Working Groups – SimInhale COST

WG1: Particle engineering/processing of inhaled medicines for local/systemic action

Objectives:

Identify optimal deposition sites for topical and systemic therapies.
Consolidate information on the effects of lung disease on the deposition-dissolution-absorption pathway.
Asses the effect of airway geometrical differences on regional deposition patterns and identify key effects to be included in CFPD simulations.
Promote deeper understanding of dissolution and absorption in the alveolar region.
Assess emerging nanomedicine and excipient technologies in terms of efficiency and safety.
Train ECIs and other interested scientists in emerging particle-engineering technologies and promote the acquisition of intra-disciplinary skills (simulations, imaging, toxicity) by ECIs who are already experts in particle engineering.

WG2: Device engineering and formulation-aware inhaler design

Objectives:

Promote the integrated design of formulations and inhaler devices.
Consolidate understanding on the balance of interparticulate dispersion-deposition forces for various formulation-inhaler designs by leveraging ongoing research and CFPD simulations.
Identify best design practices for emerging formulation needs such as high-dose drugs and combination therapies, taking into account cost and safety.
Promote the development of customized formulation-inhaler designs for special patient groups, such as the elderly and young children.
Promote STSMs to and from participating inhaler manufacturers, especially for ECIs.

WG3: Computer simulations as a horizontal enabling technology: delivery, deposition and lung-tissue/particles interaction

Objectives:

Promote close interaction between CFPD, medical imaging and pharmaceutics experts.
Establish best-practice guidelines for the current generation of CFPD simulations tools that will be accessible to non-CFPD experts
Identify and prioritize additional physical effects that must be included in CFPD tools to make simulations more realistic.
Establish a roadmap leading to integrated multiscale simulations with the ability to track aerosols over the entire delivery pathway.
Establish a roadmap leading to patient-specific and patient-class-specific CFPD simulations.
Promote the utilization of emerging functional pulmonary imaging technologies for the validation and verification of computational models.
Promote the role of CFPD as a Quality-by-Design tool.

WG4: Advanced imaging, patient monitoring and delivery verification

Objectives:

Assess the relative merits and challenges associated with emerging imaging technologies.
Establish realistic pathways for the leveraging of emerging imaging technologies in the their current state of development for simulation validation, R&D enhancement and patient monitoring.
Promote deeper understanding of dissolution and absorption in the alveolar region through the utilization of emerging function imaging methods.
Promote deeper understanding of regional deposition and clearance in the conducting airways through the utilization of emerging functional imaging methods.
Train ECIs and other interested scientists on emerging functional imaging technologies.

WG5: Toxicity, xenobiotics, risk assessment and policy development

Objectives:

Establish the factors that affect dosimetry in toxicity studies for inhaled medicines.
Identify test systems (in vitro, in vivo, in silico) to address the preclinical aspects of inhalational medicinal products [delivery, absorption distribution metabolism and excretion (ADME), activity, toxicity].
Promote the Risk-Based Approach to establish the safety testing programs of inhalational medicinal products.
Promote common analytical approaches in toxicity assessments of inhalational medicinal products and xenobiotics.
Train ECIs on the toxicity assessment of inhaled medicines.

Ms. Lucie Kubelová

Email: ben.forbes@kcl.ac.uk

Laboratory of Aerosol Chemistry and Physics, Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals, Czech Academy of Sciences

Keywords of expertise: 1. Chemical composition of aerosols, 2. Size distribution of aerosols, 3. Aerosol Mass Spectrometer

Golden Paragraph: Lucie Kubelová graduated in Physical Chemistry at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague and currently is a PhD student in the Laboratory of Aerosol Chemistry and Physics at the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals in Prague. Within SimInhale, Lucie focuses on measurement of size distribution of particles created by drug inhalers and their deposition in respiratory system.

Dr. Nicolas Tsapis

Email: nicolas.tsapis@u-psud.fr

CNRS, Univ. PAris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay

Keywords of expertise: 1. Particle engineering, 2. Lung delivery, 3. Trojan particles, 4. Porous particles

Golden Paragraph: After studying fundamental Physics at Université Paris Sud (Paris, France), Nicolas Tsapis did a master degree followed by a PhD on the influence of proteins on the elastic properties of model biological membranes at Laboratoire de Physique Statistique (ENS, Paris, France). He defended his Ph.D thesis in November 2000. In 2001, he went to Harvard University as a post-doctoral fellow in the groups of Prof. David A. Edwards and Prof. David A. Weitz for three years. There he studied the drying process of droplets containing colloidal particles from a fundamental as well as from an applied point of view. Together with Alkermes, he patented The Trojan Particle concept: Large porous particles encapsulating nanoparticles. In October 2003, Nicolas Tsapis joined the team of Prof Elias Fattal as a CNRS researcher (Institut Galien Paris-Sud, Univ Paris-Sud, Faculté de Pharmacie, Châtenay-Malabry, France). His research activity focuses on two main topics: Novel contrast agents for medical imaging and theranostics, and spray drying from fundamentals to therapeutic applications. In 2009, he obtained the CNRS bronze medal as a recognition of his research work. and in 2014 he was appointed CNRS research director. He is the author of about 80 publications and 5 patents.

