Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D. Department of Chemical Engineering University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Ph: 805-893-7532, Email:
[email protected] Web site: http://drugdelivery.engr.ucsb.edu/ Education Ph.D. 1996 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chemical Engineering, Cambridge, MA B.S. 1992 University of Bombay (ICT), Chemical Engineering, Mumbai, INDIA Summary of Research Interests and Expertise Prof. Mitragotri has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of drug delivery. His research has advanced fundamental understanding of biological systems and led to the development of new materials as well as technologies for diagnosis and treatment of various ailments including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, skin diseases and infectious diseases, among others. Many of his technologies have advanced to human clinical studies and are used by people. At the same time, fundamental understanding developed through his research has advanced the understanding of the biology of transport barriers in the human body. His research has made particular impact on the following areas: Transdermal drug delivery: Prof. Mitragotri has established a fundamental knowledge base of transport properties of skin. He also developed mathematical models of skin permeation and analytical tools to study biophysics of skin structure-function relationship (PNAS 2005). Further, he has developed novel technologies to enable transdermal delivery of proteins, peptides and siRNA which otherwise have to be injected using needles. He has pioneered a large number of technologies including low-frequency ultrasound, pulsed microjet injector, high throughput skin experimentation, skin penetrating peptides and ionic liquids for transdermal delivery of proteins, peptides and nucleic acids. Professor Mitragotri’s research has made it possible to painlessly deliver macromolecules using transdermal patches, which was previously considered not feasible.