(2cm) Drug Delivery and Organismal Biophysics

I am currently an Eckert Postdoc Fellow in the labs of Dr. Saad Bhamla and Dr. Mark Prausnitz at Georgia Institute of Engineering, Atlanta. I graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (Advisor: Jeremy Marston) from Texas Tech University. My doctoral research was focused on understanding the hydrodynamics of needle-free jet injections. Through my research, we were able to optimize an inefficient needle-free jet injector for an intradermal injection to deliver nearly 1oo% of the ejected fluid. Previously, delivery efficiency of these injectors has been an outstanding challenge. During my Ph.D., I have also worked on innovative ways to generate high-speed liquid jets (spark-induced and laser induced jetting), studying the fluid dynamics of ophthalmic drug delivery and visualization of intradermal delivery of fluid during tattooing. My research has been published in 8 peer-reviewed articles in top tier journals like International Journal of Pharmaceutics and Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, and more than 3 more manuscripts are under preparation to be submitted for peer-reviews. I have received several accolades for my doctoral research work including “Horn Distinguished Professors Graduate Achievement Program”, which is one of the most prestigious research awards of Texas Tech University. Being awarded the prestigious Eckert Postdoctoral Fellowship, now funds my Postdoc research at Georgia Tech.

My postdoctoral research is focused on “Electroporation-mediated intradermal delivery of mRNA/DNA vaccines” and “Fluid dynamics of water walking insects”. Using a low-cost piezoelectric pulser harvested from a barbeque lighter, we are working on enhancing the cellular uptake of mRNA/ DNA vaccines. I am also contributing to several other projects in the Bhamla Lab including the fluid dynamics of flamingo feeding (Nashville Zoo) and viscoelastic jet lassos of soldier termites (Amazon Rainforest, Peru). In addition to fieldwork research in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, I have also been involved in conducting workshops to educate young school girls about the research in our lab and to encourage them to pursue scientific careers.

In a nutshell, my research spans from the intradermal delivery of nucleic acid based vaccines to understanding the underlying physical mechanisms of the water walking insects. I am excited about the direct societal impact of my research on enhancing the cellular uptake of nucleic based vaccines along with the future implications of the fundamental knowledge of how insects walk on water efficiently.

Research Interests :

The research in my future lab will incorporate two broad themes: frugal drug delivery devices and organismal biophysics. I aim to build an interdisciplinary team with collaborations beyond the lab to leverage the biology, physics and mathematics in boosting the current knowledge of drug delivery and to implement that knowledge in engineering the frugal medical devices. Organismal inspired robotics would be another research front of my lab. Further, building a robust fundamental understanding to translate the research to industry, we will be working on outstanding grand challenges of the current and the future world of biomedical engineering and robotics.

Frugal drug delivery devices: Current medical devices such as hypodermic syringes have been in practice since the 18th century. With a huge leap of advancement in science, other biomedical fields have marveled in diagnostics and treating life threatening diseases, however, researchers have failed to entirely change the state of the way we deliver the vaccines and therapeutics. Several attempts have been made to replace the outdated techniques with microneedles, jet injections, ionic liquids etc. However, the performance and lack of universal applicability of these techniques hinder the advancement of these techniques to their wide use in drug delivery. My research group will work on building and improving the performance of transdermal and ophthalmic drug delivery devices. The major hurdle of the traditional techniques lies in the limitations in the bioavailability of the drug injected, cost of fabrication of these devices, and ease-of-use. We will leverage the knowledge of biological fluid dynamics and fluid-structure interactions to investigate various drug delivery mechanisms inside skin and in other parts of the body. Using skin phantoms and real skin, we will investigate the complex behavior of drug dispersion inside the skin. Additionally, we will perform computational fluid dynamics simulations to streamline the design of the injectors to ease and improve the delivery efficiency of a wide range of vaccines and therapeutics. Moreover, using principles of frugal science, we will build low-cost and easily accessible next-generation drug delivery devices which would not only benefit a large population of low-income developing countries but will also immensely change the landscape of the medical industry in the developed countries.

Organismal Biophysics: Nature is an excellent example of the best designer in the world. Bioinspiration and biomimetics has always been at the forefront of material science research. Further, the mechanisms involved in natural biological systems have inspired the designs of high-tech machinery in aviation to simple and elegant material designs to improve big problems like water harvesting. Second theme of my research lab will be studying organismal biophysics. Organisms at micro to macroscale, perform ultrafast motions like jumping, contractions, swimming and fluid ejections etc. We will investigate such ultrafast motions in organisms to investigate the underlying physical mechanisms which will guide in better designs of microrobotics. Apart from applied research, the advancement of fundamental knowledge is of paramount importance which has an endless scope in futuristic practical applications. I strive to incorporate innovative ways to disseminate scientific knowledge in the form of comics and youtube videos to society for easier access to young minds. Our research team will also actively organize and take part in outreach activities to encourage minority and marginalized populations in pursuing advanced education and careers in science.

Teaching Interests:

I strongly believe that science communication is equally important in conducting scientific investigations. As a tenure track faculty candidate, I am interested in teaching core chemical engineering courses including fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, thermodynamics and experimental methods to a range of undergraduate and graduate students with a goal of establishing a strong foundation of basic fundamentals in chemical engineering. In addition to these courses, I will also be thrilled to teach advanced courses including advanced transport phenomena, drug delivery and mathematical methods in chemical engineering, if given a chance. Further, inspired from my research expertise, I am aiming to develop new courses such as biological fluid dynamics, transdermal drug delivery, engineering bioinspired and biomimetic mechanisms.

I have been learning teaching methodologies through “Tech to Teaching” at Georgia Tech to polish my teaching skills. I believe in engaging the classroom throughout the lecture via active learning and constant feedback. With students coming from a plethora of different backgrounds, possessing varying levels of understanding, I will focus on implementing personalized learning in my teaching classes in addition to planning backwards from the learning objectives.

Selected publications:

• Pankaj Rohilla and Jeremy Marston. Focused, high-speed liquid jets induced via low-voltage sparks in capillary tubes. Experiments in Fluids 64, 5 - 90 (2023).
• Pankaj Rohilla and Jeremy Marston, Feasibility of laser induced jets in needle free jet injections. International Journal of Pharmaceutics 589, 119714 (2020)
• Pankaj Rohilla et al. Loading effects on the performance of needle-free jet injections in different skin models. Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology 60, 102043 (2020)
• Pankaj Rohilla et al. Characterization of jets for impulsively- started needle-free jet injectors: Influence of fluid properties. Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology 53, 101167 (2019).