing. To George, nanomedicine is key to creating an effective drug delivery system for ocular medication.
She explained that right now, diseases in the back of the eye are often treated with eye drops that do not reach the area well or with injections directly into the eye. While injections can work, they are invasive, carry risks, and often require repeated clinic visits, causing some patients to delay or avoid treatment.
“My work looks at ways to make drug delivery more targeted and less invasive,” she said. “One approach we have explored is using novel contact lens systems that can direct drugs to specific regions of the eye, rather than delivering them in a non-specific way. The idea is to improve how much of the drug actually reaches the intended site while reducing unnecessary exposure elsewhere.”
While at CU Pharmacy, George worked in the lab with Uday Kompella, PhD, Professor and co-director and founder of the Colorado Center for Nanomedicine and Nanosafety. Dr. Kompella is also affiliated with the UC Health Department of Ophthalmology and is an associate editor of the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics. For her dissertation work, they collaborated with Dr. Anuj Chauhan at the Colorado School of Mines to study the new drug-eluting contact lens systems. That work changed the way she thought about drug delivery to the eye, with a stronger focus on engineering solutions. It also influenced her work on piggyback contact lenses, which were designed to deliver medication to different parts of the eye and even release multiple drugs from a single lens.
“Across all of this, I have realized that the best ideas usually come from collaboration rather than working alone,” she said. “There’s a saying that captures it well: if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. That has felt very true throughout my PhD.”
Her next step is to transition into a scientist role in the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on translational drug development and delivery. Long term, George wants to help create less invasive, more accessible treatments for eye diseases while continuing to support women and students from under-resourced backgrounds pursuing scientific research.
“Throughout my PhD, I kept coming back to Rudyard Kipling’s If—, especially the idea of holding on even when things feel impossible,” she said. “It reminded me to keep going through uncertainty and slow progress. My advice to other PhD students is simple: keep going, especially when it feels hardest.”