Pharmaceuticals & Drug Delivery

Our lab studies the response of bacteria to antibiotics in order to develop new methods for eradicating persistent bacteria.  Bacterial persistence is a form antibiotic resistance in which a transient fraction of bacterial cells tolerates severe antibiotic treatment while the majority of the population is eliminated. These ‘persisters’ can contribute to chronic infections and are a major medical problem. Despite their medical and scientific importance, presistence is not fully understood. A crucial challenge in studying bacterial persistence results from a lack of methods to isolate persisters from the heterogeneous populations in which they occur. As a result, systems-level analysis of persisters is beyond current techniques, and fundamental questions regarding their physiological diversity remain unanswered. Our lab seeks to develop methods to isolate persisters and study them with systems-wide, molecular techniques.  The resulting findings will be used to engineer improved antibiotic therapies.  Dr. Allison’s previous research included development of a novel method to eradicate pathogenic bacteria, including Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, by metabolic stimulation and the finding that bacteria communicate with each other to alter their tolerance to antibiotics.

Therapeutic applications of ultrasound: Costas Arvanitis’ research investigates the therapeutic applications of ultrasound with an emphasis on brain cancer, and central nervous system disease and disorders. His research is focused on understanding the biological effects of ultrasound and acoustically induced microbubble oscillations (acoustic cavitation) and using them to study complex biological systems, such as the neurovascular network and the tumor microenvironment, with the goal of developing novel therapies for the treatment of cancer and central nervous system diseases and disorders.

The Blazeck Lab tackles challenges at the interface of immunology, engineering, and metabolism to improve human health. We utilize our expertise in cellular and protein engineering to control biological function and to develop novel therapies to fight disease.

Water and wastewater microbiology Bioaerosols Antimicrobial resistance in the environment Engineering applications in underserved communities

Developing therapeutic protein materials, where the protein is both the drug and the delivery system Engineering proteins to control and understand protein particle self-assembly Repurposing and engineering pathogenic proteins for human therapeutics Creating materials that mimic cell-cell interactions to modulate immunological functions for various applications, including inflammation, cancer, autoimmune disease, and vaccination

We use light, neutrons, and molecular dynamics simulation to probe intramolecular and intermolecular motion on timescales ranging from MHz to PHz. These studies inform us about complex interactions between molecules and within molecular systems that underly macroscopic behaviors as disparate as materials properties and biological function.  Intra-molecular vibrations provide unique spectral “barcodes” for chemical substances. My group and I introduced broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (BCARS) microscopy in 2004, which uses nonlinear light-matter interactions to rapidly read these spectra and generate sub-micron resolved images containing full Raman vibrational spectra at each pixel. We continue to improved BCARS imaging speed and sensitivity. Our current pixel acquisition time is a few milliseconds, providing an imaging speed that is conducive to practical materials and biological applications, and our work was recognized in 2014 as as one of the top 10 innovations in BioPhotonics. The goals in this project focus on instrument development and scientific discovery. Instrument development opportunities include innovations in ultrafast, nonlinear optics and computation (we envision microsecond spectral acquisition, requiring data processing and analysis at Gb/s rates). Opportunities for scientific discovery are wide-ranging. We currently focus on selected mechanistic questions in cancer biology, viral infection, and lipid metabolism, and on developing approaches for characterizing cell culture and biopharmaceutical formulation.  Microscopic inter-molecular motions underly many macroscopic properties of liquids and solids. We use light scattering, neutron scattering, and molecular dynamics simulation to characterize these motions in pursuit of a clear, molecularly-based understanding of how they ultimately lead to relaxation and transport in amorphous systems (liquids and glasses). We have shown that liquid dynamics on a 1 picosecond timescale are composed of two distinct types of motion. This finding has allowed us to derive simple expressions for molecular transport in liquids and amorphous solids based on easily measured or simulated picosecond dynamic quantities.  As we develop these insights, they will help materials scientists to reliably perform bottom-up design of novel materials with targeted transport and relaxation properties. Opportunities on this project include development of novel approaches to characterize these picosecond motions, refining and testing our ideas about liquid dynamics, and applying these ideas to solve problems in areas such as ionic liquids for battery applications, performance of drug eluting stents, and stabilizing freeze-dried vaccines and therapeutic proteins for use in developing nations.

