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Expert has been the founder of two novel fields of transdermal drug delivery and has led a paradigm shift from chemical to physical methods to enhance skin permeability. He published the first paper establishing electroporation of skin. Using this approach, short, high-voltage electric pulses are applied to the skin to rearrange the molecular structures that form the skin barrier by a mechanism related to dielectric breakdown of capacitors. Expert also invented another physical method to increase transdermal transport and published the first paper on microneedles in 1998. Expert has intensively studied fundamental issues associated with mechanisms of drug transport across skin, skin-needle biomechanics, and avoidance of pain; and has pushed applications forward by developing novel microfabrication technology to make microneedles and new methods to deliver drugs in controlled and targeted ways.

Anther major topic of Expert’ research has been intracellular drug delivery using ultrasound and electroporation. Expert has intensively studied and produced by far the largest dataset establishing the relationship between acoustic and other experimental parameters and the effects of ultrasound on intracellular delivery and cell viability in vitro. He has also developed and patented novel feedback strategies based on acoustic and optical emissions produced during ultrasound exposure for real-time control of biological effects. Most significantly, he has elucidated the mechanism by which ultrasound acts on cells, where cavitation bubbles associated with ultrasound mechanically detach micron-scale sections of membrane from cells, which in turn actively reseal these wounds using endogenous lipid vesicles. Expert has also made important advances in electroporation of tissues and cells as a means to deliver molecules across cell membranes in a targeted manner. His work has produced the first studies of electroporation of polarized epithelium and tumor spheroids, which provides a critical link between in vitro cell suspensions and in vivo tissues. Expert also produced a set of widely applicable and validated mathematical expressions to predict conditions that optimize DNA transfection using electroporation.

Expert also works on drug delivery to the eye to model drug diffusion across ocular barrier tissues and to experimentally study drug delivery to the back of the eye. In addition to teaching a sophomore-level Chemical Process Principles class, Expert developed two new courses. He first developed “Effective Communication for Professional Engineering,” which emphasizes the skills needed to accomplish realistic workplace goals through oral and written communication. Expert’ second new course entitled “Drug Design, Development and Delivery” provides an integrated, interdisciplinary analysis of the design, development and delivery components of pharmaceutical science.