Education:
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Ph.D., Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

Research Interests:
We are working to develop improved drug delivery strategies, with special emphasis on drug and nanoparticle transport across the placenta in order to address the needs of pregnant women requiring medical therapy or diagnostics, and to answer questions regarding the safety of medication during pregnancy in relation to fetal development. Maintenance of the mother's health promotes successful pregnancy outcomes, and this may require pharmacologic therapy for pregnant women with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, HIV, or other illnesses. For a small but significant percentage of women, cancer is discovered during pregnancy, which presents a special challenge to adequately treat the cancer and simultaneously protect the baby's growth within the womb. In some instances, fetal therapy is required to treat conditions such as fetal arrhythmias or congenital adrenal hyperplasia; these cases may require drug delivery to the fetus while trying to reduce unwanted side effects in the mother.

Selected Publications:

1. Ilekis, J.V., Tsilou, E., Fisher, S., Abrahams, V.M., Soares, M.J., Cross, J.C., Zamudio, S., Illsley, N., Myatt, L., Colvis, C., Costantine, M., Haas, D., Sadovsky, Y., Weiner, C., Rytting, E., and Bidwell, G. Placental origins of adverse pregnancy outcomes: Potential molecular targets – An executive workshop summary of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (2016, in press). 
2. Kalashnikova, I., Albekairi, N., Ali, S., Al Enazy, S., and Rytting, E. Cell culture models for drug transport studies. In Drug Delivery: Principles and Applications, 2nd Edition, Wang, B. et al., eds., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2016. 
3. Albekairi, N.A., Al-Enazy, S., Ali, S., and Rytting, E. Transport of digoxin-loaded polymeric nanoparticles across BeWo cells, an in vitro model of human placental trophoblast. Therapeutic Delivery, 6 (2015) 1325-1334. 
4. Poulsen, M.S., Mose, T., Maroun, L.L., Mathiesen, L., Knudsen, L.E., and Rytting, E. Kinetics of silica nanoparticles in the human placenta. Nanotoxicology, 9 (2015) S1:79-86.  
5. Kalashnikova, I., Albekairi, N., Al-Enazy, S., and Rytting, E. Characterization of Drug-Loaded Nanoparticles.  In Nano Based Drug Delivery, Naik, J., ed., IAPC Publishing, Zagreb, 2015.
6. Rytting, E. Exploring the interactions of nanoparticles with multiple models of the maternal–fetal interface. Nanotoxicology, 9 (2015) S1:137-138.  
7. Rytting, E., Nanovskaya, T.N., Wang, X., Vernikovskaya, D., Clark, S.M., Cochran, M., Abdel-Rahman, S.M., Venkataramanan, R., Caritis, S.N., Hankins, G.D.V., and Ahmed, M.S. Pharmacokinetics of indomethacin in pregnancy. Clinical Pharmacokinetics 53 (2014) 545-551.  
8. Ali, S. and Rytting, E. Influences of nanomaterials on the barrier function of epithelial cells. In Nanomaterial: Impacts on Cell Biology and Medicine. Capco, D.G. and Chen, Y., eds. Springer, Dordrecht, 2014.  
9. Ali, H., Kalashnikova, I., White, M.A., Sherman, M., and Rytting, E. Preparation, characterization, and transport of dexamethasone-loaded polymeric nanoparticles across a human placental in vitro model. International Journal of Pharmaceutics 454 (2013) 149-157.  
10. Ali, H., Kilic, G., Vincent, K., Motamedi, M., and Rytting, E. Nanomedicine for Uterine Leiomyoma Therapy. Therapeutic Delivery 4 (2013) 161-175.  

Link to NCBI mybiblography