Eric Munson PhD

Dr. Munson's research interests lie in the area of using solid-state NMR spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, and other techniques to characterize solid pharmaceuticals. Differences in the crystalline state of a drug may significantly change its physical and thermodynamic properties. For many drugs, multiple crystalline polymorphs exist whose crystal structures are not known. Solid-state 13C magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique for studying polymorphic systems. It can be used to determine the degree of crystallinity, to identify the number of crystallographically inequivalent sites in the unit cell, to study the dynamics of molecules via relaxation measurements, and to understand the molecular structure based on the chemical shift of the individual resonances.

Specific research areas that are being pursued in his group include the investigation of the structure and reactivity of pharmaceutical agents in polymer matrices; correlation of solid-state NMR chemical shifts with molecular structure; investigation of the transformations between crystalline and amorphous forms of pharmaceutical solids; effect of processing upon drug structure and stability; investigation of peptide and protein stability in formulations; and the effects of freeze drying upon drug stability.