During his tenure at Washington University, Alec Salt, Ph.D. distinguished himself as a world leader in understanding the dynamics of cochlear fluid and drug delivery. Turner Scientific is very pleased to now have Dr. Salt as a full-time member of our science team, and offer his expertise to our research sponsors. His current interests align with those of many auditory drug and device developers:

• The Fluids of the Inner Ear – perilymph and endolymph;
• The Barriers of the Ear – controlling how substances enter, leave, and distribute in the ear;
• Local Drug Delivery to the Inner Ear – a better way to get drugs into the ear.

Dr. Salt recently released version 4 of his FluidSim program – an invaluable tool for developers of inner ear therapeutics.

FluidSim is a computer program that represents drug distribution in the inner ear. It helps design and interpret inner ear drug delivery experiments in animals, and predict the distribution of drugs in the human ear.

FluidSim uses kinetic parameters of any compound. Before investing resources to conduct in vivo PK and efficacy studies, drug developers can work with Dr. Salt and Turner Scientific to predict the cochlear distribution of multiple drug formulations. The results of intratympanic applications, direct injections into perilymph or endolymph, drug elution from cochlear implants, and systemic and intrathecal applications can be simulated. Subsequent in vivo studies can therefore be more efficient and cost-effective.