Research

Our research generally involves the application of chemical engineering sciences to problems in human health. In particular, we focus much of our efforts on the development of delivery approaches that will ultimately enable clinical translation of novel therapeutic entities and imaging agents. Examination of human physiology and the evolution of infectious agents teaches us that particles with sizes on the order of 100 nm are well suited for these tasks, and the nanomedicines under development in our laboratory are inspired by viruses. A key feature of our research approach is the integration of engineering analyses, which span molecular thermodynamics, cell-level kinetics, tissue-level transport and whole body systems analysis. These inform the design of and serve as a framework to interpret the results of biological analyses on delivery systems synthesizes in our laboratory or in those of our collaborators. We are interested in a diverse range of health applications of our technologies but have focused considerable attention on infection and cancer.