NJIT Particle Engineer Ecevit Bilgili is Named an AIChE Fellow

Ecevit Bilgili, a professor of chemical and materials engineering who boosts the therapeutic efficacy of pharmaceutical drugs through nanoengineering, while also lowering the cost to design and manufacture them, has been elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

In his Particle Engineering and Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology Laboratory, Bilgili and his team develop, for example, nanoparticle formulations and processes that enable the immediate release of poorly water-soluble drugs and enhance the performance of long-acting injectable drugs.

“We work with companies to take medications that are in the market and improve them,” he says, noting that current experimental methods are slow, costly and energy-intensive. Adding to the development challenge, a large percentage of the increasingly complex drugs in the pipeline are poorly water soluble, in part because they have higher molecular weights, and this makes it difficult to formulate them into optimal medications.

Bilgili develops strategies for increasing the speed at which medications disperse throughout the body to deliver their payload. In one patented formulation, he packs drug nanoparticles in a larger particle called a nanocomposite and intersperses it with polymeric colloids, which soak up water like sponges, then expand and burst, breaking up the packets of nanoparticles and spreading them quickly. Bilgili recently reengineered a cholesterol medication, for example, which he has formulated as a nanoparticle suspension with polymeric colloids to improve its release rate.

Another approach is to coat drug nanoparticles with polymers that readily mix with water, thus causing them to dissolve faster. By manipulating the coating thickness and selecting the polymer judiciously, they ensure a drug’s immediate release.

“If you have acute symptoms, such as a headache, the last thing you want is a slowly dissolving drug,” he notes, adding, “Some drugs will never ever achieve therapeutically effective levels if they dissolve slowly.”

In a machine in his lab, Bilgili mills compounds into particles as tiny as 100 nanometers in diameter, or 100 times smaller than they started. The milling processes are also integral to a compound’s success. Producing 50-200 nm particles of such drugs increases the dissolution rate and solubility, thus enhancing their bioavailability – the amount of a drug absorbed through the gastrointestinal system and into the blood.

The temperature in the milling equipment is also critical. If it rises unpredictably, it may degrade a drug, for example, or even render it toxic or carcinogenic. Bilgili is currently working with the pharmaceutical company GSK to simulate the milling process and develop approaches to reduce temperature. He also collaborates with the chemical company BASF to model and optimize temperature in the manufacture of agrochemicals.

“We use mathematical modeling to predict parameters such as temperature and particle size in the mill, as well as a drug’s development time more generally,” he says. “The goal for a client is to come up with a solution in five experiments, rather than 50.”

One of the heat-related mechanisms he optimizes is the stirring speed in drug manufacturing. Reducing it lowers the temperature. Also, the type of bead used to crush particles into nanomaterials, such as polymers beads as compared with ceramic beads, can significantly lower the temperature.

In cases where a drug or agrochemical formulation is a trade secret, he uses a substitute such ascalcium carbonate in experiments.Indeed, Bilgili, who also works with the flavors and fragrances, nutraceuticals, inks and cement industries, notes that the principles andprocesses involved in particle engineering are much the same from industry to industry.

“We use beads made of polymers, ceramics and steel, as well as their mixtures – a novel process we were the first to use – to break up particles. We use modeling to optimize the particle size for different applications,” he says. “This is the same for pharmaceuticals or cement.”

He’s currently modeling cement manufacturing, funded by SCG Thailand, to improve production capacity and reduce energy consumption.

“Essentially, we want to make the same amount of cement in less time using less electricity, but you can’t do these experiments in the plant, as you’d have to shut it down.”

In addition to his contracts with corporations, Bilgili’s lab is also funded by government agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a project funded by the FDA, he contributed to the modeling of drying drug nanoparticle-carrying thin strip films, which helped to advance the regulatory science for developing thin strip films as medications.

“I am humbled and honored to be elected as an AIChE fellow. This is an important recognition; I truly appreciate the high esteem with which my peers view my accomplishments and contributions to the chemical engineering profession and AIChE,” Bilgili said. “I would like to thank my amazing students, collaborators, and mentors, who made this achievement possible. I am also grateful to the support I've received from NJIT over the past 14 years.”

“Impressively, he shares his passion and dedication to excellence every day in teaching, research and service, and has been instrumental in advancing our curriculum,” remarked Lisa Axe, chair of the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, who works closely with Bilgili in his position as the associate chair for undergraduate study.

He is currently the NJIT site co-director of the Center for Integrated Material Science and Engineering for Pharmaceutical Products (CIMSEPP), a National Science Foundation-designated and funded Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, which investigates drug particles at the molecular and particulate scale to see how they behave when blended with other powders and in the various steps of manufacturing, among other settings.