Bespoke Artificial Cells and Tissues for Drug Discovery

Fellow Lecture by

Katherine Elvira
Senior Fellow 2023–2024

Details

Public event, free of charge.

Cells are complex and it is not always possible to know what effect each component of the cell has on drug transport. The goal of Katherine Elvira’s research is to use microfluidic technologies to build bespoke artificial cells and tissues from the bottom up, starting with the cell membrane. This allows to quantify how each component of the cell membrane affects the movement of drugs into cells. Her research uses these artificial cells to mimic how an orally administered drug moves from the intestine into an intestinal cell, and then from the cell into the blood stream, and to mimic how the cell membrane changes during cancer. These new in vitro models will hopefully help predict the behaviour of drugs in vivo.