Event
ChBE Seminar Series: Xiaochuan Ben Yan
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Room 2108, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building
Patricia Lorenzana
plorenza@umd.edu
Xiaochuan Ben Yan
Research Engineer
FDA
Polymorphism control and the formation of organic molecular nanocrystals
The formation of organic molecular nanocrystals is a topic of great interest in the pharmaceutical industry because of the potential increase in dissolution rate and solubility of organic crystals below 1 μm and their potential use in drug products. Previous investigators have developed various methods to produce them; however, breakage, high supersaturation and high intensity mixing are often involved in those methods, producing amorphous solids and making control of desired polymorphs difficult if crystalline solid is obtained. In this talk, we will discuss: (1) Several novel practical methods to produce organic molecular nanocrystals of the desired form; (2) The change in crystal solid properties with size; (3) A better fundamental understanding of nucleation kinetics during concomitant nucleation of polymorphs. These new approaches include spraying through a nano-mesh, using nano-sized confinement, and Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) substrates. By designing and tuning experimental conditions/surface chemistry, nanocrystals with controlled polymorphs were produced. Further analysis indicates that nanocrystals showed 20%-30% increase of solubility when the size goes down to ~300 nm. These nanocrystals also exhibit significant enhancement of dissolution profiles. These results help advance the knowledge base of organic molecular nanocrystals and may lead to potential applications in developing new formulations in the pharmaceutical industry.
About the Speaker
Xiaochuan “Ben” Yang is a Chemical Engineer, working as a Science and Research Staff in Office of Pharmaceutical Quality in U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Yang received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering in Tsinghua University, MS & PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering in MIT. He worked with Prof. Allan Myerson and Prof. Bernhardt Trout on many pharmaceutical projects in Novartis-MIT continuous manufacturing research center during his PhD. His research mainly focused on nanocrystals, polymorphs, cocrystals, chiral compounds, and novel manufacturing/formulation technologies in pharmaceutical industry. He also developed a patent of a novel formulation method based on nanocrystals of small molecules in porous excipients. He co-authored 11 publications/book chapters, and got AICHE Separation Division Graduate Student Research Award in 2013.
