Biomaterials Science Blog

Dr Maria Chiara Arno is an Assistant Professor in Polymeric Biomaterials at the University of Birmingham, working jointly across the School of Chemistry and the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences as a Birmingham Fellow. She completed a PhD at King’s College London in 2015, focusing on the development of peptide-like drugs for the treatment of pathologies linked to a dysregulation in iron metabolism. Following her doctoral studies, Maria Chiara took up a Research Fellow position at the University of Warwick, investigating the biological interactions of polymeric nanoparticles and 3D scaffolds in vitro and in vivo with Prof. Andrew Dove. In 2018, the group moved to the University of Birmingham where she took up a position as a Group Leader in Biomaterials Chemistry. Her current research is focussed on the development of novel cell-based therapies and materials.

Read Maria Chiara’s Emerging Investigator article, “Enhanced drug delivery to cancer cells through a pH-sensitive polycarbonate platform”, DOI: 10.1039/D2BM01626E.

Check out our interview below:

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

Biomaterials Science is an exceptional journal for publishing research that fits at the interface between material chemistry and biology. In particular, the emphasis of the journal on the in vitro and in vivo investigations of a diverse range of materials makes it an ideal platform for studies that exploit how material design can influence biological performance. In our paper published as part of the Emerging Investigators series we designed a polymer-drug conjugate with a degradable polycarbonate backbone and a pH-sensitive linker for delivery to cancer cells. While cancer-cell selectivity is usually achieved through targeting specific receptors at the cell surface, we demonstrated that our polymer platform can achieve enhanced delivery towards a wide range of cancer cells when compared to non-cancerous cell lines, as a consequence of its physicochemical properties.

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 really fortunate to work with incredibly talented people who share my passion for designing new polymers for applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering. I find it exciting and fulfilling to work at the interface of two fundamentally different fields (chemistry and biology). While this presents its challenges, it is incredibly rewarding to develop new science from the conceptual design of a project to the synthesis of new compounds and the investigation of their biological performance.

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

I think it is important to ask ourselves how we, as scientists, are going to drive the field forward and what the next big problem to tackle is in the field of biomaterials. It is also fundamental to discuss solutions to this problem and work collaboratively towards those. I believe that conducting multidisciplinary research through collaborations among individuals from different disciplines is key to reach this goal.

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

Be creative and build a network of people you trust and you want to work with. Don’t be shy to reach to your network when you need, you’ll find that most people are nice and keen to help.

Find out more about Maria Chiara’s research on her lab website.

Dr. Chris Rodell is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Health and Science Systems at Drexel University. He conducted his doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania, working on the development and in vivo application of injectable supramolecular hydrogels. Following completion of his PhD, Chris was a postdoctoral scholar with the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, exploring drug delivery platforms for innate immune activation and their applications toward cancer immunotherapy. To date, Chris has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, five patent applications, and numerous editorials. He is the recipient of a number of awards, including an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship, a Materials Research Society Gold Award, the Solomon R. Pollack Award for excellence in graduate biomedical engineering (University of Pennsylvania), an Individual Biomedical Research Award (The Hartwell Foundation), and an R35 MIRA (NIGMS). His ongoing work leverages nanomaterials and injectable hydrogels as platforms for minimally-invasive therapeutic delivery. Examples include the local or systemic delivery of immunomodulatory drugs to re-orient the immune microenvironment for tissue healing and cancer treatment.

Read Chris’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Sustained release of drug-loaded nanoparticles from injectable hydrogels enables long-term control of macrophage phenotype’, DOI: 10.1039/D2BM01113A 

Check out our interview below:

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

Biomaterials Science continues to be at the top of my reading list and is an outstanding outlet for communicating work related to material structure, composition, and biological function. Moreover, the journal has welcomed new directions in immune modulation and engineering that are critical areas of research growth as biomaterials continue to evolve as platforms for the understanding and therapeutic manipulation of either individual cell types or immune cell networks. Given the journal’s standing interest in biological applications and translation towards clinical use, it was an obvious choice for publishing our current work that focuses on developing polymer-nanoparticle hydrogels for local macrophage-targeted drug delivery.

