P.C. Chou Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Alisa Morss Clyne will launch a new research collaboration with Dr. Gershon Golomb of Hebrew University, Israel, as the 2009 Stein Family Fellowship recipient.

The Stein Family Fellowship has enabled this research collaboration to happen, bringing two sides of the world together for a common cause. Investigators Morss Clyne and Golomb will travel to each other’s laboratories to conduct research, present seminars and create a course in biomimetic controlled release drug delivery that both graduate students and faculty from both universities can benefit from.

Serving as principal investigator on the project, Morss Clyne, along with Golomb, seek to create a basement membrane based drug delivery system, capitalizing on the human body’s pre-existing version of a controlled release drug delivery system.  Current methods of pharmaceutical delivery, such as swelling hydrogels and nanoparticles, have already made dramatic improvements in drug therapy by storing the treatment in the patient’s system for a longer period of time.