Dr. Margaret A. Wheatley
John M. Reid Professor
School of Biomedical Engineering, Science & Health Systems
Focus Area: Targeted Drug Delivery

Dr. Wheatley came to Drexel in September of 1988 after spending three years in the pharmaceutical industry at what was then Smith, Kline & French (SKF). Prior to that experience, she had acquired a B.A. in Chemistry from Oxford University, an M.A. in Biochemistry from the same university, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto. From there, she went on to spend three years as a post doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before moving on to SKF. In October 2004, Dr. Margaret Wheatley became the first recipient of the John M. Reid Professorship. The newly established Professorship institutionalizes Professor Reid's contributions to biomedical ultrasound and his leadership in affirming Drexel's highly regarded status as a center of excellence in biomedical ultrasound. Among many other prominent leaders in biomedical ultrasound, Professor Reid was a mentor to Professor Wheatley who serves as the first John M. Reid Professor.

Dr. Wheatley heads the Microencapsulation Laboratory in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems. Her research interests include controlled release technology (bioactive compounds), microencapsulated allografts (ex vivo gene therapy) for spinal cord repair, and ultrasound contrast agent development (tumor targeting and triggered drug delivery), the latter being her main area of research, where she is developing ultrasound contrast agents that physicians can inject into a patient just prior to an ultrasound scan to increase the contrast of the image. If successful, these agents will allow the physician to use these relatively safe, inexpensive real time imaging modalities to detect cancers and diseased tissues that were previously undetectable with this tool. The latest approach is to attach special markers onto the agent that will recognize and lock onto specific cells, such as those in a breast tumor, thereby enabling a physician to distinguish between a benign lump and a malignant tumor. Further adaptations include looking at loading the agent up with a cancer-fighting drug that can be carried directly to the cancer site, lodged there, and delivered form the agent by a pulse of the very ultrasound energy that is used to image the tumor itself. Other research in Dr. Wheatley's lab includes using microencapsulation technology to help in the struggle to spur spinal cord re-growth after the cord has been severed in an accident.