Contact Information: Annette L. Bunge, Professor 462 Alderson Hall Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Refining Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO 80401 USA Phone: (303) 273-3722 Fax: (303) 273-3730 email: abunge@mines.edu Education: BS State University of New York, Buffalo PhD University of California, Berkeley

Research Projects:

• Transport in membranes; dermal absorption of chemicals

Absorption through human skin, intentional or not, of drugs or other chemicals is an important problem which has applications in drug delivery and toxic exposure. Manifestation of a therapeutic effect or toxicity following dermal contact requires transdermal penetration of the chemical.

The ultimate objective of this research is to develop algorithms for predicting the rate and extent of absorption following dermal contact with a chemical. This prediction can then be used for health risk assessments or drug delivery and design.

Research on this subject is conducted in collaboration with pharmaceutical chemists, toxicologists, and dermatologists at several research facilities around the world. The results of this research are the basis for dermal absorption calculations recently recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The present emphasis is dermal absorption of chemicals from nonaqueous solutions and from contaminated water and soils. The goals of these projects are to identify the absorption mechanisms, to develop descriptive mathematical models, and to design and conduct experiments that produce well-defined and interpretable data.