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research
Research in the Division of Pharmaceutics at The University of Iowa encompasses three broad areas:
Physical and Applied Pharmaceutics
Dr. Douglas Flanagan’s research group conducts research in the areas of physical pharmacy and drug delivery. He has directed doctoral students on projects involving biodegradable polymeric delivery systems, liposomal formulations, dissolution phenomena and membrane permeability. He currently has students working on solid-state desolvation kinetics, mucoadhesive polymeric delivery systems and drug/polymer co-precipitates.
Research projects in laboratory of Dr. Lee Kirsch are based on recurring problems encountered in industrial drug product design, manufacturing and/or delivery including the kinetics and mechanisms of chemical and physical instability of peptide/protein drugs and dispersed/colloidal drug formulations, and quality assurance issues in pharmaceutical package integrity and parenteral manufacturing technologies. Although these research projects arise from pragmatic issues, the approaches used in Dr. Kirsch’s laboratory are typically aimed at fundamental and mechanistic understandings of the underlying physical chemical phenomena.
Members of Dr. Dale Eric Wurster’s research group work on projects which involve the study of physical forces of interaction. These projects are quite diverse, and involve the study of adsorptive processes occurring in solution, adsorbent surface characterization, water vapor sorption by polymers, chemical catalysis in the micellar environment, and the physics of powder compaction. Calorimetric techniques are widely employed for analyzing the aforementioned phenomena.
Research in Dr. Vijay Kumar's laboratory focuses on modified celluloses, interpolymer complexes, and drug-excipient interactions. Research projects in these areas involve the study of different polymorphic forms of cellulose as potential pharmaceutical excipients, chemical modifications of cellulose, and interaction of modified celluloses with other polymers and drugs.
Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering
Dr. Maureen Donovan's research interests include novel drug delivery systems in mucosal drug delivery especially via the nasal, gastrointestinal and vaginal epithelia; and mechanisms of drug absorption and disposition.
Research in Dr. Jennifer Fiegel's laboratory focuses on the development of novel drug delivery systems for diseases of the lung, with special emphasis on infectious and inflammatory diseases. Through experimental studies and mathematical modeling, the laboratory designs medical aerosols with an improved ability to target the delivery of therapeutics within the lungs and explores the complex physical interactions between these delivery systems and various cells and fluids native to the lungs. The group is also investigating new ways to suppress the transmission of airborne pathogens via local variations in the lung lining fluid.
Dr. Vijay Kumar's research focuses on modified natural polymers (oxidized celluloses and oxidized cellulose-chitosan composites) and their use as biodegradable drug carriers and biomaterials. The emphasis of his research is the rational design of novel functionalized polymers that render formulation flexibility, permit high drug or bioactive macromolecule loading, provide sustained- and/or controlled drug release, and allow easy and rapid fabrication of porous tissue engineering scaffolds.
Research efforts in Dr. Kevin Rice's lab focus on the design and testing of gene delivery systems designed to treat inherited and chronic diseases. The laboratory develops peptide and peptide conjugates used to bind and condense plasmid DNA encoding therapeutic genes. The efficiency of gene transfer is determined by transfecting mammalian cells in culture and by dosing animals with targeted gene delivery systems. The overall goal is to develop safe and efficient gene transfer techniques that will serve as therapeutic platforms for gene therapy in humans.
Dr. Aliasger Salem's research program focuses on the rational design of novel drug and gene delivery systems. Current research is synergistically utilizing degradable particles prepared from existing or developing novel polymers with CpG oligonucleotides or heat shock proteins for immunocancer therapeutics. The group is also developing novel and superior oral dosage forms, injectable systems and developing sophisticated scaffolds for tissue-specific regeneration. Microfabrication techniques are applied to these materials to provide spatial control over tissue formation and to integrate minimally invasive scaffold delivery strategies.
Drug Disposition and Dynamics
Dr. Peter Veng-Pedersen's research group’s main investigational areas include the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) mechanisms of erythropoietin in pre-mature, very low birth weight babies, the PK/PD of the insulin-glucose system in diabetic and pre-diabetic subjects as relating to prediction of the development of diabetes, and the in-vivo kinetic assessment and optimization of drug delivery.
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