Engineering Newsletter

Jeff Koberstein | Chemical Engineering

More than a quarter of U.S. adults live with chronic pain caused by both injuries and a host of diseases. In fact, this physical suffering is the leading complaint of older Americans—and the reason one in five of them takes pain killers. (Back pain leads the list, followed by headaches.) Unfortunately, in 70 percent of cases, medication does not work. As a result, patients miss work and increase healthcare costs by frequently visiting doctors.

Jeff Koberstein and his team are figuring out how to deliver pain-relief drugs to the right place. With Prof. Richard Ambron from the Columbia University Medical Center, they are creating tiny, easy-to-swallow particles—known as drug-delivery vehicles—that would carry medication to its target. Ordinarily, a mass of nerve cells, called ganglia, shuttles a pain signal to the central nervous system. For them to send this pain signal, they need to create a certain protein. If scientists can stop production of this protein, they can prevent the transmission of pain. They stop production of this protein through a process called RNA interference, which helps control which genes are active and how active they are.

In the future, Koberstein and his team plan to use their “molecular toolbox” to help deliver other drugs. As a result, they should be able to more efficiently and cost effectively treat patients with many conditions and diseases.

Koberstein, who is the Percy and Vida Hudson Professor of Chemical Engineering, si a former department chair and is currently co-director of a National Science Foundation IGERT grant on Soft Materials. He received his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts and taught at Princeton University and the University of Connecticut before coming to Columbia Engineering in 2000.