Abstract:

Ionic liquids, the liquid salts comprising organic anions and cations, offer exciting opportunities for several therapeutic applications. Their tunable properties offer control over their design and function. Starting with biocompatible ions, we synthesized a library of ionic liquids and explored them for various drug delivery applications. Ionic liquids provided unique advantages including overcoming the biological transport barriers of skin, buccal mucosa and the intestinal epithelium. At the same time, they also stabilized proteins and nucleic acids and enabled the delivery of biologics across these barriers. Ionic liquids also provided unique biological functions including adjuvancy towards vaccines and antimicrobial function. I will present an overview of the design features of ionic liquids and novel biomedical applications enabled by these unique materials.

Biography:

Samir Mitragotri is the Hiller Professor of Bioengineering and Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Prior to 2017, he was the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Chair Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Professor Mitragotri received Ph.D. from MIT in 1996 and B.S. from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai in 1992, both in Chemical Engineering. Professor Mitragotri's research is focused on drug delivery. He has developed innovative technologies for needle-free drug delivery via skin patches and oral pills which are easy-to-use and patient-friendly. In addition, Prof. Mitragotri has also developed new methods of targeted drug delivery for the treatment of cancer and vascular diseases. Professor Mitragotri has received numerous awards for his work including his election to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2015. He is also an elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), American Association of Advancement of Science (AAAS), Controlled Release Society (CRS), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE). He was among the first to be recognized with the Technology Review Young Inventor award (TR35) for technological innovation and is also a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus award from Institute of Chemical Technology. He is an author of over 300 publications, an inventor on over 170 patents/patent applications, and a recipient of AIChE's Colburn award (2005) & Acrivos Professional Progress award (2015), and Clemson award of the Society for Biomaterials (2017).