In the Dahlman Lab, we focus on the interface between nanotechology, molecular biology, and genomics. We design drug delivery vehicles that target RNA and other nucleic acids to cells in the body. We have delivered RNAs to endothelial cells, and have treated heart disease, cancer, inflammation, pulmonary hypertension, emphysema, and even vein graft disease. Because we can deliver RNAs to blood vessels at low doses, sometimes we decide to deliver multiple therapeutic RNAs to the same cell at once. These 'multigene therapies' have been used to treat heart disease and cancer. Why is this important? Most diseases are caused by combinations of genes, not a single gene. We also rationally design the nucleic acids we want to deliver. For example, we re-engineered the Cas9 sgRNA to turn on genes, instead of turning them off. This enabled us to easily turn on gene A and turn off gene B in the same cell.

Bioengineering: lymphatics, lipid metabolism, biomechanics, biomedical optics, image processing, and tissue engineering.

The Dreaden Lab uses molecular engineering to impart augmented, amplified, or non-natural function to tumor therapies and immunotherapies. The overall goal of our research is to engineer molecular and nanoscale tools that can (i) improve our understanding of fundamental tumor biology and (ii) simultaneously serve as cancer therapies that are more tissue-exclusive and patient-personalized. The lab is housed on the Emory SOM campus and currently focuses on three main application areas: optically-triggered immunotherapies, combination therapies for pediatric cancers, and nanoscale cancer vaccines. Our work aims to translate these technologies into the clinic and beyond.

Dr. Jacob's research is directed at stress induced phase changes, nanoscale characterization of materials, synthesis of polymeric nanofibers, mechanical behavior of fiber assemblies (particularly related to biological systems and biomimitic systems), nanoparticle reinforced composites, transdermal drug delivery systems, large scale deformation of rubbery (networked) polymers, and nanoscale fracture of materials. The objectives in this work, using theoretical, computational and experimental techniques, is to understand the effect of micro- and nano- structures in the behavior of materials in order to try to design the micro/nano structures for specific materials response.

Systems Biophotonics, Imaging Technology, Intelligent Materials, Optical AI

Molecular engineering, nucleic acid self-assembly, nanomaterials, nanomedicne, and targeted imaging and delivery.

Cancer and DNA nanotechnology, engineering immunity, noninvasive diagnostics, nanomedicine, biomedical micro- and nanosystems, high throughput technologies. My research program is conducted at the interface of the life sciences, medicine and engineering where a central focus is understanding how to harness the sophisticated defense mechanisms of immune cells to eradicate disease and provide protective immunity. To aid in our studies, we use high-throughput technologies such as next-generation sequencing and quantitative mass spectrometry, and pioneer the development of micro- and nanotechnologies in order to achieve our goals. We focus on clinical problems in cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmunity, and ultimately strive to translate key findings into therapies for patients.

Bio-inspired colloidal assembly for multifunctional drug delivery vehicles and colloidal-based sensing.

Drug, gene and vaccine delivery; transdermal delivery; ocular delivery; intracellular delivery; microneedles; microfabricated devices; ultrasound

Systems biology, bioinformatics, metabolism, and metabolomics.

Bioengineering and Microelectromechanical Systems: Atomic force microscopy, pathogen adhesion and endocytosis, cell biomechanics, single molecule biophysics, drug delivery and targeting, cell membrane mimetics, and biosensors.

Development of novel polymeric biomaterials, regeneration of tendon/ligament, and protein delivery for orthopaedic tissue engineering.

My research interest is focused on using computer simulations of biological systems to understand and predict the human health effects of environmental and pharmaceutical perturbations. These perturbations, elicited by environmental chemicals, dietary supplements, and drugs, can alter the dynamics of the molecular circuits and networks operating in cells, leading to multiple disease endpoints. In close collaboration with experimental biologists and toxicologists, I develop mechanistically based computational systems biology models of cellular biochemical pathways and organism-level control systems.

Molecular Immunology;  Mechanobiology of T-cell receptor and Programmed cell death 1; Molecular dynamics simulations.

Systems Biology Computational Modeling, Personalized Medicine, Immunotherapeutics

Cellular Engineering

Microphysiological System, Drug Delivery, Microfluidic