Polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) and pharmaceutical emulsions are widely used and studied for controlled and sustained delivery of therapeutics.

Pharmaceutical emulsions are used to deliver an emulsified drug, typically lipophilic, to a target tissue.

Delivery of hydrophilic drugs often requires the use of water-in-oil-in-water (w/o/w) double emulsions.

NPs are sometimes delivered in emulsion form, which thus far is limited to hydrophobic drugs drug delivery.

Our current emphasis aims to develop NP platforms to deliver novel classes of biotherapeutics including peptides, interfering RNAs, and plasmids.

Hydrogel NPs in particular have shown great promise in drug delivery research owing to their hydrophilicity, high-water content, biocompatibility, and ability to encapsulate hydrophilic therapeutics with diffusive-based release controlled through variations in network crosslink density.

Current NP fabrication methods require post-processing to remove cytotoxic solvents and surfactants prior to in vivo administration.

This leads to significant loss of encapsulated drug which minimizes drug loading, compromises reproducibility of release kinetics, and therapeutic efficacy of administered NPs in vivo.

With the objective of minimizing loss of hydrophilic therapeutics and eliminating contact with any cytotoxic materials during the production process, in collaboration with Fouad Teymour’s group we are testing the effectiveness of a new biocompatible NP emulsion (BCNE) consisting of PEG hydrogel NPs dispersed in a naturally-derived consumable organic phase that can be formulated as a liquid or an ointment and delivered, en masse, directly to target sites.

In collaboration with clinical experts and biomedical engineers we are investigating topical and injectable BCNE therapeutic formulations to deliver novel therapeutic compounds to target sites for healing chronically infected diabetic wounds and as a treatment for obesity.