“This Restaurant Sucks” — The Rat, Probably
Janice Huang
Senior, Materials Science Major, Stamps Minor
Senior, Materials Science Major, Stamps Minor
Medium
Micron pens and watercolor on watercolor paper (Print)
Abstract
In my lab, I work on orodispersible films (ODFs) for drug delivery. ODFs, made of edible polymer and drug particles, are designed to dissolve on the tongue. The drug to polymer ratio was decreased to prevent precipitation of drug crystals from the polymer matrix, which meant stacking would be necessary if we wanted to maintain the original target dosage per area. I calculated that this would take 200 stacked films, which was an absurdly funny amount. We didn’t end up going that route, nor do we work with rats, but the idea of it was funny so I drew it.
This Restaurant Sucks! – The Rat, Probably is an illustration showing me stacking a tall pile of orodispersible films while a hungry lab rat waits. The lineart was done with micron pens on watercolor paper, and I colored it with watercolors. I’m a materials science major/Stamps minor, and an undergraduate research assistant. Our lab works on drug processing and drug delivery, among other things. The focus of my most recent project was making orodispersible films (ODFs) with a certain drug and polymer. ODFs are films made mostly of edible, water soluble polymer with drug particles incorporated into the polymer matrix (the main phase/component). The films can be dissolved on the tongue rather than swallowed, which can be useful for patients with dysphagia. One challenge I had with making ODFs was that the drug we were working with is a salt, which can precipitate out of the film and form crystals, making the film brittle(salts, like other ceramic materials, are brittle because of the electrostatic interactions that result from their ionic bonding). This brittleness made it impossible to peel films off in one piece, rendering the films useless. To fix this, we lowered the drug loading(drug to polymer ratio) until visible precipitation no longer occurred. To still get the same dosage per area despite the decreased drug loading, films can be stacked. I calculated that we would need to stack 200 films to reach our initial target dosage per area – of course, this was unrealistic and we later changed the target goal. We also don’t work directly with rats, but the idea of me stacking all of those films while a hungry and impatient lab rat waits was really funny to me and I wanted to draw it.