2021

July 2021 – Sarah’s paper on engineering a new microfluidic platform to manufacture mRNA and siRNA lipid nanoparticles across all scales of development is published in Nano Letters and is featured by Penn Today and Penn Engineering.

June 2021 – Seth Thayumanavan joins the lab as a CBE undergraduate researcher.

June 2021 – Caitlin Frazee, Andres Hubsch, and Matthew Jester join the lab as BE undergraduate researchers.

May 2021 – Dr. Jingya Qin joins the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from the University of Delaware.

May 2021 – Sarah’s paper on microfluidic formulation of nanoparticles for biomedical applications is published in Biomaterials.

April 2021 – Kelsey and Alex’s paper on lipid nanoparticle-mediated delivery of mRNA therapeutics and vaccines is published in Trends in Molecular Medicine.

April 2021 – Rakan’s paper on delivery technologies to engineer natural killer cells for cancer immunotherapy is published in Cancer Gene Therapy.

April 2021 – Ella’s paper on delivery technologies for T cell gene editing is published in EBioMedicine.

April 2021 – Mike is appointed to the International Editorial Board of the journal Biomaterials.

April 2021 – Mike is appointed to the Editorial Board of the journal Bioactive Materials.

March 2021 – Mike is interviewed by Wudan Yan of MIT Technology Review on the potential of new lipid nanoparticle technologies to improve the storage and distribution of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

March 2021 – Emily Kim joins the lab as a CBE undergraduate researcher.

March 2021 – Mike is interviewed by Tom Avril of The Philadelphia Inquirer on Maggie and Rachel’s research in collaboration with CHOP on engineering lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery to treat disease before birth.

February 2021 – Mike gives a Nature Nanotechnology webinar with Professors Betty Kim, Ankur Singh, and Angus Johnston on nanomaterials for immunomodulation. A full recording of the webinar can be found here.

February 2021 – Ningqiang and Maggie’s paper on nanomaterials for T cell cancer immunotherapy in collaboration with Carl June’s lab is published in Nature Nanotechnology.

February 2021 – Rui and Rakan’s paper on how helper lipid structure influences protein adsorption and delivery of lipid nanoparticles to spleen and liver is published in Biomaterials Science as part of a 2021 Biomaterials Science Emerging Investigators special issue.

February 2021 – Rohan’s paper on delivery technologies for in utero gene therapy is published in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews.

February 2021 – Xisha Huang from Nanyang Technological University joins the lab as an MSE Master’s student.

February 2021 – Lab awarded a Transdisciplinary Awards Program in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics Grant in collaboration with the Professor Elizabeth Heller (Penn Medicine) and Professor Andrew Tsourkas (Penn BE).

February 2021 – Lab awarded a Transdisciplinary Awards Program in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics Grant in collaboration with the Professor Yi Fan (Penn Medicine).

February 2021 – Mike is interviewed by Christopher Rowland of The Washington Post on how the use of lipid nanoparticles to deliver RNA into cells will impact the pharmaceutical industry for years to come.

January 2021 – Rakan and Rui’s paper in collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals on the screening of nanoparticles for gastrointestinal delivery is published in Advanced Therapeutics as part of a special issue on Advanced Nanosystems for Clinical Translation.

January 2021 – Our paper on peptide functionalized liposomes for receptor targeted cancer therapy is published in APL Bioengineering.

January 2021 – Dr. Lulu Xue joins the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from the Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Germany.

January 2021 – Rachel and Maggie’s paper on engineering new lipid nanoparticles for therapeutic mRNA delivery before birth (in utero) is published in Science Advances and is featured by Penn Engineering and CHOP News.

January 2021 – Maggie and Rebecca’s paper on engineering precision nanoparticles for drug delivery in collaboration with Professors Nicholas Peppas and Robert Langer is published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

2020

December 2020 – Ningqiang’s paper on a proton-driven transformable nanovaccine for cancer immunotherapy is published in Nature Nanotechnology.

December 2020 – Xuexiang’s paper on nanomaterials for therapeutic RNA delivery is published in Matter.

December 2020 – Maggie gives a talk on lipid nanoparticle-mediated CAR T cell engineering at the World Vaccine and Immunotherapy Congress.

November 2020 – Mike presents the lab’s research on nanoparticle-mediated CAR T cell engineering at the Drexel University Immune Modulation & Engineering Symposium.

November 2020 – Our collaboration with Professor Sheri Yang (Penn Dental Medicine) on engineering nanocarriers for treating rheumatoid arthritis is now supported by a grant from the Penn Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry.

