91原创

use tools from engineering to study and develop new therapies that target the lung. Her lab鈥檚 portfolio includes research on nano-scale medicines, how inhaled therapeutics react with specific lung regions and immune cells and developing new models of the human respiratory system.聽

What motivates their work on the modeling component, Fromen explained, is that there are currently only limited ways to test new inhaled drugs, ranging from devices that don鈥檛 accurately mimic the inner workings of an actual lung to animal models whose physiology doesn鈥檛 map very well to that of a human. This makes it especially challenging to predict precisely where new therapeutics will end up once they are inhaled.聽

鈥淵ou can make a great formulation, but you can't test it very easily without a good model. And that鈥檚 where our group fits: We鈥檙e one of the few that does both,鈥� Fromen said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 also very few groups that think about how those treatments become aerosols and how aerosols then are delivered efficiently to the lung, so we鈥檙e also unique in that space.鈥�

Lattice structures for mimicking lung function

Fromen received a award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study how aerosols move through 3D printed structures that will form the basis of a state-of-the-art model of the human lung. Starting July 1 and with a five-year, $615,000 award, the lab members will use their expertise to study aerosol movement in these unique structures.聽

Because the lung is so complex, it鈥檚 impossible to construct every single airway that鈥檚 present, Fromen explained. 鈥淚nstead, we are thinking about how we can develop a good approximation of what goes on inside the lung that gets us the spatial deposition of a person so we can figure out where inhaled medicines are going,鈥� she said.

To do this, the group is using additive manufacturing to 3D print open, porous structures called lattices. Fromen said, 鈥淵ou can think of these structures as really mediocre filters鈥� but added together, these filters mimic the aerosol filtration that occurs naturally in the lung.

And because Fromen and her research lab can precisely control the geometry of the lattices, they can design and test different configurations in the lab. 鈥淲ith this project, we鈥檙e studying how aerosols go through these lattices, and how different geometries, size scales, and the aerosol properties influence how well they're being filtered out,鈥� Fromen said.

One challenge of this project is that, while there is an existing knowledge base on the structural properties of these lattices, there鈥檚 a dearth of information about how particles flow through them. 鈥淣o one has really studied aerosol transport in these before, so there鈥檚 no fundamental theory that exists,鈥� Fromen said. 鈥淭he focus of this grant is to gain a fundamental understanding and to create our own new theories to understand what鈥檚 going on. Then, we can figure out how to push the limits of what the lattices can do.鈥�

Thanks to the efforts of doctoral student Ian Woodward, who Fromen said 鈥渁bsolutely pioneered the use of lattices in our lab,鈥� the team has already published two papers. These studies, published in and the , describe airflow behavior as particles travel through different types of lattice structures.聽

Once the researchers find the best design, the goal is to print out lattices using elastic materials and set up a full-scale version of a lung that can 鈥渂reathe,鈥� with Woodward and fellow doctoral student Yinkui Yu taking the lead on this work.聽

鈥淚鈥檓 excited to see how we can build the fundamental understanding that allows us to rapidly implement these in a lung model,鈥� Fromen said. 鈥淏ecause that鈥檚 the end goal, and what has been the biggest hold-up so far is finding the right lattice.鈥�

Connecting with communities and supporting students

鈥淧rofessor Fromen is an incredible researcher and educator whose quantitative approaches to understand and model a highly complex, biological system 鈥� the lung 鈥� are critically important from both a research advancement and educational standpoint,鈥� said , chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. 鈥淥n the research side, Professor Fromen鈥檚 ability to distill the lung architecture into its defining geometric features is providing new understanding of the physicochemical factors that govern inhaled medicine deposition, which in turn will accelerate the translation of new inhaled therapies. On the education side, Professor Fromen鈥檚 models enable students to see and test chemical engineering principles in the context of medicine in an entirely new way.鈥�

This CAREER award will also enable Fromen to expand her ongoing efforts around science communication, STEM engagement and education. Plans include local middle school outreach programs, training graduate students on social awareness and communication, and bolstering the engagement of female students enrolled in science and engineering programs at 91原创.聽

鈥淲hat I鈥檓 most excited about, and where I think we鈥檒l have the biggest impact, is within my research group and the local 91原创 community to be able to do things for our students that help make them better community citizens,鈥� Fromen said.聽

Scientifically, Fromen said that her group鈥檚 biggest contribution will be the fundamental research that will allow them to create a better model of the lung, which she added could enable new healthcare innovations as well as change how researchers think about treating pulmonary diseases.聽

But beyond their research achievements, Fromen added that a major part of this project鈥檚 impact is all the researchers who will get to work on it. 鈥淚'm excited to see how the students take the skills they learn in my lab and find opportunities to use them in new applications, to build their own professional expertise and to be more innovative and creative,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 the people, and the impact of the students who get to train on this project, that gets to be my legacy.鈥