1. Seminar
Date : October 23 (Weds.) 2019, 15:00 ~ 18:00 Venue : Engineering Building 2 (25314)
Speaker : Prof. Tong-Fei Shi
State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry
Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
Polymer dynamics under confinements
The polymers under confinements exists in biological chemistry, material science, and many other fields of science and applications. Substantial research activities are currently being pursued in an effort to understand the polymer dynamics under confinements, which is perhaps one of the most challenging areas of polymer physics. With this goal, my talk strives to present a summary of two cases: In part I, we investigated the diffusion dynamics of a single polymer strongly adsorbed on surfaces by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Our simulations demonstrate that with the increase of chain length, the dynamics of polymer chains exhibits three regimes from the Rouse dynamics to the reptationlike dynamics, the reptationlike dynamics to the quasi-Rouse dynamics; In part II, we studied the polymers translocation through nanopores by using a hybrid simulation method that combines a lattice-Boltzmann approach for the flow and a molecular dynamics model for the polymer and clarified the dependence of the critical velocity flux on the polymers with different topological structures. Our work can enrich and develop related basic theoretical problems, and provides reliable guidance for their extensive applications.
Host : Prof. Gi-Ra Yi (School of Chemical Engineering, SKKU)

2. Seminar
Date : October 23 (Weds.) 2019, 15:00 ~ 18:00 Venue : Engineering Building 2 (25314)
Speaker : Prof. Jintao Zhu
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,
Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)
Microneedle-Based Transdermal Delivery of Drugs Active Species
Injection, oral and topic administration are commonly used drug delivery strategies in skin diseases therapy. Yet, insufficient dosing in local tissue, bleeding, pain and needle-phobia are associated with hypodermic needles. An efficient, safe and facile route for treatment of patients with skin diseases is still desirable. Transdermal drug delivery offers an attractive alternative; yet, drugs with high molecular weight or high hydrophilicity can hardly penetrate the stratum corneum to effectively deliver drugs into the skin. Fortunately, microneedles (MNs) can allow drugs with wide physiochemical properties to enter the skin to reduce the risk of injuring blood capillaries and nerve endings. It is benefit for high drug concentration in local tissues, which may improve the therapeutic effect and lessen the systemic toxicity.
Here, I will present the fabrication of dissolving MNs with biodegradable polymers and encapsulated different drugs into the MNs to enhance the skin permeation of them and overcome the limitations of commonly employed administration methods. We will show that first-line drugs (MTX, bleomycin, rapamycin, and others) can be successfully loaded in the MNs with high loading content. The resulting drug-loaded MNs demonstrated sufficient mechanical strength to penetrate into the skin and release the cargo due to the rapid dissoluble nature of the matrix polymers. The pharmacological activity of drug in the MNs was proved to be well maintained in vitro, which formed the basis of effective therapy in vivo. The MN-assisted transdermal delivery of drugs demonstrates great potential to solve the existing problems of conventional routes to administer drugs and provide new opportunities for improved treatments of skin diseases.
Host : Prof. Gi-Ra Yi (School of Chemical Engineering, SKKU)