Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine

Regenerative medicine and/or tissue engineering (TE) represent a paradigm shift in healthcare therapies and treatments by repairing, replacing, or regenerating damaged cells and tissues in human body. The TE market offers phenomenal opportunities for growth in the next several decades with projected spending of $27 billion by 2018. Our group is exploring different strategies including advance nanotechnology to generate musculoskeletal graded interfacial tissues (e.g., bone-cartilage) using the platform of gradient scaffold with genetic transduction and/or multiple chemical cues. We are interested to develop autologous grafting templates containing transitional interfacial zones for enhanced tissue integration and biological function. We are also using hierarchical scaffold platform to generate vascularized functional tissues for these as well as other applications.

• Novel ECM (extra cellular matrix) mimicking smart scaffold system for different tissue regeneration
• Periodontal tissue/Bone tissue/Cartilage tissue regeneration
• Chronic wound healing and skin tissue regeneration
• 3D printing of organoids

Nanotechnology for Therapeutic and Diagnostic

Nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology for the benefit of human health and well being. The use of nanotechnology in various sectors of therapeutics has revolutionized the field of medicine where nanoparticles (1-100 nm) are designed and used for diagnostics, therapeutics and as biomedical tools for research. By virtue of nanotechnology, it is possible to provide therapy at a molecular level, thus treating the disease and assisting in study of the pathogenesis of disease. Conventional drugs suffer from major limitations of adverse effects occurring as a result of non specificity of drug action and lack of efficacy due to improper or ineffective dosage formulation.My group focus on the development of nanotechnology based treatment approaches in the area of cancer (breast and colorectal) and pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) that are impossible to achieve using conventional medicine/technologies, including development of novel delivery system for targeted combinatorial delivery of drugs and therapeutic agents.

• Targeted delivery system and therapeutic modalities for cancer treatment
• Therapeutic modalities for cancer stem cells
• Magnetic hyperthermia
• Cancer Immunotherapy
• Point-of-care device for cancer screening
• Inhalable delivery system for pulmonary TB

Oral Care

Treatment of periodontal diseases caused by bacterial infection amounts to an estimated more than $108 billion spending in the worldwide every year. Currently available oral care products, such as mouthwashes and toothpastes with the antibacterial and/or remineralizing ability, provide only limited preventive and/or therapeutic effects. We are designing and developing new materials for periodontitis which could be used at home without visiting doctor office.

Nano-bio Interface Sciences

It is important to understand the materials-biological interaction for clinical use of any engineered materials such as biomaterials for tissue regeneration and delivery system for drug etc. Moreover, the rapid growth in nanotechnology is increasing the likelihood of engineered nanomaterials coming into contact with humans and the environment. Nanoparticles interacting with proteins, membranes, cells, DNA and organelles establish a series of nanoparticle/biological interfaces that depend on colloidal forces as well as dynamic biophysicochemical interactions. These interactions lead to the formation of protein coronas, particle wrapping, intracellular uptake and biocatalytic processes that could have biocompatible or bioadverse outcomes.

• Stem cells-biomaterials interface
• Nanotoxicity: in vitro/in vivo toxicity, epigenetic and genotoxicity

Drug and Biomolecules Delivery

Delivery of therapeutic biomolecules (protein, DNA, siRNA and viral vectors) from polymeric drug delivery systems (DDS) offer potential therapeutic solutions for a wide range of life threatening diseases, medical conditions as well as in regenerative medicine. Due to their larger size and structure sensitive properties and activity, development of delivery systems for biomolecules like proteins, nucleotides and viruses is more difficult than for traditional pharmaceutical drug and molecules. It is further challenging to develop an ideal drug delivery system possessing multiple properties together like preserved bioactivity of the biomolecules inside the DDS during processing and storage (ex vivo and in vivo), loading of multiple biomolecules with high loading efficiency for combinatorial therapy, controlled and sustained release profiles. We developed a novel nanocarrier (Sugar-Glass-Nanoparticles (SGnP), Biopolymers-Nanoparticles (BnP)) as an all-in-one solution to address the current challenges in the biomolecules delivery field.

• Effective growth factors (protein) delivery for regenerative medicine
• siRNA/mRNA delivery
• Effective delivery of adjuvant for cancer immunotherapy