(5cc) Engineering Efficacious Controlled Release Therapeutics

The
engineering design methodology can streamline problems in fields as
disparate as unit operations and immunotherapy. Specifically, the
fundamental mathematics used to design, for example, a packed bed
reactor also readily apply to a single injection vaccine and numerous
other controlled release therapeutics. However, model-driven design
is rarely used to develop medical treatments, like the latter.
Changing this paradigm in both classroom and laboratory has been and
will continue to be a focus of my career.

Most
recently, I have combined in silico,
in vitro, and in
vivo methods to supplant the
heuristic design of controlled release therapeutics with a rational,
model-driven methodology. The backbone of this transformation is a
newly developed predictive model connecting the fundamental design
parameters to a formulation's drug delivery kinetics.
Proof-in-principal for this design strategy comes from the
development of two biodegradable microparticle formulations with
dramatically different dosing kinetics and therapeutic payloads.
Further, the efficacy of each formulation was confirmed with
disease-specific, animal models. Together these data establish this
mathematical approach as a platform for the design and development of
controlled release therapeutics.