Mechanopharmacology
Mechanopharmacology is an emerging field, where functional physical readouts are used to screen drug compounds.
Our technology platforms offer improved imitation of human physiology and an expanded suite of unique physical readouts. These readouts correspond more closely to downstream biological processes and clinical endpoints in order to allow the prediction of drug performance before human trials.
Company Origins
Delta P Medicine was founded at Johns Hopkins University's Institute for NanoBioTechnology in 2021 with the goal of radically transforming pharmacology using mechanobiological expertise, leading to the development of more effective treatments for many illnesses. We are focused on using physics and engineering to quantify biological systems and symptoms, and by doing so, we hope to offer better pre-clinical drug testing. Our microfluidic device has already been used to discover that healthy kidney cells function like mechanical water pumps and that their diseased counterparts pump in an opposite manner. We currently have a high-throughput version of the device for use in drug discovery in development and hope to submit for a patent within the next 6 months.
Natural Inspirations
Beyond the device, the “Delta” in our name has additional meaning. In geography, deltas are landforms created when rivers deposit their sediment into slower moving bodies of water. These deltas are important socially, economically, and environmentally. Deltas contain 4.1% of the world’s population, cultivate diverse ecosystems, and support productive agriculture. Delta P medicine plays a role analogous to a natural delta as our company sits between the fields of mechanics and pharmacology and thus has important impacts in diverse fields including medicine, biology, engineering, and technology.
Engineering Inspiration
In engineering, “delta” is used to represent change. With our technology, services, and expertise, we intend to change drug discovery and testing systems in a positive way. The “delta” also represents the multidisciplinary nature of our organization. As our motto states, we “bridge mechanics and pharmacology,” two very different and often independent disciplines. We employ experts from a variety of fields--mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, medicine, biology, and more--to deliver excellent products and services. Finally, the three corners of the delta represent our three pronged approach: novel technology, physical readouts, and expert researchers.