Experiments in drug delivery for undergraduate engineering students

Chemical Engineers play an important and expanding role the field of drug delivery, yet undergraduate chemical engineering students are rarely exposed to drug delivery through their coursework. To provide students with the skills directly relevant to the evolving needs of the pharmaceutical industry, we are developing and integrating applied drug delivery coursework and experiments throughout the Rowan Engineering curriculum. Through several modules, integrated from freshman through senior and graduate level courses, students learn how fundamental engineering principles are applied in the design and production of drug delivery systems. They discover how the drug and material properties and the processing variables affect the release of a drug from a system. They acquire hands-on experience with characterization techniques and physical property testing of the delivery system, and become practiced in the analysis of the drug release data. Students gain experience with modern industrial techniques for the production, testing, and analysis of drug delivery systems. Through the seven modules, a variety of drug delivery systems are explored: tablets, ointments, membrane systems, microcapsules, osmotic pumps, and supercritical fluid-processed particles.