Lipids in drug delivery systems and food can have a tremendous impact on the systemic absorption of orally
delivered compounds, including drugs, nutrients, and toxins. However, this impact cannot be quantitatively
predicted a priori, and underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. The ability to quantitatively predict the
impact of lipids in drug delivery systems and food on oral compound absorption could revolutionize the oral
formulation development process, significantly streamlining resource intensive drug development, enabling
design of effective nutritive supplements, and increasing our understanding of how food composition and
structure impact health in an era of rapidly evolving food availability. The Carrier lab is focused on applying
engineering analysis to intestinal systems for enabling effective oral delivery, as well as understanding the
impact of ingested materials on human health. To date, the lab has developed a mechanism-based modeling
framework to predict the impact of lipids on oral compound absorption. Major goals of this project include: 1.
Determining whether systems-based modeling approaches, capturing kinetics of key processes occurring in
the gastrointestinal tract, can be used to describe and predict the impact of lipids in actual oral delivery
systems and food with complex composition and structure on absorption of orally delivered compounds. 2.
Revealing mechanisms by which lipids impact co-transport of orally delivered compounds across the intestinal
mucosa into lymph or portal circulation, together with appropriate mathematical expressions to describe these
processes. In addition to the laboratory`s track record of developing and translating mechanistic, predictive
models of oral delivery and existing preliminary modeling framework, the lab is extremely well-positioned to
markedly advance our understanding of oral absorption processes, given its expertise and experience in
design of advanced engineered experimental intestinal models and mechanisms for exploring the impact of the
mucosal barrier on oral drug delivery, both of which will be leveraged in this project period. In addition, the PI
has an extensive track record of multidisciplinary collaboration, including working with multiple industrial
partners, to best ensure that research outcomes translate to practice and are impactful to broad patient
populations.