Biography

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Jaklenec Group at the Langer Lab. My research projects include:

  • engineering biodegradable polymers for vaccine delivery
  • polymer processing for biomedical applications
  • drug delivery systems for nucleic acid-based therapeutics
  • immunomodulatory biomaterials

Interests

  • drug delivery
  • polymer processing
  • immunoengineering
  • surgical materials

Education

  • PhD in Bioengineering, 2019

    University of Maryland

  • BS in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 2014

    University of Maryland

Experience

 
 
 
 
 

Postdoctoral Associate

Jaklenec Group + Langer Lab, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT

Jan 2020 – Present Cambridge, MA
Engineering drug delivery systems for vaccines using microfabricated polymers
 
 
 
 
 

Graduate Research Assistant

Functional Macromolecular Lab @ University of Maryland, College Park

Aug 2014 – Jan 2020 College Park, MD
Sprayable, biodegradable polymer blends for tissue adhesion

Recent Publications

Quickly discover relevant content by filtering publications.

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Incorporating silica particles improves the adhesion, flexibility, and hemostatic efficacy of a polymer blend surgical sealant

Surgical sealants are supplements to conventional wound closure devices that augment hemostasis and may reduce complication rate. However, commercially available surgical sealants adhere poorly to wet tissue and are difficult to apply precisely. Here, solution blow spinning (SBS) serves as a sprayable deposition method for easily depositing conformal surgical sealants directly to the wound. The objective of this research is to increase tissue adhesion by incorporating nano-to-microscale particles into a poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid and poly(ethylene glycol) blend sealant (PLGA/PEG) whose deposition is compatible with SBS. Our experiments focus on understanding how the silica particles interact at the interface with tissue, measuring adhesive interactions, and determining possible mechanisms for adhesion improvement which may be of broader interest to the field of surface science. Adhesion increases dramatically by incorporating silica particles into the PLGA/PEG blend surgical sealant, but does not cause a significant decrease in cell viability. Composite PLGA/PEG/SiO2 sealants produce intestinal burst pressures that are comparable to cyanoacrylate glue (156 mmHg), ~2 times greater than PLGA/PEG (59 mmHg), and ~3 times greater than fibrin glue (48.6 mmHg). Adhesive force increases by 20% while adhesion energy, which takes into account work dissipated by the bulk of the sealant, is 20 times higher. Scanning electron microscopy shows silica particles sandwiched at the interface between tissue and sealant, where they create dense networks of physical bonds. These improvements demonstrate the potential of a simple composite design to increase adhesion through physical, noncovalent mechanisms.
Incorporating silica particles improves the adhesion, flexibility, and hemostatic efficacy of a polymer blend surgical sealant

Contact