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Is it hard for you to swallow a pill? Do needles give you the heebie jeebies?

Then Warren Finlay, mechanical engineering professor in the Faculty of Engineering, may have the solution. He is working on alternative drug delivery systems that are as simple as taking a breath. In Finlay’s Aerosol Research Laboratory of Alberta, he explores the physics of inhaled aerosols.

These aerosols, particles or droplets suspended in air, are used for therapeutic treatment of lung diseases such as asthma and cystic fibrosis, but are also being developed for non-traditional uses such as pain management and vaccinations.

“It turns out to be really hard to make and deliver small particles to the lungs for treatment of disease. From a research point of view that’s a good thing, since it has left the door open for my lab to come up with exciting advances in aerosol production and delivery,” said Finlay.

Finlay’s research doesn’t stop there. Working with other campus departments, he is helping to find ways to combat lung cancer and superbugs using his aerosols research.

“There is no way we could do it on our own. Collaborating and sharing resources and information is beneficial to everyone,” he said.

Other beneficial support Finlay has received includes funding from Alberta Advanced Education & Technology to buy particle-sizing equipment to measure nanoparticles. This equipment helps Finlay to control and predict the dosage of the aerosol drug for a person based on their age and characteristics.

“Before we designed some, there were no replicas of the full face and airways of an infant that could be used to study the effect of aerosols,” Finlay said.

With his fingers in so many pies, there is a lot of intellectual property Finlay has had to protect. Finlay says that he has been impressed by how well TEC Edmonton, the exclusive technology transfer agent for the U of A, is able to address the intellectual property protection needs given all the U of A researchers.

“I see TEC Edmonton as David slaying Goliath,” Finlay said, “They do amazingly well, considering the resources they have and the specialized competition they are up against.”