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 parts of this work are two-fold. First, we were interested in identifying drugs that could alter macrophage behavior – inhibiting inflammation while encouraging pro-healing behaviors. This was particularly challenging because it required the development of new drug screening methods as well as follow-up analysis in immune cells from both mice and humans to ensure drug activity was genuine. Finding a drug that meets these criteria is exciting for the immune modulation field, and we hope it will have broad applications in wound healing and regenerative medicine. The delivery of such immunosuppressive drugs, however, is often a problem clinically. This is because delivery throughout the body places patients at a greater risk of infection. The hydrogels developed overcome this by locally targeting drug delivery to specific cell types, potentially avoiding systemic immune suppression. I expect these materials to become a platform for delivering a library of suitable drugs, concentrating effects at the injection site while limiting off-target effects throughout the body that have continually derailed clinical trials.

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

Some of the most critical and under-explored topics in immune modulation are related to how immune systems change in response to perturbations, including both injury and therapeutic delivery. Too often, cell types or single tissues are considered in isolation. In the context of macrophage-targeted therapeutics like the ones discussed here, it remains an open question as to which cells are best to manipulate. We can surely change the behavior of macrophages locally through drug delivery, but is this the most impactful approach? Considering the systems physiology, these cells generally have a short lifespan and are continually replaced by precursors from the bone marrow. Emerging evidence suggests that profound changes in these precursor cells drive long-term response to injury and link inflammatory co-morbidities (e.g., gum and heart disease, stroke and heart attack). Addressing these types of questions requires a broader systems biology thinking and is difficult to directly address experimentally. These are the types of problems we are beginning to address in my research group, which would not be possible without unique biomaterials platforms.

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

Be happy. Just like Marie Kondo, find what sparks joy and hold onto it. It might be the location, environment, people, type of research, or any combination of these. I believe everyone is most productive in their life and work when they are happy. And frankly, you deserve it. Whether it’s a degree program or a long-term career, it’s a long-haul and you should be excited by what you do and where you are.

Find out more about Chris’s Tissue Instructive Materials lab on his website

Follow Chris and his research group on these social media:

Twitter: @ChrisRodell2 @DrexelBiomed  

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Chris’s Linkedin and Department Linkedin

Dr. Brian Aguado is currently an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, where his laboratory research is focused on studying sex differences in cardiovascular disease using biomaterial technologies. Dr. Aguado completed his BS degree in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford University and his MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. He also obtained his certificate in Management for Scientists and Engineers from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Aguado has received numerous awards to support his research, including the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Program award, the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, the American Heart Association Career Development Award, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Science Diversity Leadership Award. Dr. Aguado currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards for the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A and GEN Biotechnology. Dr. Aguado is also a dedicated science communicator outside of the lab and seeks to engage historically excluded and marginalized populations in the sciences. Dr. Aguado co-founded LatinXinBME (Twitter: @LatinXinBME), a new social media initiative dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive community of Latinx biomedical engineers and scientists to support each other personally and professionally through their careers.  For his efforts, he was named one of the 100 Most Inspiring Latinx Scientists in America by Cell Press and received the Biomaterials Diversity Award for Young Investigator from the Biomaterials journal. Find out more about Brian’s research on his webpage Follow Brian on Twitter @BrianAguado and check out @LatinXinBME

Read Brian’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Inflammatory serum factors from aortic valve stenosis patients modulate sex differences in valvular myofibroblast activation and osteoblast-like differentiation‘, DOI: 10.1039/D2BM00844K

Check out our interview below:

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

Ever since graduate school, I have always acknowledged Biomaterials Science as the preeminent journal for our field. For a couple years during my PhD, I blogged for the Royal Society of Chemistry and contributed short “pop science” articles about Hot Papers published in Biomaterials Science. Now as a PI, it feels rather special to have contributed my lab’s first research article in a journal I have respected my entire career. 

