Respiratory Aerosols: Therapeutic Interventions and Environmental Exposure

• Stimulate research concerning formulation, aerolization, transport and evolution of therapeutic aerosols through experiment, simulation and theory
• Foster new ideas concerning controlled and targeted aerosol delivery
• Promote cross-disciplinary scientific interactions between groups pursing research in device engineering, formulation, respiratory physiology and imaging, simulation and modeling
• Develop industrial connections to R&D groups working on challenging applied problems concerning aerosol engineering
• Explore commonalities between targeted aerosol delivery and exposure to environmental xenobiotics
• Promote the use of simulation tools in the drug development and regulatory approval by establishing best-practice guidelines and recommendations for the use of in silico methods
• Promote coordination with regulatory agencies (e.g. EMA and FDA).
• Facilitate alignment of research groups for engagements and joint applications for external funding

Motivation & Landscape:

Aerosol science is present in various research fields spanning from atmospheric science, spray applications concerning cooling or combustion, and environmental science with relation to air pollution and air quality. For such applications large communities and groups can be identified either globally (e.g., International Aerosol Research Assembly (IARA), International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM)) or within the Ercoftac community (e.g., SIG 5 - Environmental Fluid Mechanics). 

SIG48 on “Respiratory Aerosols: Therapeutic Interventions and Environmental Exposure” is related to targeted drug delivery and  exposure to environmental xenobiotics that require cross-disciplinary scientific exchange on the grounds of physics, chemistry, biology and medicine with regulatory intersections. For such applications, it is rather difficult to identify joint research knowledge exchange platforms. COST Action MP1404 – “SimInhale” (http://www.siminhale-cost.eu) provided the inspiration for the formation of SIG48 as a long-term cross-disciplinary platform aiming to facilitate interaction among the diverse array of disciplines that contribute to respiratory drug delivery and therapeutic interventions. Links with environmental exposure are obvious and leveraging of commonalities to achieve progress in both fields is one of the aims of SIG4. In the hope of accelerating the development of new therapies for the benefit of patients, SIG48 also aims to promote the use of simulation methods in the drug development and approval cycle by establishing clear best-practice guidelines and quantifying sources of uncertainty. The proposed SIG will foster such multidisciplinary exchange and collaboration between academic and industrial partners developing and offering access to the best practices in the area of multi-phase flows transporting aerosols. This will span over all applications in which controlled and targeted aerosol delivery is required (e.g., medical inhalation devices, in-vitro dosimetry for toxicological purposes).