Biomaterials and Pharmaceutical Materials (BPM)
Applications:
- Drug and biomolecule delivery
- Passive and active surface coatings for medical devices
- Pharmaceutical excipients and formulation
- Artificial tissue replacement materials
- Scaffolds for tissue engineering
| Principal Investigators: | Primary areas of expertise: |
|---|---|
| Chun Wang, Program Leader (BME) | Polymers and gels, micro and nanoparticles, drug and vaccine delivery, material-biology interface, immunotherapy |
Samira Azarin (CEMS) | Cell-cell interactions, drug delivery, and design of biomaterials for applications in molecular and cellular therapeutics and human disease modeling |
Ameya Kirtane (Pharmaceutics) | Material discovery, mucosal mRNA delivery, formulation and device design |
| Brenda Ogle (BME) | Engineering extracellular matrices, stem cell fusion & tissue homeostasis, stem cell analyses & transplantation |
| Wei Shen (BME) | Bioactive materials |
| Ron Siegel (Pharmaceutics/BME) | Drug and hormone delivery, biosensing, hydrogels, microfabrication, drug/polymer dynamics |
| Raj Suryanarayanan (Pharmaceutics) | Solid state properties of drugs, stability of drug/biomaterial formulations |
| Bob Tranquillo (BME/CEMS) | Biopolymers as tissue scaffolds; cell-matrix interactions |
Facilities:
We have at our disposal state of the art equipment from both the College of Science and Engineering, the Department of Pharmaceutics, and the Academic Health Center. Polymer molecular characterization can be carried out using x-ray diffraction and scattering (SAXS and WAXS, PXRD), and light scattering (static and dynamic). PXRD can also be used to characterize polymorphism and solvation characteristics of pharmaceuticals, by themselves or in the presence of polymers. Other available molecular characterization techniques include DSC (scanning and oscillating), TGA, and Confocal Raman Microscopy. Several novel instrumentations at the Characterization Facility and the Biomedical Image Processing Laboratory are available, including cryo-SEM and cryo-TEM, cry-microtomy, AFM, profilimetry/micromechanical testing, and nanoindentation. Tissue Mechanics Lab houses the CellScale BioTester 5000 planar biaxial test system for tissues and compliant biomaterials
Contact:
To learn more about the Biomaterials and Pharmacetuical Materials Program and IPRIME, contact Chris Ellison, Faculty Director.