Dr. Kristian Valen-Sendstad

Email: ben.forbes@kcl.ac.uk

Computational Cardiac Modeling Department at Simula Research Laboratory, Norway

Keywords of expertise: 1. Computational Fluid Mechanics, 2. Turbulence, 3. Computer Science

Golden Paragraph: Dr. Valen-Sendstad is currently employed as a research scientist in the Computational Cardiac Modeling Department at Simula Research Laboratory, Norway. During the first stages of his scientific career, Valen-Sendstad’s work focused around development of open-source numerical algorithms for solving the Navier-Stokes equations that governs fluid flow. The developed fluid flow solvers were later used to study blood flow in intracranial aneurysms – sick balloon-shaped blood vessels inside the brain that can burst and cause stroke. Over the years Valen-Sendstad has been working on investigating the extent and role of turbulent-like flows in the cardiovascular system. The published results have been very controversial, but backed up by irrefutable evidence. Valen-Sendstad has had impact on the scientific fields of vascular biology and neuroradiology, to mention a few. Valen-Sendstad is currently also focusing on applications of fluid flow in the human airways, especially targeting drug delivery.

Dr. Stavroula Rozou

Email: a.rozou@elpen.gr

ELPEN Pharm.Co.Inc., Greece

Keywords of expertise: 1. Analytical Development, 2. Validation, 3. DPI development, 4. Dissolution

Golden Paragraph: Stavroula Rozou is a Msc, PhD Pharmacist, who has been working in pharmaceutical industry since 1994. She is currently Director of Research and Development in ELPEN Pharm.Co.Inc. She was involved in the development of ELPEN dry powder inhaler since its concept in 2003 and has been specializing since in the inhalation field. Apart from the analytical research, her activities include preparation of a new product’s documentation for submission and scientific support to clients and partners. Stavroula is in close collaboration with several universities and research centers over various projects. She is interested in the IVIVC or ISIVC as development or analytical tools. She is keen in new collaborations with other SimInhale members in order to contribute to the emerging need of new products through the inhalation route.

Mr. Yan Cui

Email: yan.cui@iw.uni-halle.de

Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

Keywords of expertise: 1. Computational Fluid Dynamics, 2. Lattice-Boltzmann Method, 3. Dry Powder Inhaler, 4. Drug Detachment Models

Golden Paragraph: Yan Cui holds an Assistant Researcher position in the Department of Mechanical Process Engineering at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. The primary research activity of Yan in SimInhale is to study the detachment of micro-sized fine drug particles from a larger carrier particle under various flow conditions by using the Lattice Boltzmann Method. This study is used for predicting the drug delivery efficiency inside the Dry Powder Inhaler. In this regard, three detachment models, i.e. plane wall detachment model, rough wall detachment model and cluster-wall collision model, were developed based on measured contact properties for different flow conditions and cluster structures. Moreover, those detachment models are implemented into the OpenFOAM^® and are used for Euler/Lagrange calculations of an inhaler device and allow an optimization with regard to pressure drop and efficiency of drug powder delivery. Finally, he is looking for collaboration with other SimInhale members who can provide measured particle contact properties (e.g. adhesion force, surface energy, friction coefficient) for different surface treatment methods of carrier particles.

Dr. Jan Jedelsky

Email: jedelsky@fme.vutbr.cz

Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technicka 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic

Keywords of expertise: 1. Experimental Fluid Dynamics, 2. Transport and deposition of aerosols, 3. Single- and multi-phase flows, 4. Optical diagnostic methods

Golden Paragraph: Jan Jedelsky holds an Associate Professor position in the Energy Department, at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Brno University of Technology and he is the Head of the Spray research Laboratory and the Laboratory of fluid flow. The main research activity of Jan in SimInhale is the application of optical methods for flow and aerosol measurements in human airway replicas. The measurements of single and disperse two-phase flows for in-vitro lung studies namely involve point-wise methods for velocimetry in the airways: laser-Doppler based techniques (LDA, PDA) or planar optical methods, such as mono, stereo, and time-resolved PIV. The second research activity covers the measurement methods for preparation, characterisation and deposition of inhaled particles. The results acquired so far, or possibly obtained in the frame of SimInhale, provide a quantitative description of the flow and aerosol deposition and can be employed as the input or validation data for numerical simulations. In collaboration with other SimInhale members, Jan is also supposed to contribute to a review article from our group for SimInhale Special Issue EJPS.

Dr. Rita Vanbever

Email: rita.vanbever@uclouvain.be

Université catholique de Louvain

Keywords of expertise: 1. Sustained release strategies, 2. PEGylation, 3. Fate of inhaled drugs, 4. Inhalation dry powders

Golden Paragraph: Rita Vanbever holds an Associate Professor position at the Louvain Drug Research Institute of the Université catholique de Louvain. The research activity of Rita Vanbever deals with the formulation of inhalation dry powders, the study of the pulmonary fate of diverse molecules following delivery to the lungs in vivo in mice and in rats, the assessment of the potential of vaccine delivery to the lungs for protection against respiratory infections as well as the development of formulation strategies to sustain drug release within the lungs. This latter topic has particularly been developed within Rita Vanbever’s group these last years, in particular with the demonstration that PEGylation of proteins largely prolongs their residence time in the lungs as well as their therapeutic efficacy locally.

