Mark Prausnitz

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Mark Prausnitz
Alma materStanford University B.S., 1988
Drug Delivery
SpouseCindy Weinbaum
ChildrenHannah Prausnitz-Weinbaum, Mia Prausnitz-Weinbaum, Samuel Prausnitz-Weinbaum
AwardsFellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2009)

Fellow, National Academy of Inventors (2014)
Fellow, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (2017)

Fellow, Controlled Release Society (2018)
Scientific career
Fields
Georgia Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisorRobert S. Langer, James C. Weaver
Websitehttps://drugdelivery.chbe.gatech.edu/

Mark Robert Prausnitz is an American chemical engineer, currently Regents’ Professor and J. Erskine Love, Jr. Chair in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the

Georgia Institute of Technology.[1][2] He also serves as adjunct professor of biomedical engineering at Emory University[3] and Adjunct Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.[4] He is known for pioneering microneedle technology for minimally invasive drug and vaccine administration, which has found applications in transdermal
, ocular, oral, and sustained release delivery systems.

He has published over 300 research papers in collaboration with over 100 different senior collaborations in universities, industry partners, and government. His publications have been cited more than 47,000 times with an h-index of 109 as of February 2022.[5] He is also inventor on 70 US patents (issued or pending).[6]

Biography

Prausnitz received his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University in 1988. He joined ALZA corporation as junior chemical engineer (1988–1989) where he worked on transdermal drug delivery systems. He then pursued graduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of Robert S. Langer and James Weaver, and received his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering in 1994, for a thesis “Electroporation of Tissue and Cells for Drug Delivery Applications”.[7]

Teaching

At Georgia Tech, he co-developed and taught with Andreas Bommarius two new interdisciplinary courses with a pharmaceutical focus – “Drug Design, Development, and Delivery” and “Pharmaceutical Development” [8][9]

Contributions to science and medicine

Drug and vaccine delivery to the skin using microneedle patches

Prausnitz is best known as the founder of Microneedle drug delivery, having published the first paper on microneedle use for drug delivery in 1998,[10] conducted the first clinical trials of drug and vaccine delivery using microneedles,[11] founded seven companies based on the technologies. His microneedle patches painlessly applied to the skin for simplified vaccination are currently being studied in a phase 1/2 clinical trial of measles and rubella vaccination in West Africa with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.[12][13]

In 2007, Prausnitz published the first paper[14] on ocular drug delivery using microneedles. In 2011, he co-founded Clearside Biomedical to further develop his foundational work on suprachoroidal space (SCS) delivery via microneedles for targeted injection into the eye.[15] He has collaborated at Emory University and elsewhere to develop hollow and solid microneedle systems to target drug delivery to sites of action within the eye in both the posterior and anterior segments.[16]

Transdermal drug delivery using electroporation and other methods

He published the first paper on skin electroporation and demonstrated its feasibility for transdermal drug delivery in 1993.[17]

He has studied mechanisms of creating transient pores in cell membranes to promote intracellular delivery of biomolecules using electroporation, ultrasound-mediated cavitation, and laser-activated nanoparticles.[18][19][20]

Personal life

Mark Prausnitz is a son of University of California, Berkeley professor John Prausnitz.[21]

Co-founded companies

Prausnitz is an entrepreneur who has co-founded several companies:

  • Redeon (acquired by BioValve Technologies)
  • Microneedle Systems
  • Clearside Biomedical[22]
  • Micron Biomedical[23]
  • Microstar Biotech
  • Aldena Therapeutics
  • Vimela Therapeutics

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ "Laboratory for Drug Delivery". www.chbe.gatech.edu.
  2. ^ "Home | Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering". chbe.gatech.edu.
  3. ^ "Mark R. Prausnitz, PhD". med.emory.edu.
  4. ^ "KAIST".
  5. ^ "Mark Prausnitz". scholar.google.com.
  6. ^ "Mark R. Prausnitz Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications - Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com.
  7. .
  8. ^ "Award Winners – ASEE Chemical Engineering Division".
  9. ^ "Curtis W. McGraw Research Award". www.asee.org. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  10. S2CID 14917073
    .
  11. .
  12. ^ "A Phase I/II, Double-blind, Randomized, Active-controlled, Age De-escalation Trial to Assess Safety and Immunogenicity of a Measles Rubella Vaccine (MRV) Microneedle Patch (MRV-MNP) in Adults, MRV-primed Toddlers, and MRV-naïve Infants". October 12, 2021 – via clinicaltrials.gov.
  13. ^ "In a first, Micron starts testing microneedle vaccine in kids". FiercePharma.
  14. PMID 17724185
    .
  15. ^ "Clearside Biomedical Success Story | Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech".
  16. PMID 20857178
    .
  17. .
  18. .
  19. .
  20. .
  21. ^ "Mark R. Prausnitz is Named 2023 AIChE Institute Lecturer". Press Releases. American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 6 June 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  22. ^ "Clearside Biomedical". Clearside Biomedical.
  23. ^ "Micron Biomedical".
  24. ^ "Mark Prausnitz, Ph.D. COF-0800 - AIMBE".
  25. ^ "National Academy of Inventors".
  26. ^ "AAPS" (PDF).
  27. ^ "College of Fellows Award Recipients | Controlled Release Society (CRS)". www.controlledreleasesociety.org.