“The new Center for Science and Technology will allow us to expand the range of different questions we can ask. We already are asking important questions, and doing important research to answer them. But the new Center will allow us to be more expansive in our exploration. I think that’s true of all Chapman researchers.” Andrew Lyon, Ph.D., dean of Chapman’s Schmid College of Science and Technology
The Science of
By Dennis Arp
Andrew Lyon’s research world revolves around
emptive product that safely flows through the bloodstream
stretchy bits of science 10,000 times smaller than a
of soldiers or others headed into harm’s way so if they
human cell. But those nanoparticles hold oversized
sustain a traumatic injury, protection is already in place.
promise as breakthroughs in the lives of everyone from trauma victims to cancer patients. The microgels in Lyon’s lab at Chapman University may ultimately be the building blocks for an IV injection that stems uncontrolled bleeding. Or they may get commercialized as a topical powder that first responders pour into a wound to get blood to clot. Then there’s the science fiction scenario: They become a pre-
Closest to market is a product that aids patients whose blood doesn’t clot properly because they’re undergoing chemotherapy. “If we can use these polymer nanoparticles to commercialize artificial platelets, we can change bleed rates and improve models of survivability,” says Lyon, Ph.D., dean of Chapman’s Schmid College of Science and Technology. “That’s why we’re so excited.”