Targeted vascular drug delivery is inherently a multiscale problem with a wide range of length scales and time scales being important to the physics and mechanics of nanocarrier motion in bloodflow and endothelial cell binding. We are developing computational methods to bridge the multiple scales that must be incorporated into modeling schemes for them to optimize targeted vascular drug delivery. Our models will be validated through representative cell culture and animal experiments of molecularly targeted nanocarrier delivery to cells. This work will enable high throughput computational predictions to be performed to optimize nanocarrier design for treatment of lung diseases as well as many diseases in other human organs.


The project represents a unique collaboration between researchers in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and those in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The integrative and interdisciplinary research brings together Departments of Bioengineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Materials Science and Engineering, Pharmacology, and Anesthesiology and Critical Care, as well as the Institute of Targeted Medicine and Therapeutics and the Penn Institute of Computational Science, in a common goal aimed at improving clinical efficacies of targeted drug delivery through rational design.

 

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Our Sponsors and Affiliates

We acknowledge funding from the following extramural research grants and supercomputing allocations

  • National Institutes of Health 
  • National Science Foundation
  • Corning Inc
  • Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment 

 

NSF
NIH
xsede
IMAG
ITMAT