Dr. Katrin Bauer

Email: Katrin.Bauer@imfd.tu-freiberg.de

TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics, Lampadiusstr. 4, 09599 Freiberg, Germany

Keywords of expertise: 1. Optical flow visualisation, 2. 3D Particle Image Velocimetry, 3. Upper human airways, 4. Computational Fluid Dynamics

Golden Paragraph: Katrin Bauer is a research associate at the Institute of Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg in Germany. Katrin’s primary research activity in SinInhale is the experimental investigation of the 3D flow patterns in the upper bronchial tree. Therefore, she carries out time resolved, 3D PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) and PTV (Particle Tracking Velocity measurements) in transparent lung models in order to receive information about the evolving 3D flow patterns which drive the particle motion. These data can be used for validation of the numerical results. In collaboration with other SinInhale members she is setting up upper airway measurements of a patient specific geometry. At exactly the same geometry particle deposition is investigated. Besides that, Katrin also performs numerical simulations in order to gain deeper insight into the mass transport behavior in the upper human airways.

Prof. Anne Haaije de Boer

Email: a.h.de.boer@rug.nl

University of Groningen, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy, Ant. Deusinglaan 1, 9713 AV Groningen, The Netherlands.

Keywords of expertise: 1. DPI design and development, 2. Powder formulation and characterisation, 3. Aerosol characterisation, 4. Laser diffraction technique

Golden Paragraph: Anne de Boer is retired associate professor and former head of the inhalation group of the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy (PTB) of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He still has a contract with the university for another ten years (until 2025) on a voluntarily basis, however, to finish the Twincer high dose dry powder inhaler platform, develop a second generation inhaler adapter for aerosol characterisation with laser diffraction technique (in collaboration with Sympatec, Germany) and support various formulation and patient studies with the (test) inhalers developed by the inhalation group. This group is financially virtually independent of research grants and governmental budgets thanks to received royalties from previous inhaler developments (Novolizer and Genuair) and anticipates to extend this situation with marketing of the Twincer platform. His interest in Siminhale is to find collaboration in the areas of solid state drug characterisation and CFD simulation of inhaler performance and drug deposition in the respiratory tract as function of the inhaler design.

Ms. Jana Kozáková

Email: kozakova@icpf.cas.cz

Laboratory of Aerosols Chemistry and Physics, Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the CAS, Czech Republic

Keywords of expertise: 1. Aerosol size distribution measurement, 2. Measurement with cascade impactors, 3. Chemical composition of aerosol

Golden Paragraph: Jana Kozáková is a PhD candidate with a research interest in air quality of outdoor and indoor environment. Her current research is focused on aerosol particle measurement, aerosol size distribution assessment and aerosol chemical composition. The research activity of Jana in SimInhale project is the detailed size distribution measurement of aerosol particles from inhalers and subsequently the description of particle deposition in the respiratory system.

Mr. Yan Ostrovski

Email: yanost@gmail.com

Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Keywords of expertise: 1. Targeted pulmonary drug delivery, 2. In-vitro pulmonary drug deposition, 3. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), 4. Discrete element method (DEM)

Golden Paragraph: Yan Ostrovski is a PhD student in Prof’s Sznitman’s lab in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. His primary research activity is targeted delivery in the lungs using magnetic particles. In collaboration with other Siminhale members, Yan is using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and discrete element method (DEM) to model the behavior of inhaled magnetic particles on different scales in the lung. These simulations are then used to design in-vitro system. 3d printed models are used to study the behavior of magnetic particles in the upper airways. Whereas Microfluidic chips are used to study the particle dynamics in alveolar geometries on a true physiological scale.

Dr. Alessio Alexiadis

Email: a.alexiadis@bham.ac.uk

School of Chemical Engineering University if Birmingham

Keywords of expertise: 1. Mathematical modelling, 2. Computational Fluid Dynamics, 3. Molecular Dynamics, 4. Hybrid modelling

Golden Paragraph: Dr. Alessio Alexiadis is currently working at the University of Birmingham on hybrid modelling and computer simulation. He accomplished his Ph.D. in 2001 in Italy at the Politecnico di Torino with a thesis on photocatalytic reactors. Since then, he has worked in France at ARMINES École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (2001−2003), in Germany at Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (2003−2004), in Australia at the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science & Technology, University of New South Wales, Sydney (2004−2006), and Cyprus at the Computational Sciences Laboratory at the University of Cyprus (2006-2008). In 2008 he was awarded of the Outgoing International Fellowship by the European Commission within the Marie Curie programme (FP6). He moved in the United States at the Washington University in St. Louis for the outgoing-phase of the fellowship (2008-2010) and in Sweden at the Royal Institute of Technology for the returning-phase (2010-2011). From 2012 to 2013, he worked at the University of Warwick on molecular-continuum modelling of micro/nano flows. His academic interests and past research activities include photocatalysis, computational fluid dynamics, bubbly flows, multiphase reactors, polymer dynamics, membrane science, global warming modelling, electrochemistry, micro- and nano-fluidics, and both classical and ab initio molecular simulations.

