Battling With Environments: Drug Delivery to Target Tissues With Particles and Functional Biomaterials

Abstract

Recent years have seen a growing interest in drug-delivery technology as an enabling tool for complicated pharmacological activities. At the same time, this field has faced as many challenges as successes in translating novel ideas into clinical benefits. The Laboratory for Therapeutic Particles and Biomaterials Engineering at Purdue University (IN, USA) has striven to identify the current challenges in drug delivery and find solutions through the design of new drug-delivery systems. We develop new inhalable formulations for drug and gene delivery for cystic fibrosis patients, simple particle platforms for inhalable drug delivery, anion-resistant nonviral gene vectors, tumor-targeted nanoparticle systems, and hydrogel-based therapeutics. Through expanded collaborations with researchers in medicine and related disciplines, we strive to contribute to advancing the drug delivery field in a clinically relevant manner.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The Laboratory for Therapeutic Particles and Biomaterials Engineering at Purdue University (IN, USA) has been supported by NIH R21 CA135130, College of Pharmacy at Purdue; Seed grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., to the College of Pharmacy at Purdue; Purdue Research Foundation, Showalter Trust Award, Indiana State Department of Health; Indiana CTSI Pre-doctoral Training Fellowship; Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Grant; AACP New Investigator Award, AAPS New Investigator Grant Award in Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Korea), and DKC Corporation (Korea). The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.