• Artificial Gut Simulator (Ph.D. Project 1, Advisor: Dr. Ronald A. Siegel, in collaboration with Dr Hao Helen Hou at Genentech, Inc.)

I designed, developed and validated an ‘Artificial Gut Simulator’ to assess simultaneously the in-vitro dissolution and intestinal permeation performance of oral pharmaceuticals, especially those belonging to the Biopharmaceutical Class System-II (BCS-II). Briefly, an absorption module with a large surface area was fabricated and suspended into the dissolution vessel to simulate absorption from the intestinal lumen at biorelevant rate. The overall focus of this research is to characterize drug crystallization tendency and solution activity in vitro in the presence of polymer excipients and quantify its impact on drug absorption and vice-versa.

  • Osmotic Drug Delivery Systems (Ph.D. Project 2, Advisor: Ronald A. Siegel)

I developed spherical poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) capsules containing a solution of an osmotic agent and drug that ruptured at pre-determined burst times for pulsatile drug delivery. The burst times were a function of capsule formulation attributes and were determined by mechanistic modelling of elastoplastic deformation and osmosis. I am currently working on developing a US quarter-sized biodegradable PLGA osmotic mini-pump using AutoCAD, 3D printing, laser cutting and hot embossing rapid prototyping tools to deliver heparin, an anticoagulant, at a constant rate for 7 days to prevent intraperitoneal surgical adhesions. Biodegradability of PLGA circumvents the need to retrieve the implant. To ensure zero-order constant drug release, an “oil piston/barrier” is introduced between a saturated osmotic agent solution and an unsaturated aqueous dextran blue (high solubility model drug similar to heparin) solution. A thin PLGA membrane separates the osmotic agent from external fluids. The membrane controls osmotic flow, which pushes the oil piston, which in turn drives the dextran blue solution out of the device at a zero-order rate.