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 proud that my lab’s research program at the intersection of sex-specific cardiovascular biology and biomaterials engineering resonates with historically marginalized students in STEM fields. I believe that through addressing health disparities (specifically sex-based disparities) in the lab, I can simultaneously attract folks from marginalized communities to the bioengineering community, all while conducting research that impacts their respective communities. 

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

Our lab is interested in understanding the independent and synergistic contributions sex hormones, sex chromosomes, and inflammation in regulating sex differences in cardiovascular disease. In order to resolve sex and gender disparities, our lab believes biomaterials can be leveraged to determine sex-specific mechanisms of disease and more accurate sex-specific treatments. 

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

Prioritize your trainees over your science always. Your students’ career success hinges on their personal happiness and well being. Focus your efforts on bringing your full authentic self to the work place, which will help develop strong rapport and trust with your lab members and create a more inclusive lab environment. 

Dr. Katelyn Swindle-Reilly – Photo courtesy of College of Engineering at Ohio State

Katelyn Swindle-Reilly, PhD, received a BS in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and MS in Chemical Engineering and PhD in Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. She completed postdoctoral training in Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Saint Louis University. She then worked in industry as a Senior Scientist at Rochal Industries. She concurrently held an Adjunct appointment in BME at The University of Texas at San Antonio. She joined The Ohio State University (OSU) as Assistant Professor in BME and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) in 2016. She has a courtesy appointment in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. Dr. Swindle-Reilly’s research focuses on the design of polymeric biomaterials for soft tissue repair and drug delivery with focused applications in ophthalmology. Since 2020, she has also been serving as Chief Technology Officer of Vitranu, Inc., a startup that licensed ocular drug delivery technologies her lab developed at OSU. Professional recognitions have included the Controlled Release Society (CRS) Ocular Delivery Focus Group (OcD) Young Investigator Award, selection as an Emerging Vision Scientist by NAEVR, OSU Early Career Innovator of the Year, OSU College of Engineering Innovators Award, and the Ohio Lions Eye Research Foundation Lois Hagelberger-Huebner Young Investigator Award. Her teaching and mentoring incorporates entrepreneurial minded learning (EML). Dr. Swindle-Reilly is interested in promoting entrepreneurialism and STEM careers, particularly to female students, and is actively involved with programming that supports these interests. Find out more about Katelyn’s research on her webpage Follow Katelyn on Twitter @SwindleReilly and LinkedIn

Read Katelyn’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Sustained release of heme–albumin as a potential novel therapeutic approach for age-related macular degeneration’, DOI: 10.1039/D2BM00905F

Check out our interview with Katelyn below:

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

Biomaterials Science is an excellent biomaterials journal, and was therefore a great place to publish our interdisciplinary work exploring new protein therapeutics and delivery from polydopamine nanoparticles.

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 really excited about recent collaborations that have developed. This will enable us to explore new therapeutic approaches for treatments of several ocular diseases.

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

There have been many recent significant advances and there are new and emerging treatments for vision-threatening conditions, but there is still a lot that remains unknown about the eye. For example, age-related macular degeneration appears to have many root causes, and more is being discovered by basic scientists and clinicians. In order to advance treatments for these patients, it is important to work with a diverse team that is investigating mechanisms behind a disease, clinicians treating the condition, and translational scientists/engineers.

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

Believe in yourself and your abilities, know your worth, and persist through failure. It is not easy to establish your own program, and research is riddled with obstacles. I took a less traditional path to my academic career, which caused additional challenges, but ultimately my different perspective and persistence enabled my work.  

Davide Brambilla is Associate Professor of drug delivery at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Prof. Brambilla completed his PhD in pharmaceutical technologies at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Paris-Sud (now Paris-Saclay) under the supervision of Professor Patrick Couvreur on the design of nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. In 2012, he joined the laboratory of JC Leroux at Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) where, after 3 years of post-doctoral stay, he was promoted Group Leader. In 2017, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the Université de Montréal, where he started his research laboratory focused on micro and nanotechnology-based drug delivery tools and diagnostic devices, and teaches the development of biological drugs and pharmacokinetics. In 2022 he was appointed Associate Professor. His laboratory is currently composed of 12 members and mainly focuses on the design of organic nanoparticles for the delivery of genetic materials for gene therapy applications, and the design of polymeric microneedles for diagnostic applications. He pioneered the concept of fluorescent medical micro-tattoos for the non-invasive and wearable monitoring of physiological and pathological parameters. He is a Junior Research Fellow of Québec Research Fund, the biotherapy Research Chair from the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association and Biosimilars Canada, the current President of the Canadian chapter of the Controlled Release Society, and acts as Assistant Editor of the Journal of Controlled Release.‎ He co-authored over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and filed 3 patents. Find out more about Davide’s research on his webpage Follow Davide on Twitter @DBrambilla_Lab

