A Florida State University computational scientist is paving the way for future medical breakthroughs by developing mathematical models and simulations to predict the behavior of a unique drug-delivery method, which aims to deploy treatments directly to targeted sites in the body.

Florida State University Associate Professor of Scientific Computing Bryan Quaife is part of a multi-institutional team of engineers, mathematicians and computational scientists conducting foundational research essential to the design of a drug-delivery system that could reduce medication side effects while increasing treatment efficacy. Their research expands on work proposing the use of magnetic particles to guide cell-like drug carriers toward a specific target, like a tumor.

This work, which was published in Physical Review Letters, reveals how tiny particles moving inside microscopic drug carriers can gradually stress and eventually rupture the enclosing membrane. These findings could help engineers design smarter drug-delivery systems to protect therapeutic cargo during transport and release it on demand at the desired location.