Dr. Laura Nicolaou

Email: laura.nicolaou@imperial.ac.uk

Imperial College London

Keywords of expertise: 1. Computational fluid dynamics, 2. Direct numerical simulations, 3. Aerosol deposition, 4. Upper airways

Golden Paragraph: Laura is a Research Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. Her research activity focuses on bio-fluid mechanics, in particular flow and aerosol deposition in the respiratory airways and the development of numerical algorithms for high-fidelity, large-scale computations of complex physiological flows. Laura’s interests within pulmonary drug delivery include flow and aerosol optimisation in order to minimise extrathoracic losses, patient- and class-specific prediction/optimisation of drug delivery, and paediatrics. In collaboration with other SimInhale members, Laura is currently investigating the effect of the extrathoracic airways on intrathoracic deposition, and examining the use of different numerical methods for prediction of flow and aerosol deposition in the airways.

Dr. Frantisek Lizal

Email: lizal@fme.vutbr.cz

Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Energy Institute, Czech Republic

Keywords of expertise: 1. Aerosol deposition in lungs, 2. Physical models of lungs, 3. Experimental aerosol research, 4. Positron emission tomography

Golden Paragraph: Frantisek Lizal works as senior lecturer at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic. His primary area of interest is experimental research of aerosol transport and deposition in human lungs. He and his team developed several physical replicas of human lungs. Some replicas were used for measurements of flow and velocity of particles within human lungs using laser Doppler-based methods. Other replicas are being used for measurements of regional aerosol deposition using optical microscopy or positron emission tomography. The data delivered by his team are being used by the community of SimInhale members as boundary conditions and for validation of numerical simulations of particle transport in lungs. He also collaborates on particle image velocimetry measurement of flow field in the replica of lungs. His secondary interests are thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and their applications.

Dr. Paolo Colombo

Email: paolo.colombo@unipr.it

President of Interuniversity Consortium on Innovative Pharmaceutical Technologies TEFARCO Innova, c/o Department of Pharmacy, Parma, Italy

Keywords of expertise: 1. Particle engineering, 2. DPI Device development, 3. In vitro assessment of respirability, 4. Spray drying technique for dry particle manufacturing

Golden Paragraph: Paolo Colombo primary research activity in inhalation is the design and development of novel inhalation products with a special focus on DPI. The primary goal is the search of a safe and convenient administration of large doses of drug in particular antiinfectives, to treat lung microbial and viral dependent diseases. In this regard the recent pubblications on cystic fibrosis Pseudomonas infection treatment by aminoglycosides drive to an approval for orphan designation of a powder of amikacin or tobramycin. The product is administered with a new device for powder inhalation capable to accept a dose of powder larger that 100 mg. We found a novel system and technique capable to regulate the powder emission in order not to suffucate the patient during inhalation since the large dose is emitted in small portions. This allows the complete deposition of the drug in the lung area defined by the aerodynamic size distribution of the aerosol particles.

Dr. Philipp Hofemeier

Email: philipph@bm.technion.ac.il

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Technion – Israeli Institute of Technology

Keywords of expertise: 1. Computational Fluid Dynamics, 2. Acinar airflow, 3. Acinar drug delivery

Golden Paragraph: Philipp Hofemeier recently finished his PhD at the department of biomedical engineering at the Technion – Israeli Institute of Technology. Where he explores particle transport and deposition in the respiratory region of the lung by means of computational simulations. He mainly focuses on predicting deposition efficiencies for pulmonary drug delivery applications. In SimInhale, Philipp is mainly interested in bridging the gap between computational models of the upper conducting airways and the respiratory region. Utilizing the expertise of other SimInhale member in upper airway simulations, Philipp has joined efforts to build a multi scale lung model. Furthermore, he is working on exchanging data and parameters to improve boundary conditions and increase the accuracy of computational deposition maps.

Prof. Gerrit Borchard

Email: Gerrit.Borchard@unige.ch

School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Geneva-Lausanne (EPGL), University of Geneva, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Keywords of expertise: 1. Biopharmaceutics, 2. Nanomedicines: drug & vaccine carriers, 3. Therapeutic protein formulation

Golden Paragraph: Gerrit Borchard is a professor of Biopharmaceutics at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Geneva-Lausanne (EPGL) at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). His primary interest in SimInhale is the formulation of vaccine and drug carriers as nano-medicines adapted to the application by inhalation. Several alternative technologies need to be assessed with regard to optimization of efficacy, and lowering of costs and toxicity.

Dr. Theodora Krasia-Christoforou

Email: krasia@ucy.ac.cy

University of Cyprus, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Keywords of expertise: 1. Polymer Science, 2. Polymer synthesis, 3. Polymer characterization, 4. Polymer processing

Golden Paragraph: Theodora Krasia-Christoforou (Dr. Rer. Nat., Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany, 2003) holds an Associate Professor position in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Cyprus. Her research interests are focused in the areas of synthesis, characterisation, processing and applications of polymers and polymer-based materials. She is particularly interested in the generation of novel, polymers of various architectures and chemical compositions comprising functionalities capable of responding to external stimuli, binding onto inorganic matter, adsorbing and releasing solutes in a controlled manner, etc. She is particularly interested in the preparation of polymer-inorganic nanohybrids and nanocomposites in the form of 3D networks, electrospun fibers and thin films. Her participation in the SimInhale COST Action aims in the creation of new collaborations with other SimInhale members, targeting towards the design, fabrication and characterization of novel and highly efficient stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems applicable in inhalation medicines.

