Biomaterials Science Blog

Dr. Kevin McHugh is an Assistant Professor and CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University whose work has been featured in journals such as Science, Science Translational Materials, Advanced Materials, and PNAS. Dr. McHugh received his B.S. in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2009 and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University in 2014 where his Ph.D. work focused on developing tissue engineering scaffolds for dry age-related macular degeneration. He then joined Dr. Robert Langer’s Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow where he developed vaccine delivery systems with an emphasis on applications in low-resource environments. At Rice, Dr. McHugh’s lab combines customized biodegradable materials and cutting-edge fabrication techniques to create novel drug delivery systems that overcome the limitations of current vaccine and drug formulations. Find out more about Kevin’s lab here: http://mchughlab.rice.edu/team/ You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kjmchugh1

Read Kevin’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Multidomain Peptide Hydrogel Adjuvants Elicit Strong Bias Towards Humoral Immunity’ 

Check out our interview with Kevin below:

1. How do you feel about Biomaterials Science as a place to publish research on this topic?

Biomaterials Science consistently publishes high-quality and interesting work in the field of self-assembled drug delivery systems and immunoengineering, so it was an obvious choice for where to publish our research. The journal has been quick to adapt to the emerging area of immune modulation and reflects the great interest in both understanding and controlling the interaction between biomaterials and the immune system. In this paper, we sought to share our delivery platform as a tool to direct and modulate this interaction. We hope that our contribution to the field can be beneficial to fellow readers of Biomaterials Science just as we have benefited from the work of others who have published in the journal.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

The most exciting aspect of our work is the ability to tune the immune response by changing the sequence and chemical functionality of multidomain peptide hydrogels. These synthetic peptides are biocompatible and extremely modular, which makes them an excellent platform for immune modulation. In this recent study, we show that these materials can act as adjuvants to generate antigen-specific humoral immunity without a strong cellular immune response. In the future, we are excited to explore additional peptide modifications that can direct the adaptive immune response to preferentially evoke the cellular immune response or even a tolerogenic immune response. The most challenging aspect of our work is understanding the underlying mechanisms behind this multidomain peptide-mediated immunomodulation. Many groups working on self-assembling peptides are investigating how the body recognizes and reacts to these materials and although there has been some progress, there is still much to understand.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

One of the most important questions that we, as a field, need to answer is “what are the characteristics of peptide-based biomaterials that influence the immune response?” Once we develop a generalizable understanding of the structure-function relationships that influence the immune system, we will be able to rationally design materials that direct the immune response in an application-specific manner with high precision. Tools like alpha-fold have made great strides towards this goal, yet more work is needed to understand how the body recognizes and interacts with different peptide self-assemblies based on sequence and secondary structure.

4. Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

The most important piece of advice I can share with early-career scientists is to make sure that you pursue your research in a way that is sustainable for you. If you are working so hard that burnout is on the horizon, definitely dial it back. In the long run, it is not helpful to anyone—least of all you. The “for you” part of that advice is especially important. Try not to compare yourself to others. There are many reasons why someone else might maintain a different work schedule than you, so just focus on doing the best that you can, taking into account your personal goals, priorities, and other obligations. Also, putting in hours just for the sake of being in the lab is not helpful. Instead, plan ahead, work efficiently, and take time off when you need it.

Jianqin Lu, BPharm, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Director in Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics Track at R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, The University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. Dr. Lu received his PhD in Pharmaceutics from the University of Pittsburgh and had postdoc trainings at University of Chicago and UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine/California NanoSystems Institute. Dr. Lu joined UArizona in 2019 and his lab strives to develop innovative, safe, and efficacious therapeutics at the interface of drug delivery, synthetic chemistry, pharmaceutics, nanotechnology, biomaterials, and tumor immunology to address the pressing unmet needs in cancer and other diseases therapy and prevention.

Dr. Lu’s research work has been published in Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Biomaterials, etc, and has resulted in a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) (R35) from NIH/NIGMS, a Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Foundation Research Starter Grant in Drug Delivery, and several pilot and seed grants from the State of Arizona’s Technology and Research Initiative Fund (TRIF)/BIO5 Institute and NIH-sponsored The Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center.

Recipient of the Norman R. and Priscilla A. Farnsworth Award at the University of Pittsburgh, the NIH/NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional National Research Service Award (T32) in Tumor Immunology at UCLA, and the 2022 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Pharmaceutics Research Award, Dr. Lu was the Secretary of Knowledge Management in AACP Pharmaceutics Section and serves as the Associate Editor for Frontiers in Medical Technology: Nano-Based Drug Delivery.You can follow Jianqin Lu on Twitter @JianqinLu_Lab or on LinkedIn

Read Jianqin’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Surface-Modified Nanotherapeutics Targeting Atherosclerosis Efficiency’ 

Check out our interview with Jianqin below:

1. How do you feel about Biomaterials Science as a place to publish research on this topic?

Biomaterials Science is one of the leading journals in the field for biomaterials, drug delivery, and nanomedicine. I found Biomaterials Science is the perfect place to publish this piece of work, which enables widespread visibility to a large amount of audience.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

To create innovative, safe and efficacious nanotherapeutic platform for the improved drug and gene delivery for treating various diseases including cancers and atherosclerosis. To find clinically relevant animal models for testing the developed nanomedicines, which enables good correlation with human patients.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

How can the improved nanocarriers be used to further enhance the therapeutic delivery of various drugs.

