Summer 8-12-2026

Presentation

Ohrt, D. and Everard, C. (2026). Expanded Abstracts of The Nebraska Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting vol. 1, pp. 22-26.

The use of hydrogels as drug delivery systems is the future of biotechnology, hydrogels can offer a new way of controlled delivery to specific areas of the body. Hydrogel also create new possibilities for treatments of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). There are many different types of hydrogels that can be used in drug delivery. Hydrogels offer customizability in regard to the release of drugs in specific environments. The chemical properties of hydrogels allow for them to be manipulated for specific functions such as release at a specific pH . The hydrogel being used in the study is Chitosan-G-Poly (Acrylic Acid Co-Acrylamide), and has a specific property that causes it to swell in basic environments. The swelling of the CS-g-PAAm is specific to slightly basic environments due to the chemical properties and will help to protect the imatinib as it travels through the acidic environment of the stomach acid. A common drug that is used in the treatment of GISTs is imatinib. Imatinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is used to shrink tumors and cause them to go into remission. The use of hydrogels in the delivery of imatinib will help to create a more effective system to efficiently treat these tumors. More specifically, using hydrogels will help to protect the imatinib in the stomach and to help with effective release in the intestines and treat the GISTs. The testing of the interactions between the CS-g-PAAm, imatinib, and the environment will be used in order to determine the effectiveness of the hydrogel as a drug delivery system, and it will be tested using computational methods.