Prof. Dr. Nenad Filipovic

Email: fica@kg.ac.rs

Faculty of Engineering, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

Keywords of expertise: 1. CFD, 2. Multiscale modeling, 3. Molecular dynamics, 4. Dissipative particle dynamics

Golden Paragraph: Prof. Dr. Nenad Filipovic, full professor at the Faculty of Engineering and the head of Center for Bioengineering of the University of Kragujevac, has a broad experience in computer simulation of the cardiovascular and cancer disease. He has developed a computer model for plaque formation and development under the FP7 project ARTreat (www.artreat.kg.ac.rs). He was also a Research Associate at Harvard University, USA (2003-2009). He is the author and co-author of 6 textbooks and 3 monographs in English, the author and co-author of over 150 publications, over 110 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals, the author and co-author of over 10 software for modeling of lung airway, cancer and atherosclerosis growth with finite element method and discrete methods from fluid mechanics and multiphysics, as well as connection of medical data with mechanics solvers, PI of scientific program for Bioengineering, PI and Co-PI of many national and international scientific projects, a Managing editor of Journal of the Serbian Society for Computational Mechanics, a Coordinating member of European Society of Biomechanics for Serbia, a member of European Society for Artificial Organs, a member of Board of Serbian Society for Mechanics etc.

Dr. Sitaram Velaga

Email: sitram.velaga@ltu.se

Department of Health Sciences, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden

Keywords of expertise: 1. Solid-state pharmaceutics, 2. Particle engineering, 3. Surface properties, 4. Carrier-free formulations

Golden Paragraph: Sitaram Velaga earned PhD from Uppsala University and currentlly holds a professorship in pharmacy at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. He is also a head of research education in Health Sciences. His major research interests include solid-state pharmaceutics and particle engieeneering for inhalation and nasal applications. His current projects in the area focus on carrier-free formulations, particle engineering through cystal engineering and effect of triboelectric charging on the particle deposition. Further, in collaboration with SimInhale members, Velaga is pursuing particle adhesion and cohesion properties and and dissolution of inhaled particles.

Dr. Maria Cordina

Email: maria.cordina@um.edu.mt

Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, Malta

Keywords of expertise: 1. Pharmacotherapeutic management of respiratory disease, 2. Safety in medicines use, 3. Patient outcomes research, 4. Beliefs and attitudes about medicines

Golden Paragraph: Maria Cordina is Associate Professor within the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Malta. Her research is focused on the interaction between the patient and medication. Within Simhale she contributes to the group which is responsible for toxicity, xenobiotics, risk assessment and policy development.

Dr. Vladimír Ždímal

Email: Zdimal@icpf.cas.cz

Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals CAS, Rozvojová 135, CZ-165 02 Praha 6, Czech Republic

Keywords of expertise: 1. Aerosol Technology, 2. Inhalation Aerosols, 3. Atmospheric and Indoor Aerosols, 4. Nucleation Studies

Golden Paragraph: Vladimír Ždímal is a chemical engineer by education, obtained his Master’s degree with his thesis on precipitation in a Taylor-Couette flow from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague, and his PhD dissertation was on homogeneous nucleation kinetics in supersaturated vapors under the supervision of Prof. Jiri Smolik at the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals (ICPF) in Prague. He continued his nucleation studies both during a NSF-NATO postdoctoral residency at Clarkson University in 1999 (with Prof. Philip Hopke), and after his return from the US with his PhD students. In the past decade, his activities have expanded into the fields of atmospheric aerosols and aerosol technology. Since 2009, he has led the aerosol group at the ICPF. As a supervisor of students in the field Pharmaceuticals and biomaterials he has developed a sampling train and methodology for on-line and off-line determination of particle size distributions of inhalation aerosols and his students measured these distributions on several tens of commercial inhalers. In collaboration within the SimInhale project, Vladimír plans to use the improved experimental methodology in combination with advanced models to estimate the deposition efficiency of various inhalation aerosols on the target tissues in the respiratory tract.

Mr. Fotos Stylianou

Email: fotosstylianou@yahoo.com

University of Cyprus

Keywords of expertise: 1. Computational Fluid Dynamics, 2. Incompressible Flows, 3. Finite Volume Method, 4. Structure-Based Turbulence Modeling

Golden Paragraph: Fotos Stylianou is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Cyprus and is a member of the Computational Sciences Laboratory (UCY-CompSci). His research activity in SimInhale is the use of high fidelity computer simulations for the prediction of drug deposition in the human airways, in particular the prediction of regional deposition in the upper airways. In this regard, he is interested in the factors that affect deposition in the mouth-throat region with the aim of understanding and controlling the leading effects that contribute to mouth-throat loss for drugs delivered via DPIs.

