Hannah Beaven

Major: Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry
Purdue School of Engineering and Technology
Supervisor: Dr. Michael Veronesi
Department: Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, IU School of Medicine

A Systematic Review of Interventions for Children With Cerebral Palsy in Low- to Middle-Income Countries

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a highly malignant, difficult-to-treat brain tumor with a median survival time of only 15-20 months. GBM treatments are especially hard to deliver because most drugs cannot cross the blood brain barrier. Intranasal delivery (IND) is a promising drug delivery strategy which may allow drugs to access the brain directly through nose-to-brain pathways. In this project, a small animal IND device (“aerosolizer”) was characterized and optimized for the delivery of therapeutic nanoparticles/drugs intended to treat brain diseases. The size of aerosolized droplets was measured under various conditions relating to aerosolizer design, actuation pressure, distance from the target site, and drug properties. This data can be used to inform aerosolization conditions when delivering therapeutic nanoparticles into the nasal cavities of small animals during drug testing. By optimizing the aerosolizer for small animals, drugs can be assessed for nose-to-brain delivery in the treatment of neurological diseases prior to testing in humans.