Sara Kapasi
MIT Department: Mechanical Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Prof. Giovanni Traverso
Research Supervisor: Kimberley Biggs
Undergraduate Institution: Georgia Institute of Technology
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Website: LinkedIn
Biography
Sara Kapasi is a rising junior at Georgia Institute of Technology studying Biomedical Engineering with a Chemistry minor. She is an undergraduate researcher at Georgia Tech’s Kostas group and a previous Stanford SURF scholar. Sara grew up in a community substantially affected by chronic diseases, and in high school, she was introduced to sequencing techniques to learn about dysbiosis in chronic disease. At Georgia Tech, she conducted research in developing cardiovascular monitoring devices and using high performance computing for microbiome sequencing analysis. At Stanford, Sara researched slow-release hydrogels for diabetes treatment. At MSRP, Sara optimized excipients for stable live biotherapeutic delivery in the Traverso lab. With their multidisciplinary background, she aims to identify and incorporate microbial biomarkers of chronic disease into delivery systems while pursuing an engineering PhD. In their free time, Sara makes modular origami and plays jazz piano. She also serves as Production Manager for Georgia Tech’s student-run theater.
Abstract
Long-term Stabilization of Live Biotherapeutics for Gastrointestinal and
Vaginal Applications
Sara Kapasi1, Kimberley Biggs2 and Giovanni Traverso2
1Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia
Institute of Technology
2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Premature neonates in low- and middle-income countries are at high risk of poor physical development due to lack of consistent medical care, and their mothers are at high risk of vaginal dysbiosis post-delivery. Administering probiotics to both groups is a promising solution to these issues, however, bacteria in commercial probiotics tend to die quickly and are unstable in conditions commonly seen in low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this project is to stabilize B. infantis and L. crispatus in high temperatures, bacteria in probiotics beneficial for neonatal and female health. Previous work showed that adding excipients improved bacterial viability over a range of temperatures (4ºC, 25ºC, 37ºC, 60ºC). In this work the optimal combination of excipients for stabilization of B. infantis and L. crispatus in atmospheric oxygen and high temperatures was investigated. First, initial viability after lyophilization and combination with excipients was tested, and then viability was tracked up to six months. Combinatorial formulations with two excipients that outperform current commercial formulations in long-term stability studies were determined. Future work involves formulating the final lyophilized powders into ingestible or implantable delivery systems for application, which will make therapeutics more accessible to those who need it most.