Dr. Sarah Zellnitz

Email: sarah.zellnitz@tugraz.at

Area II – Advanced Products and Delivery, Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH, A-8010 Graz, Inffeldgasse 13/III, Austria

Keywords of expertise: 1. Particle engineering, 2. Dry powder inhalers, 3. Material Characterization, 4. Spray drying

Golden Paragraph: Sarah Zellnitz is a pharmacist by training and currently holds the position of Senior Scientist at Area II “Advanced Products and Delivery” at the Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering (RCPE) in Graz, (AT). During her PhD at the Graz Technical University (AT) she explored glass beads as new model carries in dry powder inhalers (DPIs) and gained expertise in particle engineering via surface modification and detailed material characterization. Her now focus is on tailoring DPI formulations via mechanistic understanding of the interplay of material properties, formulation properties, adhesive-cohesive force balance and drug detachment.

Dr. Mafalda de Castro Ascensão Marques Videira

Email: mafaldavideira@campus.ul.pt

Nanomedicines and Drug Delivery Systems Group, iMed.UL – Research Institute for Medicines and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Lisboa (FFUL), Lisboa, Portugal

Keywords of expertise: 1. Nanomedicines, 2. Pulmonary Administration, 3. Oncology, 4. Cell Biology; Toxicology

Golden Paragraph: Assessment of in-vivo/in-vitro response to pulmonary and lymphatic absorption and clearance of the pharmaceutical nanoparticulate dispersed dosage forms. Biodistribution studies using nuclear medicine approaches.
Nanotechnology and intracellular Target: Design of innovative platforms for drug and gene delivery (e.g., Lipid nanoparticles, polymeric micelles and lipopolyplexes) using “smart” biomaterials.
Receptor-ligand strategies in order to develop patentable nanoscale delivery systems for selective cell targeting (e.g. Cd44+ in cancer stem cells) using molecular biology tools and adequate cell models.
Nanotechnology: Oncological pharmaceutical dosage forms development and full characterization of the designed systems. Assessment of properties of the nanoscale developed colloids, focusing in the relation between processes and materials. Applications of the lipid-based carriers for the intracellular deliver of new RNAi strategies against metastatic cancer sub-populations (signalling cascades, intracellular pathways and transcriptional proteins).
Interaction between nanoparticles and cellular targets: Intracellular nanoparticles trafficking, in vitro efficacy and toxicity and in vitro/in vivo nanoparticulate system efficacy. Evaluation of pulmonary or mucosal nanoparticles administration and further implications on the their lymphatic uptake.
Ethical implications of health-related innovations and experimentation.

Dr. Mårten Svensson

Email: marten@emmace.se

Emmace Consulting AB, Sweden

Keywords of expertise: 1. Experimental characterisation of aerosols, 2. Performance testing of inhalers, 3. Prediction of lung dose, 4. Anatomical throats and Inhalation profiles

Golden Paragraph: Over a decade of experience in pharmaceutical industry in different phases of development from formulation development in early phase to late stage regulatory processes for drug products. Has been involved in various projects spanning pre-clinical, product development, and clinical discipline.

Extensive experience as specialist within the inhalation technology,

Aerosol specialist, advanced method development (eg in-house built instrumentation), project support and guidance.
Managing the daily work for 5-10 people in lab environment.
Extensive experience in international collaborations, including due diligence matters.
Several years of experience as hub between mechanical engineers in product development and analytical pharmaceutical testing in the development of new inhaler platforms.
Inventor of patents and have performed review procedures of pharmacopoeias.
Several years of membership in EPAG and IPAC-RS Impactor groups
A very genuine background in method development, project support at various levels, management of lab personnel, advanced data handling, writing of SOPs and guidelines, and implementation and concept testing of new methodologies/instrumentation.

Prof. Dr. Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser

Email: barbara.rothen@unifr.ch

Co-Chair BioNanomaterials, Adolphe Merkle Institute, Université de Fribourg, Ch. des Verdiers 4, CH-1700 Fribourg, Germany

Keywords of expertise: 1. Lung cell culture models, 2. Aerosolized nanoparticles, 3. Hazard / risk assessment, 4. Biomedical nanoparticle design

Golden Paragraph: Prof. Dr. Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser has received her Ph.D. in 1996 in cell biology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. From 1996 to 2000 she held a post-doctoral position in Biopharmacy at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the ETH and in 2000 she joined Prof. Peter Gehr’s research group at the University of Bern, Switzerland. B. Rothen-Rutishauser is an expert in the field of cell-nanoparticle interactions in the lung, with a special focus on 3D lung cell models and various microscopy techniques such as laser scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Since 2011 she is the new chair in BioNanomaterials at the Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, the position is shared equally with Prof. Alke Fink. The research group’s activities stretch over many fields from material synthesis and characterization to biological responses and risk assessment. Prof. Rothen-Rutishauser has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and is an associate editor of the Particle and Fibre Toxicology.

Dr. Ramy Fishler

Email: ramyfishler@gmail.com

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Keywords of expertise: 1. Microfluidics, 2. Acinar Flows, 3. Particle Image Velocimetry, 4. Inhaler Testing

Golden Paragraph: Ramy Fishler is a scientist at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Insitute of technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Nanoscience. Ramy’s primary research in SimInhale is the use of microfluidic models to investigate particle transport mechanisms in the lung acinus. Ramy is also devloping a proprietary new method of measuring aerodynamic particle size distribution from inhalers in real time.

