VCU Engineering professor awarded $100,000 grant to advance nasal drug delivery technology
Laleh Golshahi, Ph.D., associate and Engineering Foundation professor in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University, has received a $100,000 grant from the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) to advance her team’s development of anatomically realistic nasal casts for pharmaceutical testing.
The one-year grant supports Golshahi’s project, “Anatomically-Realistic Human Nasal Casts for Design and Testing Pharmaceutical Drug Targeting Products and Methods.”
With prior support from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Golshahi’s team developed six 3D-printed nasal casts that represent a range of drug delivery patterns in both adults and children. These models are anatomically accurate and reflect variation across age, gender and nasal geometry. The VIPC funding will support improvements to the design, making the casts easier to assemble and reducing potential for error during pharmaceutical testing.
“VCU Tech Transfer and Ventures has been a great ally in turning our prototype into a commercialized product,” Golshahi said. “Their enthusiasm for the process of bringing these projects to life energizes me to keep going and gives us the opportunity to see the impact of our research in the global market.”
The nasal casts are designed for use in a wide range of applications, including testing intranasal vaccines, nose-to-brain drug delivery and locally acting medications. They offer pharmaceutical developers, contract research organizations and regulatory science entities a valuable tool for product design, quality control and preclinical testing.
What sets this work apart is its basis in anatomical diversity. The six representative models—three adult and three pediatric—were selected from studies involving 80 nasal cavities (40 adult and 40 pediatric, with equal gender representation), capturing low, mean and high delivery outcomes across the population.
Golshahi is collaborating with SPARK Product Development, a Virginia-based firm with expertise in large-scale product design, to refine and implement the improved assembly across all six models. Two models have already been updated with support from the VCU Commercialization Fund, and the VIPC grant will help complete enhancements to the remaining four.
The global nasal drug delivery market was valued at $51.7 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $92.2 billion by 2027, highlighting the growing need for tools like Golshahi’s to support innovation and reliability in drug delivery systems.
Learn more about the technology here.
The Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to perform real-world research as soon as they enroll. From applying material science to additive manufacturing techniques to optimizing coolant systems for nuclear reactors and more, students gain understanding of many important engineering topics. Browse videos and recent news from the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering to discover how the College of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University prepares the next generation of scientists and engineers for the challenges of the future.
Categories Faculty Awards, Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering, Research Grants