SCIENCE AT THE EDGE SEMINAR SERIES

Engineering Seminar

Friday, 18 November 2011 at 11:30am

Room 1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg.

Refreshments at 11:15

Speaker: Justin Hanes
         Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

Title:   Drug Delivery to Mucosal Surfaces: Nanomedicines that Bypass
         the Mucus Barrier

Abstract:

The controlled delivery of bioactive molecules to target tissues can
significantly improve drug effectiveness while reducing side effects by
concentrating medicine at selected sites in the body.  Mucus layers coat
and protect nearly all entry points into the body that are not coated by
skin.  Until recently, human mucus was thought to be nearly impenetrable
to drug delivery particles even as small as 59 nm in diameter.  Particles
that become trapped in mucus are typically rapidly cleared from the organ
of interest, usually within minutes to a few hours.  Thus, while the
barrier properties of mucus provide outstanding protection against
infection and other potentially toxic substances, they have also thwarted
efforts to achieve uniform and sustained drug and gene delivery to mucosal
surfaces.  This talk will focus on our work to understand the length-scale
dependent and adhesion-mediated barrier properties of mucosal fluids, and
how this knowledge has guided the development of polymeric nanoparticulate
carriers capable of improved drug and gene delivery to the respiratory
tract, female reproductive tract, gastrointestinal tract, surface of the
eye, and other mucosal tissues.