Dr. Kaye Morgan

Email: kaye.morgan@monash.edu

Chair of Biomedical Physics, Technische Universität München, Germany

Keywords of expertise: 1. Biopharmaceutics, 2. Respiratory drug delivery, 3. Lung absorption, 4. Lung dissolution

Golden Paragraph: Kaye Morgan is a Victorian Postgraduate Research Fellow in the School of Physics at Monash University, visiting the Technische Universität München on a Hans Fischer Fellowship. Kaye has experience using the bright x-rays from synchrotron x-ray facilities to capture the structure and dynamics of the respiratory system. But detecting small changes in the direction x-rays propagate, it is possible to reconstruct high resolution images of the lungs and the airway surface. This can be used to better understand respiratory physiology, to monitor respiratory health and to measure the effects of treatments on the airway surface. One example is tracking the depth of the airway surface liquid before, during and after inhalation of a nebulised treatment for Cystic Fibrosis, to provide direct and local feedback on treatment effectiveness. Kaye is working with the imaging working group to see how else this new technology can be used to progress research on respiratory health and inhaled treatments.

Prof. Vasilis Bontozoglou

Email: bont@uth.gr

Laboratory of Transport Processes, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Thessaly, 38334, Volos, Greece

Keywords of expertise: 1. Transport Phenomena, 2. Computational Fluid Dynamics, 3. Interfacial Flows

Golden Paragraph: Vasilis Bontozoglou is Professor of Transport Phenomena in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Thessaly and Head of the Laboratory of Transport Processes. The primary research activity of Vasilis in SimInhale is the prediction of drug deposition in the lungs by one-dimensional models that incorporate the correct physics of transport and mixing in the alveolar volumes. Vasilis is also working on fundamental understanding of the function of soluble surfactants in liquid films, a topic of keen interest for alveolar mechanics.

Dr. Guillaume Houzeaux

Email: guillaume.houzeaux@bsc.es

Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain

Keywords of expertise: 1. Computational Fluid Dynamics, 2. High Performance Computational Mechanics, 3. Parallelization, 4. Biomechanics

Golden Paragraph: Guillaume Houzeaux studied physics at the Université de Montréal, Canada. After his Batchelor studies, he joined Prof. Habashi’s CFD group at Concordia University, Montréal, to start working in CFD and turbulence modeling, and obtained a Master of Applied Science in 1995. Afterwards he moved to Barcelona and carried out a PhD in Domain Decomposition methods applied to CFD at the Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain. He obtained the PhD degree in 2002 and during two years worked at the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) in the Building, Energy and Environment group. In 2004 he obtained a ‘Ramon y Cajal’ Spanish government contract to study indoor ventilation in buildings. Two years later he joined the newly created Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) to start the CFD research line in the Department of Computer Applications in Science and Engineering. Since then he has been working in basic research (variational multiscale), applied research (ventilation, biomechanics), and on the parallelization, optimization and tuning of Alya simulation codes for very large scale simulations.

Mr. Pantelis Koullapis

Email: koullapis.g.pantelis@ucy.ac.cy

PhD Candidate, Computational Sciences Laboratory (UCY-CompSci), Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Cyprus

Keywords of expertise: 1. Computational Fluid Dynamics, 2. Incompressible flows, 3. Biomedical fluid flows (lungs), 4. Numerical simulations

Golden Paragraph: Pantelis Koullapis is a PhD candidate at the Computational Sciences Laboratory (UCY-CompSci) of the University of Cyprus. The primary research activity of Pantelis in SimInhale is the use of high fidelity computer simulations for the prediction of drug deposition in the airways, in particular the prediction of regional deposition for various combinations of inhaler devices, patient groups (based on age or health status) and formulations. In this regard, he is interested in the development of In Silico In Vivo Correlations (ISIVCV) for deposition. In collaboration with other SimInhale members, Pantelis is also pursuing the development of hybrid models coupling the upper airways to the alveolar region, e.g. using LES methods for the upper airways with reduced models for the deeper airways.

Dr. Ludmila Mašková

Email: maskova@icpf.cas.cz

Institute of Chemical Processes Fundamentals of the CAS, Rozvojová 135, 16502 Prague 6, Czech Republic

Keywords of expertise: 1. Particle Size Distribution, 2. Number/Mass Concentration, 3. Nanoparticles, 4. Time-of-flight Measurements

Golden Paragraph: Ludmila Mašková is a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute of Chemical Processes Fundamentals of the CAS in Prague, Czech Republic. The primary research activity of Ludmila in SimInhale is the detailed characterisation of aerodynamic properties of inhalable particles generated by different devices and formulations, and comparison of number and mass particle size distributions in the wide size range (3 nm – 20 µm). During the Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) Ludmila cooperated with the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Parma, Italy, at formulation and detailed characterisation of spray-dried antibiotics powders for inhalation used for treatment of cystic fibrosis. The STSM strongly advanced her understanding of methods for inhaled formulation manufacturing and chemical characterisation of the medical aerosols.

