Mason Group Website: http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/Mason/
BACKGROUND
Nanoemulsions are oil-in-water (or vice versa) suspensions of nanoscale droplets that range in size from 15 to 100 nm and have a variety of applications including drug delivery, agriculture, personal care and food products. Nanoemulsions have many advantages over traditional emulsion materials (e.g. liposomes, micelles, vesicles, and miniemulsions) including: longer shelf-life, low/no toxicity, improved bioavailability of drugs, and ability to solubilize lipophilic drugs. However, many challenges still exist towards the manufacture and implementation of this technology, such as low-throughput and wasteful manufacture processes, instability towards dilution and low tunability of droplet size. All of these challenges are addressed through the inventions described below.
ADVANTAGES
- Recyclability and ease of manufacture
- Stability to various stressors
- Higher throughput
- Controlled size/emulsion encasing
POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS
- Drug delivery
- Cosmetics
- Agrochemicals
- Food additives
- Healthcare broadly
SUMMARIES
Process for Creating Stable Double Emulsions (UC Case No. 2007-574)
Double emulsions are more complex emulsions that consist of droplets within droplets, such as water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W). The two primary means of creating double emulsions are structured microfluidic methods and sequential emulsification. Microfluidic methods are capable of producing highly uniform W/O/W emulsions, but it is a low-throughput process.
The invention utilizes a novel amphiphilic diblock copolypeptide that functions as a surfactant to create stable double emulsions with minimal shear and a single interfacial agent that is not biased against complex droplet topologies, increasing throughput.
Process for Reducing Sizes of Emulsion Droplets (UC Case No. 2008-433)
The process of extreme emulsification is used to make nanoscale emulsion droplets (radii <100 nm) by imposing an extreme flow through a high-pressure microfluidic device or an acoustic or ultrasonic device. Extreme emulsification processes using low concentration of surfactant typically produce oil-in-water nanoemulsions with droplets that have radii in the range of 40 nm to 100 nm, and a significant amount of surfactant must be used with additional cost in order to make nanoemulsions with droplets that have radii as small as 15 nm.
This invention details a more economical method of reducing droplet sizes and controlling droplet compositions in emulsions and nanoemulsions without significantly increasing the amount of surfactant during the process.
Related Materials:
1. T.G. Mason, J.N. Wilking, K. Meleson, C.B. Chang, and S.M. Graves, Nanoemulsions: formation, structure, and physical properties, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 18 R635-R666 (2006). (invited topical review article)
2. T.G. Mason, M.D. Lacasse, D. Levine, G.S. Grest, J. Bibette, and D.A. Weitz, Osmotic pressure and viscoelastic shear moduli of monodisperse emulsions, Physical Review E. 56. No. 3 (1997).
Process for Recycling Surfactant in Nanoemulsion Production (UC Case No. 2008-625)
A major obstacle in nanoemulsion manufacturing is the use of large volumes of surfactants to generate nano-droplets, requiring the eventual removal and disposal of excess surfactant, increasing production costs. Current methods to remove surfactants from nanoemulsion mixtures are via ultracentrifugation or dialysis, which can be costly and time-intensive.
This invention details a process to recover surfactants, droplet stabilizers, and surface active materials so that nanoemulsions can be regenerated in an environmentally and financially beneficial manner.
Method of Making Multicomponent Nanoemulsions (UC Case No. 2014-182)
Oilinwater nanoemulsions can be effective in improving the solubility, pharmokinetics, and stable formulation of drugs. However, there are still difficulties in making such emulsions at the nanoscale, particularly in low-flow conditions.
This invention details a process for making multicomponent oil-in-water nanoemulsions that have identifiable compartments as well as defined interfaces between different immiscible oils within the same droplet. In particular, two types of nanoemulsions are created: two-component linear Janus nanodroplets and three-component linear-engulfed Cerberus nanodroplets. The overall sub-micron and nanoscale dimensions make these multi-compartment droplets capable of pharmaceutical applications that would otherwise be out of reach for micron-size and larger scale droplets made by other methods.
Related Materials:
1. T.G. Mason, J.N. Wilking, K. Meleson, C.B. Chang, and S.M. Graves, Nanoemulsions: formation, structure, and physical properties, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 18 R635-R666 (2006). (invited topical review article)
Ultrastable Nanoemulsions in Disordered and Ordered States (UC Case No. 2019-954)
Many existing nanoemulsion formulations suffer from instability, especially with regards to dilution. To prevent the nano-droplets from coalescing, more and more stabilizing agent must be added as the emulsion concentration is reformulated for application.
This invention describes an ultrastable nanoemulsion that overcomes traditional dilution difficulties. By encapsulating droplets within a crystal lattice rather than stabilizing through simple electrostatic interactions, emulsions produced by this method can be washed with water without necessitating any further stabilizing additives.
Related Materials:
1. Pagenkopp, M. J. and Mason, T. G. Surfactant Partitioning in Nanoemulsions. Langmuir, 34, 10309-103020. (2018)
ABOUT THE INVENTOR
Dr. Mason received dual B.S. degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland- College Park in 1989. Awarded an NSF graduate fellowship, he then studied soft condensed matter physics at Princeton University and earned his Ph.D. in Physics in 1995. After a postdoctoral position at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal (CNRS) in Bordeaux, France and a second postdoctoral position at Johns Hopkins University, Mason accepted a staff scientist position at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co.
In 2003 Mason joined the UCLA community as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Physics. He advanced to Full Professor in 2009. Dr. Mason leads an interdisciplinary research group that addresses important fundamental and applied questions in soft matter, biophysics, drug formulation and delivery, and translational medicine. He is a fellow and life member of the American Physical Society and a recipient of numerous awards including the NSF's Career Award, the Rheologica Acta Publication Award, the Glenn T. Seaborg Award and the Gallery of Fluid Motion Award.