Mansour, Heidi M.

Professor, Environmental Health Sciences , Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work

Center for Translational Science
FIU News April 2022 FIU researcher Heidi M. Mansour elected to the 2022 Class of the AIMBE College of Fellows
FIU Research Magazine Oct 2023 Advanced drug delivery + nanomedicine
FIU Research Magazine Oct 2023 Tearing Down Walls: Center for Translational Science builds bridges to advance research
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biography

Dr. Mansour is currently a tenured Full Professor and Program Leader of the Drug Discovery and Delivery Program at the Florida International University (FIU) Center for Translational Science in Port Saint Lucie, Florida having joined in 2022. Professor Mansour is a member of the FIU faculty in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and also in the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in the Department of Cellular Biology and Pharmacology. Previously, she was a tenured Associate Professor, Director of the Pharmaceutics/ Pharmacokinetics Track, and Director of the PharmD/PhD dual-degree program at The University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ for 9 years. Dr. Mansour is Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) inducted in the 2022 Class of College Fellows for innovations in targeted pulmonary inhalation aerosol medicine. Dr. Mansour is a Senior Member in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) elected in the 2023 Class of NAI Senior Members.

She was funded on the Wisconsin Academic Excellence Scholarship for 4 years at the University of Wisconsin (UW) -Madison and became a Registered Pharmacist. Her PhD degree is in the Pharmaceutical Sciences (Pharmaceutics/Drug Delivery) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy where she was funded on AFPE and PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships. Dr. Mansour completed Postdoctoral training at the UW-Madison and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine funded on the PhRMA Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Dr. Mansour successfully leads multiple cutting-edge research projects that are funded by the NIH. Her first federal grant as PI was from the FDA followed by continuous funding from the NIH. Her innovative research program has produced faculty members who are employed at major research universities in the United States and in the Republic of S. Korea. In addition, her research program has produced Senior Research Scientists who are employed in major pharmaceutical companies in the United States. As Postdoc Mentor, Dr. Mansour has successfully mentored and trained 13 Postdoctoral Research Scholars in her research program. As Major Professor, Dr. Mansour has successfully trained and graduated 5 doctoral graduate students with PhD degrees. Her current group members are Research Assistant Professors. Dr. Mansour is the Vice Chair of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Drug/Device Discovery & Development (DDDD) Committee, Chair (2022-2024) of the American Pharmacist Association (APhA) Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science (APRS) Basic Sciences, and serves on the PhRMA Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee (Drug Delivery) and International Society of Aerosols (ISAM) Executive Board. She serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the journals Royal Society of Society (RSC) Molecular Systems Design & Engineering (MSDE), RSC Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Technology North America, Frontiers in Drug Delivery-Respiratory Section, and Current Nanomedicine. Dr. Mansour is an Associate Editor of the journal, RSC Pharmaceutics and a Topics Editor of the journal, Pharmaceutics. She has co-edited 2 books on inhalation aerosol medicine and nanomedicine and has published 16 book chapters and 117 journal publications. Dr. Mansour is inventor on 10 patents and has 3 exclusive licenses.

research interests

Pharmaceutical sciences and USP/FDA translational requirements
Nanotechnology and nanomedicine
Advanced drug delivery systems
Drug-device combination products
Inhaled medical aerosols and inhaler devices
Microparticles and nanoparticles
Controlled release drug delivery
Sustained release drug delivery
Topical skin drug delivery
Transdermal drug delivery
In vitro USP/FDA performance testing
In vitro 2-D/3-D human cellular models for cell viability and drug transport mechanisms
In vitro multicellular spheroids
In vivo animal models for therapeutic efficacy and PK/PD
CNS and brain neurotherapeutics
Cystic fibrosis
Infectious diseases
Pulmonary hypertension
Lung surfactant and respiratory distress syndrome
Asthma
Acute lung injury
Lung transplantation