2025 AIChE Annual Meeting

Implementing a Reproducible Drug Delivery Experiment into the Chemical Engineering Curriculum

The chemical engineering curriculum has been constantly evolving based on the needs of society. Over the last 20 years there has been an increased emphasis towards integrating biological concepts into the chemical engineering curriculum – typically through the addition of at least one biological course for chemical engineers in the curriculum - in preparation for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. However, these classes are often theory-focused and do not provide any opportunities for hands-on learning.

Here a model drug delivery experiment has been developed to be integrated into the chemical engineering curriculum. In the experiment green food coloring is used as a model drug and is encapsulated in sodium alginate beads. Sodium alginate beads were made at different diameters. The sodium alginate concentrations were varied to create different beads and sodium alginate beads were placed in dissolution solutions with varied sodium chloride concentrations. The release of green food coloring is measured using spectrophotometry. Release experiments were completed in triplicate and showed high reproducibility. There was an inverse relationship between bead diameter and rate of food coloring release. It was seen that beads made from varied sodium alginate concentrations had different amounts of food coloring released. There was an increased release of food coloring at higher salt concentrations in the dissolution solution.

This experiment is affordable, uses safe reagents, and can be completed in a 1 to 2-hour period of time. The drug delivery experiment shows strong potential to be added into the chemical engineering curriculum as a hands-on activity to expose students to pharmaceutical and biotechnology concepts.