The Immunomodulatory and Biomimetic Materials (IMBM) Lab develops material-based technologies to address critical health challenges and enable advanced bioengineering models. Our approach involves the rational design of supramolecular synthetic materials composed of naturally occurring building blocks (such as peptides, sugars, and lipids) that can interact with biological systems and create modular microenvironments. We employ a multi-scale strategy, spanning from molecular design to control nanostructure and bulk material properties, ultimately influencing the biological response to our materials.

Dr. Balcells’ research group in tissue engineering has shown how endothelial cell states are critical to tissue response to injury, vascular and neurological. The concepts she has elaborated have already helped understand why microvascular disease is such an important element and exacerbent of neurologically dementing diseases. Dr. Balcells’ research bridges the cardiovascular and neuroscientific domains – closing the gap between computational predictions and animal models, through functional and signaling studies on endothelial and neighboring cells performed in a highly multidisciplinary fashion.

Our research is centered on developing new materials for medicine. We pioneered the use of robotic methods for the development of smart biomaterials for drug delivery and tissue engineering. Our lab has developed methods allowing rapid synthesis, formulation, analysis, and biological testing of large libraries of biomaterials for use in medical devices, cell therapy and drug delivery. 

The Bhatia Laboratory engineers micro and nanotechnologies, also called “tiny technologies,” to address complex challenges in human health ranging from cancer to liver disease and acquired infections. Operating at the interface of living and synthetic systems, the Bhatia group uses these miniaturization tools to improve areas of medicine including diagnostics, drug delivery, tissue regeneration, and disease modeling.

The interdisciplinary research in the Shalek Lab aims to create and implement new approaches to elucidate cellular and molecular features that inform tissue-level function and dysfunction across the spectrum of human health and disease. Professor Shalek’s research encompasses both the development of broadly enabling technologies as well as their application to characterize, model, and rationally control complex multicellular systems. Current studies with partners around the world seek to methodically dissect human disease to understand links between cellular features and clinical observations, including how: immune cells coordinate balanced responses to environmental changes with tissue-resident cells; host cell-pathogen interactions evolve across time and tissues during pathogenic infection; and, tumor cells evade homeostatic immune activity.

A major focus of the Langer Lab is the study and development of polymers to deliver drugs, particularly genetically engineered proteins and DNA, continuously at controlled rates for prolonged periods of time. Our interest in drug delivery systems has extended to selective drug or substance removal systems that may circumvent toxicity.