Read Davide’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Current knowledge on the tissue distribution of mRNA nanocarriers for therapeutic protein expression‘, DOI: 10.1039/D2BM00859A

Check out our interview with Davide below:

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

Recent pandemics, and approval of mRNA-nanoparticles vaccines, demonstrated the importance of biomaterials in medicine and the society. This is just the beginning of a revolution driven by new materials toward a precision and personalized medicine. I feel that Biomaterials Science represents the ideal journal for sharing research at the interface of material sciences and medicine.

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

Nanomedicine and drug delivery have entered in a very exciting phase, where decades of intense research are providing important results. The next decade we will witness impact of this silent revolution in medicine. The biggest challenges will be the translation of the successes of nucleic acid-nanomedicine from the vaccination to the treatment of severe diseases.

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

Costs, efficacy, safety of the new generation treatments.

Dr. Katharina Maisel – Bioengineering Department, University of Maryland Alan P. Santos photography

Dr. Katharina Maisel obtained her BSE in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago in lymphatic and respiratory immunobiology prior to joining the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland as faculty in 2019. The Mucosal Associated Immune System Engineering and Lymphatics (MAISEL) Lab’s research integrates materials science, immunology, mucosal barrier physiology, and drug delivery to design nanoparticles to take advantage of and study the interface between biological barriers, particularly the lymphatics, interstitial tissue, and mucosal surfaces, and nanoparticles. Dr. Katharina Maisel has won a number of awards, including NSF GRFP and NIH F32 fellowships as a trainee, the American Lung Association Dalsemer Award, LAM Foundation Career Development Award, NSF CAREER Award, and NIH NIGMS Maximizing Investigator Research Award. Her work has led to numerous high-impact publications, particularly in the field of drug delivery and mucosal and lymphatic immunoengineering, and several patents. Find out more about Katharina’s research on her webpage Follow Katharina on Twitter @MaiselLab

Read Katharina’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Multiple particle tracking (MPT) using PEGylated nanoparticles reveals heterogeneity within murine lymph nodes and between lymph nodes at different locations’ DOI: 10.1039/D2BM00816E

Check out our interview with Katharina below:

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

I believe that Biomaterials Science is a great place to publish work that lies at the interface of biology and materials science, such as our work on designing nanoparticles that effectively cross lymph node interstitial tissue for studying interstitial tissue spaces and microrheology of immune organs.

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

We have had some interesting findings on how material properties like surface chemistry affect nanoparticle transport through biological barriers and suspect that some of this may be related to the protein corona that forms on any nanoparticle that is submerged into a solution containing proteins. It’s amazing how little we still know about how material properties affect the protein corona and how that in turn affects nanoparticle functions. We’re really excited to make some headway in this area and contribute to the growing body of work on protein corona and nanoparticle-biological material interactions particularly in the context of immunity.

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

There are a lot of important questions out there and I like to focus on ones that have not been asked (or not asked enough). We have made so many different materials already but don’t always fully understand how they interact with biological systems. The best example is the use of poylethylene glycol as a ‘stealth’ agent for many years, until more recent discoveries showed that your body can actually develop anti-PEG antibodies. Honing in on how different materials interact with the biological environment and in particular the immune system is a key area of focus in my research group.

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

Do what you love and try to find the right environment for you. Every job has its ups and downs so having a support network and environment that will bring out your best, provide the strength you need at times, and do the work you enjoy most can make all the difference in being both successful and actually enjoying life while you’re growing in your career.