Bridging Multiple Scales in Modeling Targeted Drug Nanocarrier Delivery

The vascular administration of targeted nanocarriers enables precise delivery of drugs to diseased or inflamed endothelial cells. The primary therapeutic goal we are pursuing is to optimize endothelial delivery of antioxidant and antiinflammatory agents for alleviation of acute pulmonary inflammation and oxidative stress through multiscale modeling with validating experimentation. A wide range of length and time scales are required for describing the physics of hydrodynamic and microscopic molecular interactions mediating nanocarrier motion in blood flow and endothelial cell binding in targeted vascular drug delivery. We incorporate features of nanocarrier design and optimization for clinical applications, including nanocarrier dimension, concentration, density of targeting molecules and characteristics of linkers used to attach targeting molecules into computational models bridging the relevant multiple scales. We are developing computational techniques required to incorporate molecular dynamics, mesoscale binding interactions and hydrodynamics governing nanocarrier transport and cellular adhesion. Our bridged modeling is being validated through synergistic cell culture and animal experiments of binding of selectively developed nanocarriers. In this presentation we will discuss key drug delivery and targeting principles, provide examples of in vitro and in vivo experiments, demonstrate in silico approaches , discuss bridging methods and describe additional future considerations.

Webinar Start Date
Presenter
David Eckmann and Ravi Radhakrishnan (University of Pennsylvania)
Portonovo Ayyaswamy, Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Russell Composto, Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Andrew Tsourkas, Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Vladimir Muzykantov, Professor, University of Pennsylvania
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