Respiratory Aerosol Dynamics with Applications to Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery and Lung Tumor Diagnosis

Jinxiang Xi, Ph.D.  
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering
Gordon and Jill Bourns College of Engineering, California Baptist University

Determining the detailed dynamics of inhaled particles in the human respiratory   system is crucial in assessing inhalation toxicology and optimizing inhalation drug delivery. In this  talk,  a  brief  introduction  of  respiratory  research  will  be  given,  and  technical challenges and potential benefits will be presented. 

I will then talk in details about our recent work in direct nose-to-brain drug delivery and lung  tumor  diagnosis  using  exhaled  aerosols.  The  later  holds  the  promise  of  early detection of lung cancers. Our goal is to develop an expert-diagnosis system which takes in a breath test sample and predicts whether a patient has a lung disease, how severe it is, where it is located, and therefore provides the optimal treatment protocol with targeted drug delivery.

Applications  of  new  techniques  in  respiratory  modeling  will  be  discussed,  such  as electro-magnetic guidance, machine learning, and statistical shape modeling.

Dr. Jinxiang Xi is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering  at  California  Baptist  University.  He  obtained  his  Ph.D.  in  Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2005 in thermal-fluid sciences. Before joining Cal Baptist, he has worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas and\ Central Michigan University.

Dr Xi. has sixteen years’ research experience in biomedical devices and pharmaceutical research.  His research in respiratory aerosol dynamics is highly interdisciplinary, which bridges  biology,  medicine, and  engineering.  Applications  include  inhalation  toxicology, aerosol-based  tumor  diagnosis,  and  personalized  drug  delivery.  To  date,  Dr.  Xi  has published 60 peer-reviewed journal papers (45 first-authored, h-index =17), seven book chapters,  and  one  US  patent.  Dr.  Xi  won  the  2012  Monaghan-Trudell  Award  from American  Respiratory  Care  Foundation  for  his  contributions  to “Aerosol  Technology Development”.