Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy is a British and Kazakhstani scientist, a Professor of Formulation Science and a Royal Society Industry Fellow at the University of Reading, founding director of the Physicochemical, Ex Vivo and Invertebrate Tests and Analysis Centre (PEVITAC). His research focuses on polymers, biomaterials, nanomaterials, drug delivery, and pharmaceutical sciences. Khutoryanskiy has published over 200 original research articles, book chapters, and reviews. His publications have attracted > 11000 citations and his current h-index is 51. He holds several honorary professorship titles from different universities. He received several prestigious awards in recognition for his research in polymers, colloids and drug delivery as well as for contributions to research peer-review and mentoring of early career researchers:
- Second degree diplomas of the National Center for Scientific and Technical Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan “The most cited Kazakh author abroad”, “The most published Kazakh author abroad”, “The most cited author in chemistry and ecology in Kazakhstan” and “The most published author in chemistry and ecology” in Kazakhstan" (2010);
- McBain Medal, a joint award of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), for research in the field of colloid, polymer and interface science, (2012);
- Honorary Professor of Semey State Medical University, Kazakhstan, (2012);
- Honorary Professor of Shakarim State University of Semey, Kazakhstan, (2014);
- SAFEA-RSC Visiting Researcher to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and to Shanghai University, China, (2014);
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), (2015);
- Sentinel of Science Award as one of the top 10 % reviewers in chemistry, Publons, (2016);
- Honorary Professor of Kazan State Medical University, Russia, (2017);
- Polymers Best Paper Award from the journal Polymers (MDPI), (2020);
- Certificate of Excellence for the top-5 article published in 2018 in the journal Polymer Science (Russian Academy of Sciences), (2020);
- PhD Supervisor of the Year Award (FindAUniversity), (2020);
- Innovative Science Award, The Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UK, (2022);
- Medal Eren Enbegi Ushin (“for labor excellence”) for contribution to the development of research and training of scientific personnel of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, (2022);
- Royal Society Industry Fellow, (2023).
Khutoryanskiy was born and grew up in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He studied at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, graduating with a BSc in Chemistry in 1996. He earned his MSc in Polymer Chemistry in 1998, and then his PhD in Polymer Chemistry in 2000, both from the same institution. His PhD project was focused on the studies of hydrogen-bonded interpolymer complexes and preparation of hydrophilic films. During his PhD studies, he also spent 4 months in the research group of Janusz Rosiak at Łódź University of Technology, Poland, where specialised in radiation chemistry of hydrophilic polymers. He worked as a Lecturer in Polymer Science at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in 2000-2002. In 2002, he moved to the United Kingdom and joined the research group of Ijeoma Uchegbu at the University of Strathclyde as a postdoctoral research assistant, where worked on the synthesis of chitosan amphiphiles and their studies for drug delivery. In 2004, he moved to the University of Manchester to work as a postdoctoral research assistant of Nicola Tirelli, studying the design of oxidation-responsive nanoparticles. In 2005, Khutoryanskiy was appointed as a Lecturer in Pharmaceutics at newly-established Reading School of Pharmacy, University of Reading. In 2010, he was promoted to Reader (Associate Professor) in Pharmaceutical Materials and in 2014, he became full Professor of Formulation Science. In 2023, he became the founding director of the Physicochemical, Ex Vivo and Invertebrate Tests and Analysis Centre (PEVITAC) at the University of Reading.
Earlier research of Khutoryanskiy was focused on the studies of hydrogen-bonded interpolymer complexes formed by poly(carboxylic acids) and various non-ionic polymers in aqueous and organic solvents. He established the factors affecting the complexation between polymers such as solvent nature, pH and ionic strength of solutions, nature and molecular weight of interacting polymers as well as environmental temperature. He also researched radiation-mediated grafting of hydrophilic polymers on polyolefin surfaces and complexes formed between linear polymers and hydrogels. His current research broadly focuses on water-soluble polymers, colloids and hydrogels for applications in drug delivery, biomaterials, and various formulations (food technology, health care products and agrochemicals). His group has pioneered several new families of polymers and nanomaterials with enhanced mucoadhesive properties, they also were the first to develop mucosa-mimetic polymeric hydrogels that can be used in place of animal tissues to study mucoadhesive dosage forms and demonstrated that nanoparticles decorated with poly(2-oxazolines), poly(2-hydroxyethylacrylate) and poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) exhibit mucus-penetrating properties similar to PEGylated nanocarriers. His other significant research contributions include the new synthesis of thiolated silica nanoparticles, which were subsequently commercialised by PolySciTech; studies of novel ocular penetration enhancers, nanoparticles penetration into various biological membranes, formulation of encapsulated probiotic bacteria, new method for synthesis of hydrogels, development of new toxicological assays using planaria and the use of various poly(2-oxazolines) for preparation of solid drug dispersions and iodophors.
He edited and co-edited several books:
- Hydrogen-bonded Interpolymer Complexes: Formation, Structure and Applications (edited by V.V. Khutoryanskiy and G.Staikos), World Scientific, 2009
- Mucoadhesive Materials and Drug Delivery Systems (edited by V.V. Khutoryanskiy), John Wiley & Sons, 2014
- Temperature-responsive Polymers: Chemistry, Properties, and Applications (edited by V.V. Khutoryanskiy and T.K. Georgiou), John Wiley & Sons, 2018
- Advances in Mucoadhesive Polymers and Formulations for Transmucosal Drug Delivery (edited by V.V. Khutoryanskiy), MDPI AG, 2020
- Solid Dispersions for Drug Delivery: Applications and Preparation Methods (edited by V.V. Khutoryanskiy and H. Al-Obaidi), MDPI AG, 2022
Khutoryanskiy serves on editorial boards of several international journals, including European Polymer Journal (Elsevier), Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Elsevier), Pharmaceutics (MDPI), Polymers (MDPI), Gels (MDPI) and Reviews and Advanced in Chemistry (Springer). Also he is associate editor and member of journal editorial boards of several national journals in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia. He guest edited several special issues of Pharmaceutics, Polymers, Gels and Polymers for Advanced Technologies. He is a committee member of Macro Group UK (RSC & SCI Pure and Applied Macromolecular Chemistry Group) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) peer-review college member. He was involved in organisation of many conferences and symposia as a chair, co-chair and member of organising committees. He is recognised for his outstanding contributions to research peer review and mentoring of early career researchers. Khutoryanskiy has also made substantial contribution to the development of research, training and education of students and researchers at various universities in Kazakhstan.