November 2020 – Kamila Butowska from University of Gdańsk joins the lab as a Visiting PhD Student.

October 2020 – Congratulations to BE PhD student Maggie Billingsley for being awarded a NIH T32 Fellowship in HIV Pathogenesis, Vaccination, and Cure.

October 2020 – Our paper on nanoparticle-mediated RNA delivery to bone marrow for treating heart attack and mobilizing hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation is published in Nature Biomedical Engineering and is featured by Penn Engineering and MIT News.

September 2020 – Our collaboration with Professors Jake Brenner and Hamideh Parhiz (Penn Medicine) on engineering nanocarriers for treating ARDS and COVID-19 is now supported by a Center for Targeted Therapeutics and Translational Nanomedicine Pilot Grant.

September 2020 – Chris and Rachel’s paper on exploiting the placenta for nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery during pregnancy is published in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews.

September 2020 – Hanwen Zhang from Case Western Reserve University joins the lab as a BE Master’s student.

August 2020 – BE PhD students Kelsey Swingle and Alex Hamilton join the lab and are awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.

July 2020 – Congratulations to BE Postdoctoral Fellow Rachel Riley for being awarded a NIH F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Cancer Institute.

June 2020 – Congratulations to BE PhD student Chris Figueroa-Espada for being awarded a Hispanic Scholarship Fund Fellowship.

May 2020 – Our paper from the first Kidney Cancer Research Summit on translational kidney cancer research is published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

May 2020 – BE undergraduate student Ella Atsavapranee joins the lab and is awarded a Littlejohn Fellowship.

April 2020 – Congratulations to BE PhD students Rebecca Haley and Sarah Shepherd for being awarded NSF GRFP Fellowships. Their fellowships and research projects are featured by Penn Bioengineering.

March 2020 – Congratulations to BE Postdoctoral Fellow Rachel Riley for accepting an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering position at Rowan University. Rachel’s new position is featured by Penn Bioengineering.

February 2020 – Our collaboration with Professor William Peranteau (CHOP) on in utero gene editing to cure a metabolic disease is now supported by an NIH R01 grant.

February 2020 – Rebecca’s paper with Professors Riccardo Gottardi and Robert Langer on cyclodextrins in drug delivery: applications in gene and combination therapy is published in Drug Delivery and Translational Research.

January 2020 – Maggie’s paper on lipid nanoparticle-mediated mRNA delivery for human CAR T cell engineering is published in Nano Letters and is featured by Penn Today and Penn Engineering.

January 2020 – Our collaboration with Professor Tuomas Tammela (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) on targeting stem-like cells and their niche in pancreatic cancer is now supported by an NIH R37 MERIT Award.

January 2020 – Rohan Palanki from Rice University joins the lab as a BE MD PhD student.

January 2020 – Mike presents the lab’s research on nanoparticle-mediated CAR T cell engineering at the University of Michigan Organogenesis Seminar Series.

January 2020 – Dr. Xuexiang Han joins the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in China.

January 2020 – Zijing Zhang from New York University joins the lab as a BE Master’s student.

January 2020 – Rebecca Haley from Case Western Reserve University joins the lab as a BE PhD student.

2019

December 2019 – Pedro and Rui’s paper on lipid nanoparticles encapsulating barcoded mRNA for accelerated in vivo delivery screening is published in Journal of Controlled Release.

November 2019 – Pedro’s paper on chiral supraparticles for controllable nanomedicine is published in Advanced Materials and is featured by MIT News.

Advanced Materials

November 2019 – Mike presents the lab’s research on nanoparticle-mediated CAR T cell engineering at the University of Utah Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series.

November 2019 – Chris Figueroa-Espada from University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez joins the lab as a BE PhD student. Chris is also awarded NSF GRFP, GEM, and Fontaine Fellowships to support his PhD studies.

November 2019 – Mike is elected Vice Chair of the Controlled Release Society Gene Delivery and Gene Editing Focus Group. Find out more about what the Focus Group offers Controlled Release Society members here.

October 2019 – Congratulations to Postdoctoral Fellow Rui Zhang for accepted a Senior Scientist position at Spark Therapeutics.

Spark Therapeutics - Wikipedia

September 2019 – Dr. Ningqiang Gong joins the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in China.

September 2019 – Mike presents the lab’s research on delivery technologies for cancer immunotherapy at the DoD Kidney Cancer Research Summit.

