RESPIRE · Artificial intelligence enabled electrospinning approach to fight pulmonary cancer

Pulmonary cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Surgery is associated with high morbidity and operative mortality. One of the main causes of the poor survival rate is cancer relapse at the surgical resection margins. Thus, developing a strategy to minimize the local recurrence rate of lung cancer efficiently is greatly needed. Nanotechnology-assisted approaches, such as nanoparticles (NPs) and nanofibers (NFs) obtained via electrospinning could enable novel strategies to fabricate better performing implantable devices, including localized drug delivery systems. Many working parameters affect the final outcomes in electrospinning and different fibrous architectures can be generated, much is still to be understood to precisely control, and ultimately predict the mechanical, physico-chemical, and bioactive properties of the resulting meshes, which are essential in pulmonary tissues. The Postdoctoral Fellowship Researcher (PFR) has studied biodegradable fibers as drug delivery systems in her Ph.D. and Post Doc and herein aims to develop a biodegradable nanofibrous patch based on elastin (i.e., the native component of the pulmonary tissues) containing chemotherapeutics via electrospinning/electrospray. To achieve this ambitious goal, the PFR needs to learn multiscale materials design and artificial intelligence to precisely match the mechanical properties of lung tissue, which will be addressed during the outgoing phase at MIT. PFR will also investigate the encapsulation of chemotherapy and immunotherapy inside electrosprayed NPs, will model release mechanisms at MIT and will analyze drug release effectiveness in an in vitro model at UTRGV (i.e., secondment) to be used for a biologic assessment in the returning phase at the UNIPI. The multidisciplinary approach (engineering, biology, materials and medical sciences), will accelerate the development of innovative clinically oriented prototypes and will contribute to the ER’s scientific and personal.