Stefan Wilhelm, an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma's Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering, and several students from his biomedical nanoengineering laboratory recently published an article in the journal Nano Letters ("Towards the scalable, rapid, reproducible, and cost-effective synthesis of personalized nanomedicines at the point of care"), outlining their recent important advances in nanomedicine.
The group investigated how tools for the production of nanomedicines, such as vaccine formulations, can be created directly at the point of care. As a result, large centralized facilities, transportation challenges, and extreme cold storage challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic will no longer restrict vaccine distribution.
Together with student researchers such as Hamilton Young, a fourth-year biomedical engineering student, and Yuxin He, a graduate research associate in biomedical engineering, Wilhelm used 3D printer parts to mix together fluid streams containing the building blocks of nanomedicine and their payloads, in a T-mixer format.
This mixing device is essentially a T-shaped tube that forces two streams of fluid into each other, mixing the nanomaterials and payload components together. Once mixed, the final product will flow out from the other end," says Wilhelm. "This hybrid concept is used in industrial processes, so we wanted to know if we could make these devices as cost-effective as possible.
t-mixer process
A graphical representation of the process described in the study. **University of Oklahoma.
The team found a publication from a European research group ("Ender3 3D Printer Kit Transforms into an Open Programmable Syringe Pump Set") that proves that commercially available 3D printers can be reassembled into syringe pumps to propel fluid through a T-mixer device. After it was built, they tried to produce nanomedicines with a 3D-made T-mixer.
We specialize in formulations used in clinical practice, such as mRNA lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, and polymeric nanoparticles. One of the molecules we use was developed by collaborators at OU Health Sciences to limit the growth of prostate cancer cells," Wilhelm said. "We encapsulated this molecule into our nanomedicine formulation and showed that it actually stopped the growth of these prostate cancer cells.
Based on this example, the team's research has potentially broad implications for novel cancers** and vaccines against infectious diseases, as mRNA technology is already being used in clinical trials for personalized cancer vaccines.
All of these mRNA technologies rely on nanotechnology. mRNA molecules degrade too quickly in the body to be effective without encapsulating them in nanoparticles," Wilhelm said. "This process could open up a bright future for nanotechnology in the field of medicine and is expected to greatly improve healthcare.
Wilhelm also foresees a future where doctors' offices and clinics in rural communities with limited resources can use this technology to create personalized vaccines. His collaboration and outreach program with Native American tribes and communities in Oklahoma, b4nano, inspired this goal.
I can see what the future holds, a patient walks into the doctor's office with an infectious disease, possibly cancer. After a doctor's diagnosis, the vaccine is produced in the doctor's office and works similarly to how a single-serve coffee maker works – you just put in the capsule, press a button to get a personalized vaccine for that patient," William said. "Our goal is to develop this desktop device and then hope to find industry partners to commercialize such a system.
Another goal for Wilhelm is to train the next generation of biomedical engineers, such as Young and HE, to solve challenges in healthcare.
The challenges we face in biomedical engineering require us to have a diverse team with people from diverse backgrounds. Everyone brings their unique perspective, unique skills," William said. "My lab places a lot of emphasis on working with undergraduates, and even high school students, and bridging the gap from undergraduate to graduate to postdoc. They learn from each other and learn to mentor each other.