Respiratory Aerosol Research and Education (RARE) Laboratory

Group News and Useful Links

• There has been a long gap since any news was shared. During the past five years (2019-2024) our lab has been very busy learning and sharing knowledge in the area of nasal drug delivery. We successfully completed two large scale projects with multiple investigators on adult and pediatric nasal drug delivery and the results have been six nasal geometries: Adult Low (L), Mean (M), and High (H) and Pediatric LMH nasal geometries. They come in as rapid prototyped nasal product evaluation/development tool and they also provide detailed anatomy for computational modeling. VCU TechTransfer has been supporting our commercialization efforts. More can be found here.
• Our VIP team (Erika, Rohani, John, and the new addition Anupama) has done a great job so far and we’re glad to have them on board in the Spring 2019 semester as well. Welcome or welcome back!
• Dr. Michele Manniello joined our group in January 2019. Welcome Michele! We’re glad to have you on board.
• RARE Lab has been offered a FDA grant to study intranasal deposition of nasal sprays. We’re excited to have this support to be able to make advancement in the understanding of intranasal deposition of sprays (October 2018).
• Sana Hosseini’s first paper from the RARE lab has just been published in the Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/jamp.2018.1476 . Congratulations, Sana! (September 2018).
• Dr. Golshahi is honored to be one of the recipients of VCU Presidential Research Quest Fund in 2017. This seed grant will support our group’s studies on high flow nasal cannula, understanding how it works and how it could be implemented safely for preemies and infants (June 2017).
• Science Museum of Virginia (SMV) arranged an amazing experience (Girls in Science Camp) for ~150 Middle School students and ~70 parents to camp in over night following a few talks by professional women in the field of environmental engineering and science and hands on workshops on Friday October 14, 2016. Dr. Golshahi is very grateful for the opportunity to be part of the group of professional women feeling responsible for the future generation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Her Friday night experience was beyond amazing by getting to give a talk in the dome of SMV and answer a few questions from the bright middle school students and their parents! Way to go SMV! (October 2016)
• Dr. Golshahi and her aerosol research team are very much grateful for the generous Higher Education Equipment Trust Fund granted to purchase a cutting edge size characterization equipment to expand their health-related aerosol research at VCU (September 2016).
• Dr. Golshahi has been invited to submit a PRMRP grant  (August 2016)
• Dr. Golshahi has been selected as one of the ten researchers representing VCU at Commonwealth Health Research Board (CHRB) (August 2016)
• Dr. Golshahi had a very exciting summer working with Dr. Gardner (PICU Fellow) and Dr. Darweesh (Faculty at Jordan University), developing cell culture lab (summer 2016)
• Sana Hosseini and John Wilkins started their PhD studies in RARE Lab (August 2016)
• Dr. Golshahi has successfully submitted her NSF CAREER proposal after a year of moral support from VCU Office of Research (July 2016)
• Dr. Golshahi visited NIOSH Respiratory Division (May 2016)
• Dr. Golshahi visited EPA RTP (February 2016)
• Dr. Golshahi has been contacted by NPR  (November 2015)
• We’re welcoming Jamie Park, who has just joined our group as a research assistant. Welcome, Jamie! (September 2015)
• Congratulations to Ryan Meekins for having his abstract entitled “Intersubject Variability in Regional Deposition of Aerosols in Nasal Airways of Children 2-6 Years Old” accepted for poster presentation at American Association for Aerosol Research 34th Annual Conference! (August 2015)

Summer 2015 SOE Marketing Photos-Thanks to VCU School of Engineering Marketing and Communication Director and Coordinator Cheryle Caplinger and Michelle Pinsky for visiting us at Biotech One (July 2015)

• We’re welcoming Amber Clark, who’s joined us as an intern. Welcome, Amber! (July 2015)

• We’re welcoming David Coleman, who has just joined our group as a research assistant. Welcome, David! (June 2015)

• We just moved into a brand new research center in Biotech One Building at Virginia Biotechnology Research Park. (June 2015)

• Congratulations to Paul Clark, who has been admitted to our department’s Ph.D. program under Dr. Laleh Golshahi. Welcome, Paul! (May 2015)

• We’re welcoming John Wilkins, who has just joined us from Virginia Military Institute for summer research. Welcome, John! (May 2015)

• Congratulations to Ryan Meekins, who has been awarded the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Initiative, DURI 2015 research fellowship at VCU School of Engineering under Dr. Laleh Golshahi (January 2015).