Kathryn Whitehead

Kathryn A. Whitehead
Department of Chemical Engineering
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract: From Farm to Pharmacy: A Strawberry-Derived Solution to Oral Protein Delivery
Oral delivery is the most patient-friendly mode of drug administration. Unfortunately, it is not possible for protein and other macromolecular drugs because the gastrointestinal tract is not permeable to undigested large molecules. Although many chemical permeation enhancers have been identified that improve the intestinal absorption of biologics, they often cause cytotoxicity or damage the intestinal mucosa. To address this issue, we sought to identify a permeation enhancer derived from fruits and vegetables, hypothesizing that the compounds found in natural foods would be well-tolerated by the gastrointestinal tract. Following a screen of over 100 fruits, vegetables, herbs, and fungi, we identified strawberry as a potent enhancer of macromolecular permeability both in vitro and in vivo. Natural product chemistry techniques revealed pelargonidin, an anthocyanidin, as the active compound in strawberry. In mice, pelargonidin enabled 100% bioactivity of oral insulin relative to the current gold standard of subcutaneous injection, without causing toxicity following 30 days of daily treatment. These results underscore the potential of naturally derived compounds in biomedical applications and demonstrate pelargonidin as an especially potent new enhancer for the oral delivery of biologics.

Biography:
Kathryn A. Whitehead is an Associate Professor and Dean’s Career Fellow in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering (courtesy) at Carnegie Mellon University. Her lab develops RNA and protein drug delivery systems and has a long-term goal of predicting the behavior of delivery materials in humans. She received an H.B.Ch.E Degree with Distinction from the University of Delaware (2002) and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2007) before serving as an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2008 – 2012). Prof. Whitehead is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the DARPA Young Faculty Award, the DARPA Director’s Fellowship, the ASEE Curtis W. McGraw Research Award, and the Kun Li Award for Excellence in Education. Prof. Whitehead was named as a Pioneer on the MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 list in 2014 as well as one of the Brilliant Ten by Popular Science in 2015. Her publications have been cited over 6,000 times, and several of her patents have been licensed and sublicensed for reagent and therapeutic use.