Our mission is to develop next generation translatable technologies to improve human health by uniquely merging ‘molecule making’ and ‘device making’, and through innovations in nanomedicine tools.

Our research is highly collaborative and interdisciplinary, centering around the development of novel materials for biomedical applications, immune-nanomedicine, and targeted therapies for stem-like cancer cell with phenotypically screened nanomedicine platforms and biosensing approaches for infectious diseases. Over the years, this research has resulted in >200 high impact peer reviewed publications in scientific journals, many patents, and several technology licensing.

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At the laboratory for materials in medicine (MatMed) our research is multifaceted to make nanomedicine patient specific using an ‘omics’ approach and applying machine learning for diagnosis and sensing of a disease or biological process. Our research is broadly aimed at the understanding and creating defined materials for molecular imaging, drug delivery and non-viral gene delivery applications with a focus on structure, function and engineering processes. We are also dedicated to developing ‘immuno-nanomedicine’ approaches to cancer and other biomedical problems. In close collaboration with clinical scientists, we integrate basic science and engineering with medicine emphasizing image-guided drug delivery for the cardiovascular and oncologic application. Initiated originally at Washington University, at UIUC, we continue to focus on building individual proficiencies in these areas and advancing specific applications towards clinical translation, personalized nanomedicine and developing biosensors for ‘sensing’ biological processes using machine learning tools.