FURI | Fall 2020

The Effects of Heat Treatment on the Drug Loading of Poloxamer Micelle Structures

The research motivation was to study the effects of heat treatment on the drug loading of poloxamer micelle structures. This project also investigated the stability of the heat-treated micelles in ideal, saline, and in vivo environments. The micelle structures were formed by heating the solutions at temperatures between 35-65℃ and studied using dynamic light scattering and spectrophotometry. This research is important because micelles have shown great promise as biomedical therapeutics. As such, improving the drug loading could lead to large savings in the cost of incorporating expensive pharmaceuticals and provide more effective treatment.