Dr. Ben Forbes

Email: ben.forbes@kcl.ac.uk

King’s College London

Keywords of expertise: 1. Biopharmaceutics, 2. Respiratory drug delivery, 3. Lung absorption, 4. Lung dissolution

Golden Paragraph: Ben Forbes studies drug delivery and formulation science – the factors that influence the rate and extent of drug absorption from pharmaceutical dosage forms: (1) medicines formulation / clinical pharmaceutics, (2) the development and application of cell cultures and ex vivo techniques to study drug transport and metabolism, (3) medicines safety/toxicology. He is co-ordinator of the APSGB ‘Drug Delivery to the Lungs’ Network, a UK-based international academia-industry-regulatory consortium: http://www.apsgb.org/drugsinthelungs/

Dr. Per Backman

Email: Per.Backman@mylan.co.uk

Mylan Global Respiratory group

Keywords of expertise: 1. Inhalation Drug Delivery, 2. Inhalation Biopharmaceutics, 3. Mechanistic computational modelling, 4. Drug development

Golden Paragraph: Per Backman is Senior Director Inhalation Biopharmacutics at Mylan Global Respiratory Group, responsible for the predication of clinical performance of inhaled products. Primary research activities include development and integration of in vitro and computational methods to predict local and systemic exposure following inhalation of respiratory medicines.

Mr. Jordi Llop

Email: jllop@cicbiomagune.es

Radiochemistry and Nuclear Imaging Group, CIC biomaGUNE, San Sebastián, Spain

Keywords of expertise: 1. Radiochemistry, 2. Molecular imaging, 3. Positron emission tomography, 4. Nanotechnology

Golden Paragraph: Jordi Llop is Principal Investigator and Head of Radiochemistry at CIC biomaGUNE. The primary research activity of Jordi in SimInhale is the development of radiolabelling strategies for the incorporation of positron and gamma emitters into nanoparticles for subsequent investigation of the regional distribution in the lungs after aerosol inhalation using a combination of in vivo imaging modalities, namely Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computerised Tomography (SPECT). Dr. Llop is interested in investigating different drug administration systems and compare the local and regional distribution in the lungs, as well as translocation of the labelled species to the blood torrent and remote organs. In collaboration with other SimInhale members, Jordi is pursuing the development of strategies for radiolabelling solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) to be investigated as drug carriers for the treatment of lung cancer.

Dr. Carsten Ehrhardt

Email: EHRHARDC@tcd.ie

Associate Professor in Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Keywords of expertise: 1. Epithelial Transport, 2. Pulmonary Drug Delivery, 3. Drug Transporters

Golden paragraph: Dr. Carsten Ehrhardt studied Pharmacy at the Universities of Frankfurt and Hamburg, before he read for his Ph.D. in Biopharmaceutics at Saarland University. Dr. Ehrhardt took up a Lectureship in Biopharmaceutics at Saarland University in 2003 and joined Trinity College Dublin as a Lecturer in Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology in August 2004. He also holds an appointment as Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Southern California and he served as Director of Research in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences from 2008-2012. Dr. Ehrhardt has been elected to Fellowship in 2013. He is the recipient of honours and awards from the German Pharmaceutical Society, American Physiological Society and the Galenus Foundation. His research studies transport mechanisms of xenobiotics and endogenous compounds at the respiratory epithelial barrier and also includes the development of advanced drug delivery systems for pulmonary administration. Dr. Ehrhardt has edited one book and authored 84 peer-reviewed research articles and reviews.

Prof. Josue Sznitman

Email: sznitman@bm.technion.ac.il

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel

Keywords of expertise: 1. Respiratory flows, 2. Experimental flow visualization, 3. Computational Fluid Dynamics, 4. Particle transport

Golden Paragraph: J. Sznitman has dedicated his research to uncovering, both through experiments and numerical simulations, respiratory transport phenomena in the deep lungs, with the aim of leveraging such knowledge towards improved strategies for pulmonary drug delivery. He was awarded the Silver Medal for a doctoral thesis at the ETH Zurich and the 2008 Research Award from the Swiss Society of Biomedical Engineering. Following his PhD, he was named a Fellow of the Science & Technology Council at Princeton University. Upon joining the Technion as an assistant professor, he was awarded a Young Scientist Award (2012) from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) and served as Conference Chair at the 2nd International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics in Medicine & Biology (2015). Most recently, he was awarded the Young Investigator Award (2015) by the International Society of Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM) for a researcher under 40 and a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (Horizon 2020). J. Sznitman has been a Guest Editor in the Journal of Biomechanics and serves as an Academic Editor in the journal PLoS One.

Prof. Stavros Kassinos

Email: kassinos@ucy.ac.cy

Dept. of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, University of Cyprus

Keywords of expertise: 1. Computational Fluid Particle Dynamics, 2. Two phase flows, 3. Turbulence theory and modeling, 4. High performance Computing

Golden paragraph: Stavros Kassinos holds an Associate Professor position in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Cyprus and is the Head of the Computational Sciences Laboratory (UCY-CompSci). The primary research activity of Stavros in SimInhale is the use of high fidelity computer simulations for the prediction of drug deposition in the airways, in particular the prediction of regional deposition for various combinations of inhaler devices, patient groups (based on age or health status) and formulations. In this regard, he is interested in the development of In Silico In Vivo Correlations (ISIVCV) for deposition. In collaboration with other SimInhale members, Stavros is also pursuing the development of hybrid models coupling the upper airways to the alveolar region, e.g. using LES methods for the upper airways with reduced models for the deeper airways. Finally, in collaboration with other SimInhale members, he is looking into numerical techniques for modeling the fate of drug particles after deposition.