RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Advancing the Development of Drug Delivery Devices by Utilizing Tissue-Engineered Constructs:

Particles have been used for many years in a wide variety of applications in the following industries: pharmaceutical, vaccine, cosmeceutical, chemical, materials, and medical device.  They continue to grow in popularity as candidates for drug delivery devices.  When preparing microparticles for drug delivery, the particles can be characterized by their loading efficiency, release rates, and interactions with their environment (i.e. with cells).  All of these are influenced by several factors including particle size, particle morphology (porous or smooth surface), chemistry of the bulk material and the surface material (charged, hydrophobicity, etc.), biocompatibility of the material, and the method and rate of degradation.  In turn, all of these factors are influenced by the methods and materials used to prepare the microparticles.   One area of my research includes characterizing and optimizing the methods and materials used to prepare microparticles to enhance their drug delivery properties.  My past research experience has included fabrication of particles using a wide variety of biomaterials (natural and synthetic) and fabrication methods.

Directly related to my research area of microparticles for use in drug delivery is the development of functional in vitro tissue models to investigate particle interactions with cells and/or the extracellular matrix.  Current models used to test particles include 1) two-dimensional models consisting of various aqueous media environments that may or may not contain cells and 2) animal models.  Two-dimensional culture models lack the complexity of three-dimensional tissue models to properly predict particle interactions with cells and the extracellular matrix components.  Even though animal models may provide a more complex system, data do not always correlate with human data due to obvious differences.  An alternative to currently used models is the development of three-dimensional in vitro cellular and tissue constructs, or their equivalents, to mimic the normal human tissues that may interact with particles.  My past research experience in this area has included the development of several tissue models for the diagnosis and prevention of disease.

The following engineering principles would be utilized in this research area:

• Transport Phenomenon

• Modeling

• Optimization

This research would result in experience in the following areas:

• Chemical Engineering

• Biomaterials

• Tissue Engineering

• Cell Biology

• Immunology