School of Pharmacy Professor Leads Research

Using nanotechnology to improve drug delivery systems is the focus of exciting new research discoveries by a faculty member in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The promising HIV prevention research by Bi Botti “Celestin” Youan, Pharm.D., Ph.D., was featured in a story last month in Science Daily, a popular science news website.

The research, funded in 2011 through a four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was the subject of a presentation Youan gave at the 2014 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the world’s largest pharmaceutical sciences meeting. Youan was assisted by two of his UMKC graduate students, Vivek Agrahari and Jianing Meng, at the meeting held Nov. 2-6 in San Diego.

Youan said the exposure is important as his research advances while his current grant funding nears an end. Moreover, currently there is no effective vaccine for the prevention of HIV/AIDS transmission and all statistics clearly indicate that this remains a major global health concern.

The researchers have developed a provisionally patented, novel drug- loaded nanofiber template to provide better targeting and controlled release of medication directly to affected tissues through topical application. It is being tested pre-clinically as an alternative method for HIV prevention, but has potential for treating many sexually transmitted diseases, as well as other illnesses, Youan said.

“The kind of work we are doing is not only for HIV/AIDS prevention,” he said. “We are also interested in contributing to other drug delivery challenges if we can get additional funding in this difficult funding climate.”

Youan has focused his research on finding better ways to treat diseases that are of a high priority in public health. His lab at the School of Pharmacy already is conducting research into using nanotechnology to help treat breast cancer and hearing loss.

“This technology has a lot of potential,” said Youan, who joined the UMKC faculty in 2006 and is currently serving as a chartered member of the NIH/NCI Developmental Therapeutics Study Section. “We plan to acquire more resources to continue to do more research in this critical area to transition this promising product from bench to clinic.”