Event
Bioengineering Seminar Series: Ben Shapiro
Friday, September 18, 2015
9:00 a.m.
Pepco Room (1105), Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
Dr. Christopher Jewell
cmjewell@umd.edu
Ben Shapiro
Professor
Fischell Department of Bioengineering
Institute for Systems Research
University of Maryland
Magnetic Control of Therapy to Hard-to-Reach Disease Targets
In principle, magnetic forces can be used to manipulate therapy inside the living body. Human trials have shown that external magnets can exert enough force on magnetic nano-particles to transport and collect them to disease locations (e.g. to tumors) where they can then release drugs or other therapy. However, in practice, we do not yet have magnetic systems that can safely and effectively focus therapy to where it needs to go, and that can improve efficacy and reduce side effects in human patients.
This talk will focus on challenges and progress we have made in better understanding magnetic drug targeting, from modeling of magnetic fields and nano-particles, to excised tissue and in-vivo experiments, and how those elements are informing design of next-generation magnet systems and controllers. Magnet system design depends on the clinical need being addressed (the best system for directing drugs into ear compartments is very different from that required to better reach deep tumors), and so the talk will outline how clinical needs shape modeling, magnet design, and nano-particles choices. I will describe what is known reasonably well (essentially particle and magnet physics) versus what is known only poorly (biological forces on nano-particles and their transport in the body), and will show how we are using what we know and trying to find out what we do not know to create next-generation systems. The talk will close with a summary of our efforts to commercialize our first magnetic delivery technology and bring it to patients.
About the Speaker
Dr. Benjamin Shapiro received his BS degree from the Aerospace Engineering department at Georgia Tech, and his PhD from the Control and Dynamical Systems option at Caltech (with Dr. Richard Murray). He is a Professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, with a joint appointment in the Institute of Systems Research, the Nano-Center, the Greenebaum Cancer Center, and he is affiliated with the Applied Math and Scientific Computation program. His research is focused on modeling, design, and control of micro-scale systems for chemical, biological, and clinical applications. He is a Fulbright Scholar (Germany, 2009), is the co-editor of a book on ‘Control of Micro-Scale Systems: From MEMS to Atoms’, has filed 22 patents, and is the President and Cofounder of Otomagnetics, LLC, a company dedicated to commercializing magnetic injection to non-invasively deliver therapy to ear and eye conditions. Dr. Shapiro was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1973.