Read Catherine’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Destructive fibrotic teamwork: how both microenvironment stiffness and profibrotic interleukin 13 impair alveolar macrophage phenotype and function’

Check out Catherine’s lab group webpage to find out more about the group’s research https://sites.udel.edu/cfromen/

You can follow Catherine on Twitter @cfromen and @FromenLab or on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathy-fromen/

Read our interview below:

1. How do you feel about Biomaterials Science as a place to publish research on this topic?

I was incredibly excited to receive an invitation to be featured in the Emerging Investigator Series of Biomaterials Science because this journal is one of the top places I look for exciting research within biomaterials and models of the lung, more specifically. Our manuscript introduces a biomaterials-based model of the human airway to evaluate changes to innate immune cells within a fibrotic-like microenvironment. Fibrosis remains such a complex and challenging set of diseases to treat and biomaterial-based models have a tremendous opportunity to unravel this complexity and provide opportunities to screen new therapeutic approaches. Biomaterials Science has been a leader in publishing many influential papers discussing biomaterials approaches to modelling, understanding, and treating fibrosis and I am very proud to contribute our piece in advancing this important field.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I am certainly excited by the advances that biomaterials have enabled in engineering complex microenvironments that can mimic pulmonary tissue: in structure, composition, and barrier properties. I am even more excited about how these emerging models can be used to predict therapeutic responses in the lung. For inhaled medicines especially, it remains exceedingly difficult to directly sample responses in the airway to understand how inhaled formulations act in the lung; new, complex models will be critical in improving predictive capabilities and advancing inhaled therapeutics, such as inhaled vaccines or immunotherapies. It’s challenging to think about how far we have to go, but motivating at the same time.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

This a tough question; how to pick just one! For inhaled drug delivery, the big questions are “how can we predict where an inhaled agent goes?” and once there, “how does it work?”, especially in directing local immune responses. Answering these questions will allow us to develop more complex inhalable immunotherapies and better treat patients with respiratory conditions.

4. Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Find your “people” – in life, in your institution, in your professional societies, in your students – and work to maintain those connections. They’re the ones who will pick you up when you fall, cheer for you when you need it most, and open doors you didn’t even know existed.

Dr Suhair Sunoqrot is an Associate Professor of Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine at Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Faculty of Pharmacy. Dr Sunoqrot received a BSc in Pharmacy from the University of Jordan in 2007, and a PhD in Biopharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013. During her PhD, she worked on various projects involving the development of lipid- and polymer-based nanocarriers for targeted anti-cancer drug delivery. Notably, she was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar in Prof Phillip Messersmith’s lab at UC Berkeley, and a Daniel Turnberg Fellow in Prof Khuloud Al-Jamal’s lab at King’s College London. She received the PhosAgro/UNESCO/IUPAC Green Chemistry for Life Award in 2018 and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Prize for Young Scientists from Jordan for the same year. She was elected as a member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) for 2019 – 2024 and a TWAS Young Affiliate for 2021 – 2026. Dr Sunoqrot’s research focuses on the development of nanoscale solutions to tackle delivery challenges of poorly water-soluble drug candidates, with special interest in the valorization of plant polyphenols both as therapeutic agents and as nanomaterial building blocks. She can be followed on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssunoqrot/), ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Suhair-Sunoqrot), and Twitter (@SuhairSunoqrot).

Read Suhair’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Rhoifolin loaded in PLGA nanoparticles alleviates oxidative stress and inflammation in vitro and in vivo‘ DOI: 10.1039/D2BM00309K

Check out our interview with Suhair below:

1. How do you feel about Biomaterials Science as a place to publish research on this topic?

Nanomedicine is a multidisciplinary field that combines knowledge in materials science, biology, and medicine, making Biomaterials Science an ideal place to publish research on this topic. The Journal’s high standards, rigorous review process, and international readership ensure maximum dissemination of important research findings to the scientific community and beyond.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I am continuously amazed by the countless possibilities enabled by nanotechnology, particularly in the field of medicine. We are currently interested in plant polyphenols both as therapeutic agents and as nanomaterial building blocks. This area of research is exciting as much as it is challenging, due to the chemical diversity of these compounds and their unique physicochemical and biological properties, which need to be properly elucidated to advance them further in preclinical and clinical settings.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

With all the great advances being made in nanoscience and nanomedicine, some important questions need to be answered concerning their interactions with the bio-interface, in vivo fate, and long-term physiological effects. From a manufacturing standpoint, the scalability of the various nanomedicine formulations, their affordability, and their environmental footprint should also be taken into consideration.

4. Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

My best advice to other early career scientists is the following quote by Marie Curie, “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.”