Pharmaceutical research with the Eli Lilly and Company and Purdue University Research Alliance Center (Pharma with the LPRC)

Pharma with the LPRC: Students in this team will work on forefront pharmaceutical innovation questions aimed at advancing medicine and patient care to change lives around the world.

Advisors

Prof. Arezoo M. Ardekani

Prof. Ryan Wagner

Prof. Pavlos Vlachos

Prof. Brett Meyers

 

Description

The delivery of injected drug therapies is a broad, multidisciplinary process, encompassing needle insertion, injection, and target site delivery. A comprehensive understanding of each step is vital for optimal drug administration. This student team will focus on cutting-edge pharmaceutical research, aiming to enhance our understanding of the injection process to advance global healthcare and benefit patients worldwide. The team will have access to advanced research technologies and will develop tools and protocols to address critical research inquiries.

Student teams will be formed based on interests and expertise to work on the following projects.

Pharma with the LPRC – T1: Microfluidic system for studying the transport of therapeutics.

Faculty Advisors: Prof. Arezoo M. Ardekani, Prof. Rayn Wagner.

Project description: The development of a microfluidic model for various therapeutics, ranging from various sizes and concentrations, will be explored. Transport within the hydrogels will be analyzed to generate correlations with the various aspects of the therapeutic solutions.

Microfluidic models have been recognized as an interesting alternative to animal models for drug screening. These models can mimic some of the physiological characteristics across solid tumors to the physiological barriers. The therapeutic solution will be injected into one of the microchannels, while the other microchannel wells will have the hydrogel formulations in them. The transport of the therapeutic solution in the hydrogel will be measured by fluorescence microscopy or other techniques. 

Prerequisites: Biomaterial synthesis and fluorescence microscopy techniques are a plus, but not a requirement.

Pharma with the LPRC – T2: Fluidic device for studying the transport of therapeutics during pregnancy

Faculty Advisors: Prof. Arezoo Ardekani, Prof. Ryan Wagner

Project Description: Fluidic devices that mimic selected physiological conditions can be used to better understand the transport physics of therapeutics.   Pregnant women are often excluded from clinical trials leading to a lack of data on the performance of drugs during pregnancy.  To help address this gap we will develop, characterize, and test fluidic devices that mimic aspects of the transport phenomena linking the mother and fetus at different stages of pregnancy.   Transport of therapeutics within the device will be measured with fluorescence microscopy.  Mechanical testing will be used to understand the deformation of the device in response to expected forces. If successful, we will improve the access to and understanding of therapeutic treatments for pregnant women.

Pharma with the LPRC – T3: Enhancing Image Analysis for Characterizing Drug Injection and Therapeutic Transport

Faculty Advisors: Prof. Pavlos Vlachos, Prof. Brett Meyers

Experimental imaging faces challenges like sensor noise, limited resolution, and difficulty separating different features which limit our ability to quantitatively analyze and understand drug injection patterns and therapeutic transport. A student team will test publicly available tools and develop new methods to improve analysis accuracy and resolution, helping to better understand and optimize drug delivery systems.

Pharma with the LPRC – T4: Analyzing subcutaneous injection dynamics in situ

Faculty Advisors: Prof. Pavlos Vlachos, Prof. Brett Meyers

Autoinjectors are widely used for subcutaneous drug delivery, but how their design affects drug distribution in tissue remains an open question. In this project, a team of students will analyze high-speed synchrotron radiography and 3D CT imaging data to investigate plume growth, spread direction, and depot morphology following injections. This project offers hands-on experience with biomedical imaging data and practical insights into improving drug delivery technologies.

Pharma with the LPRC – T5: Subvisible particle characterization of therapeutics.

Faculty Advisors: Prof. Pavlos Vlachos, Prof. Brett Meyers.

Project description: A student team will use a new imaging platform to develop tools for identifying subvisible particles (SVPs) in various therapeutics. These tools will help assess what fraction of the therapeutic remains undelivered after drug administration.

The FDA regulates auto-injector therapeutics and considers the presence of insoluble drug particles – SVPs – during drug delivery. These SVPs can lead to injection site irritation and immunogenic responses. Identifying insoluble products is challenging due to variations in SVP shape and size. The team will explore innovative methods for collecting SVP characteristics through imaging and develop platforms to identify SVPs based on these characteristics.

Prerequisites

Basic proficiency with Matlab and/or Python strongly desired.