This CAREER award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champion is in support of studies to elucidate key fundamental properties of biocompatible lipid materials. This research would enable the design of coating materials for nanostructures, drugs and nucleic acids. Potential outcome from this research could be the ability to design smart materials that are able to interface with the human body to heal wounds, repair bones, as well as deliver drugs, vaccines, antibiotics, etc., by remotely programmable delivery system with the desired drug load, at the correct location and predetermined time point. Such capabilities could obviate unnecessary surgeries, periodic hospital visits for intravenous drug administration, and reduction in the undesirable side effects. This award will integrate the research activities into training and outreach activities, and include active recruitment of underrepresented minority students in STEM by developing an active-learning based middle-school summer camp for girls in materials science. Additionally, this award included outreach activities with three different populations, namely middle school and incoming graduate students, and inmates at a local prison. The investigator will share the research findings in a workshop about the medical challenges in engineering areas that are being developed as part of the Education Justice Project, which offers educational opportunities to incarcerated individuals. This effort has proven to be of high impact in reducing the rates of inmate misconduct. In addition, this program offers an instructional program combined with family support groups that could result in better educational accomplishments of inmates' children.
This CAREER award supports a research in the development of studies to elucidate key fundamental properties of novel materials that are biocompatible and prepared from non-bilayer lipids layers on different substrates. With this award, the investigator will study molecular-scale processes leading to highly structured surface deposited non-bilayer lipid thin films for the delivery of drugs and nucleic acids. The main goals of the project are: a) to understand polymorphism of lipid and associated species on surfaces; b) to fine tune film nanostructures with underlying surfaces and environmental cues; and c) to integrate lipid-film complexes on the surface. This investigator will vary surface chemistry, substrate geometry and environment to establish the conditions that decide the structure and orientation of lipid-drug and lipid-nucleic acid complexes deposited onto surfaces. As part of this research, the investigator will study molecular-scale processes leading to highly structured surface deposited non-bilayer lipid thin films for the delivery of drugs and nucleic acids. In this work, the researcher will combine different characterization methods such as Small Angle X-ray Diffraction with cell culture assays to unveil a fundamental understanding of the self-assembly of lipid-based thin-films onto a surface. The scientific broader impacts of this research are possible design of device-coating materials with predictable nanostructures and drug/gene elution profiles. This award will integrate the scientific outcomes into outreach and education, targeting three different populations, namely middle school and incoming graduate students, and inmates at a local prison.
