Prof. Dr. Dr. Lorenz Meinel
Tel.: +49 931 31-85471
Fax : +49 931 31-84608
 
Room:  03.005
Prof.Dr.Dr.L.Meinel
 

Dissertations
  • Tissue engineering of bone- and cartilage-like tissue using mesenchymal stem cells and protein scaffolds
     Faculty of Medicine, Frankfurt a.M. Germany
  • Delivery of insulin-like growth factor I for bone repair
     Department for Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Habilitation
  • Engineering of bone and cartilage like tissue at the interface of drug delivery and biomaterials
     Department for Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Research Topics
  1. Protein drug delivery for regenerative medicine
    The clinical success of (re-)generating tissues by means of protein therapeutics critically depends upon our ability to direct cells to form specialized tissues with characteristic properties across different hierarchical scales. We develop novel drug delivery systems which are tested in controlled biological studies, and with the goal to (re)establish appropriate structure and function of lost or damaged native tissues. These general objectives are addressed at the interface of drug delivery and functionalized biomaterials, which are either decorated with inductive proteins, extracellular matrix components or other biologicals or combinations, thereof. Biomaterial surfaces are optimized for protein-therapeutic binding and presentation (e.g. modification of charge, structure, hydrophilicity) or separately manufactured drug delivery systems are incorporated into these biomaterials. The overall, long term objectives are (i) to develop technologies for engineering biomaterial drug delivery carriers providing (biomimetic) gradients of functional molecules with the goal to obtain tissue (re-)generation of composite tissues, (ii) to translate quantitative information from basic research and theory about tissue generation at the molecular, cellular and tissue levels into drug delivery system design, and (iii) to emulate Nature's biomaterial assembly and "manufacture" to define ground-rules for advanced drug delivery system design.
     
  2. Development of poorly water soluble compounds
    Many small molecules developed today pose high development hurdles due to their phys-chem. and biopharmaceutical properties (e.g. hydrophobic drugs, high melting point, low solubility at intestinal pH, or strong polymorphism). We focus on the development of crystal forms of ionizable drugs to result in advantageous galenical properties in terms of dissolution, saturation, or precipitation. Our development typically evaluates many of these phys-chem parameters in a dynamic pattern, e.g. as a function of pH, presence of excipient concentrations, and/or addition of bile salts and with the overall goal to optimize product characteristics from a biopharmaceutical and technological perspective.