Prof. Samir Mitragotri's Talk

Jun 23, 2016 - 17:00

Jun 23, 2016 - 18:00

Room 118 Chemical Engineering

Seminars

Prof. Samir Mitragotri First N R Kamath Chair Professor at IITB Director Center for Bioengineering Professor Department of Chemical Engineering University of California Santa Barbara CA USA

Abstract: Effective delivery of drugs is a major problem in today’s healthcare. At a fundamental level the challenge of drug delivery reflects the fact that the drug distribution in the body is limited by body’s natural metabolic processes and transport barriers. These biological barriers while serving an important purpose of regulating body’s metabolic functions limit the drug dose that ultimately reaches the target site. Accordingly many drugs fail to reach their full therapeutic potential. Our research aims at developing a fundamental understanding of body’s key biological barriers such as skin and intestinal epithelium and utilizing this understanding to develop novel means to negotiate these barriers to deliver drugs. Human skin is one of the most sophisticated and well-engineered biological barriers in the human body. In principle it offers an ideal interface to administer drugs into the body through the use of a transdermal patch. However its formidable barrier properties limit the drug dose that can enter the body. Our research has led to the understanding of how skin’s structure and transport properties can be modulated using external stimuli such as ultrasonic waves fluid microjets and amphiphiles and how these stimuli can be controlled to enable transdermal delivery of drugs that were once thought undeliverable. We have also extended the lessons learned from our skin exploration to understand and negotiate other biological barriers in the body in particular intestinal epithelium reticuloendothelial system and tumors. Using transdermal-inspired approaches we have advanced ways to understand and enhance drug delivery across the intestinal epithelium via oral route using patches. We have also designed patches that can be delivered within the body using circulatory cells such as red blood cells and macrophages by navigating through the internal biological barriers of the liver lung brain and tumors. I will present an overview of the lessons learned from our exploration of these biological barriers.Short Bio: Dr. Samir Mitragotri is a Professor of Chemcial Engineering at the Univesity of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). He also serves as the Founding Director of UCSB’s Center for Bioengineering. He received a Ph.D. from MIT in 1996 and a B.S. from the Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai in 1992. Professor Mitragotri’s research interests are in the field of drug delivery and biomaterials. He has developed new materials and technologies for diagnosis and treatment of various ailments including diabetes cardiovascular diseases and infectious diseases. Professor Mitragotri has published close to 200 publications in scientific journals including Science Nature Medicine Nature Biotechnology Nature Materials and PNAS. He has given over 250 invited lectures at various conferences around the world. He is an inventor on about 100 pending or issued patents. Professor Mitragotri’s work is highly cited (over 15 000 citations h-index of 70). His work has also been highlighted in numerous popular and news media including Scientific American Popular Science R&D Magazine New York Times USA Today and Discover Magazine. Professor Mitragotri has co-founded seven companies that have developed (are developing) over 30 products. Professor Mitragotri is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and an elected fellow of the American Association of Advancement of Science (AAAS) American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIBME) Controlled Release Society (CRS) and National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Professor Mitragotri has trained close to 200 graduate students undergraduate students and post-docs that are currently working in various industries as well as academic institutions.