Particle Engineering Research from the NSF Erc Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Program at Njit

We aim to give highlights of particle engineering research from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)’s Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Program, which is a collaboration of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Structured Organic Particulate Systems (ERC-SOPS) and the Center for Pre-College Programs. This NSF-funded program engaged pairs of 14 high school teachers in 2015 summer research program, where they performed research on various particulate materials and processes relevant to pharmaceutical products. In addition, various faculty and educational experts delivered workshops on technical writing, best research practice, effective collaboration in a team, pharmaceutical industry and process–formulation development, educational module development, etc. The teachers acquired the skills and knowledge of research and the subject of particle engineering and pharmaceutical engineering that they incorporated into their teaching practice. In the research component of the program, the teachers collaborated with graduate student mentors under the guidance of professors and worked on various particle–pharmaceutical engineering projects. In the educational component, the teachers came up with a professional development plan and prepared “educational modules”, which were delivered to high school students. While this presentation will expose few educational highlights including sample modules developed by the teachers, it will mainly focus on two summer research projects about the bioavailability enhancement of poorly water-soluble drugs via drug nanoparticle composites and drug nanoparticle-laden polymer strip films. Through application of particle engineering approaches such as nanoparticle formation–stabilization and drug encapsulation within hydrophilic polymeric matrices, we have ensured fast redispersibility of drug nanoparticles from solid dosages and demonstrated significant improvement of the dissolution rate of poorly water-soluble drugs.