September 2019 – George Feng and Savan Patel join the lab as BE undergraduate researchers.

August 2019 – Mike receives the T. Nagai Award from Professor Kazunori Kataoka at the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting in Valencia, Spain. Photo courtesy of Professor Nicholas Peppas.

July 2019 – Julia is awarded a prestigious Blair Research Fellowship.

July 2019 – Our collaboration with Professor Andrew Tsourkas (Penn Bioengineering) on intracellular antibody delivery is now supported by an NIH R01 grant.

June 2019 – Rachel wins a poster award for her work on Wnt inhibitor delivery to tumors at the 2019 Gordon Research Conference on Cancer Nanotechnology in Mount Snow, Vermont.

June 2019 – Alex is awarded a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.

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June 2019 – Alvin, Rachel, and Rui’s paper on nucleic acid nanotechnology for cancer immunotherapy is published in Cancer Letters.

May 2019 – Mike is named a Member of the Cardiovascular Institute at Penn Medicine.

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May 2019 – Mike is named a Member of the Institute for Immunology at Penn Medicine.

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April 2019 – Maggie is awarded a prestigious Tau Beta Pi Graduate Fellowship.

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April 2019 – Mike is elected Chair of the Society for Biomaterials Drug Delivery Special Interest Group at the 2019 Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington.

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April 2019 – Mike is awarded an AACR-Bayer Innovation and Discovery Grant at the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

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April 2019 – Maggie and Sarah both receive honorable mention for their NSF GRFP and Ford Foundation Fellowships.

March 2019 – Mike is a recipient of the Chinese Association for Biomaterials Young Investigator Award, which he will receive at the 2019 Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington in April 2019.

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March 2019 – Mike is a recipient of the 2019 Controlled Release Society T. Nagai Award, which he will receive at the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting in Valencia, Spain in July 2019. The award is featured by Penn Engineering.

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March 2019 – Rachel’s paper on delivery technologies for cancer immunotherapy in collaboration with Carl June’s Lab (Penn Medicine) is published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery and is featured on the journal cover.

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March 2019 – Alex Hamilton (University of Oklahoma) is awarded an NSF REU Fellowship from the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM), and will join the Mitchell Lab as an REU student for Summer 2019.

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February 2019 – Lab awarded a Transdisciplinary Awards Program in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics Grant in collaboration with the Peranteau Lab (Surgery) at CHOP.

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January 2019 – 
Mike is a recipient of the BMES Rising Star Award at the 2019 Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Conference in San Diego, California. The award is featured by Penn Engineering.

RTP BMES Chapter

2018

December 2018 – Rui and Maggie’s paper on biomaterials for vaccine-based cancer immunotherapy is published in Journal of Controlled Release.

December 2018 – Lab awarded an Abramson Cancer Center-SEAS Discovery Science Grant in collaboration with the Tsourkas Lab (Bioengineering) and Wherry Lab (Immunology).

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December 2018 – Our paper on nanomaterial interactions with human neutrophils is published in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.

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November 2018 – Lab awarded a grant from Penn Health-Tech in collaboration with the Tsourkas Lab (Bioengineering).

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November 2018 – Pedro’s paper on cyclodextrin inclusion complexes that inhibit Wnt signaling in lung tumors is published in Journal of Controlled Release.

November 2018 – Julia Yan joins the Mitchell Lab as an MSE Undergraduate Researcher.

October 2018 – Mike is a recipient of the 2018 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. The 5-year, $2.4M award will support our lab’s research on engineering non-viral gene delivery systems that target the bone marrow microenvironment to treat chemoresistant cancers. The award is featured by several news outlets, including the NIH, Penn Today, and Penn Engineering.

October 2018 – Lab awarded a grant from Janssen Pharmaceuticals to engineer nucleic acid delivery technologies.

October 2018 – Rakan El-Mayta joins the Mitchell Lab as a Research Engineer.

September 2018 – Sarah Shepherd is awarded a University of Pennsylvania Fontaine Fellowship.

September 2018 – Our lab’s research on engineering delivery technologies for treating diseases of the hematopoietic system is now supported by a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface.


August 2018 – Maggie Billingsley joins the Mitchell Lab as a BE PhD Student.

August 2018 – Mike’s abstract on nanoparticle-mediated RNAi in the hematopoietic stem cell niche is selected for a talk at the Gordon Research Conference on Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology.

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August 2018 – Rui Zhang joins the Mitchell Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow.

July 2018 – Lab awarded a grant from the American Cancer Society.


July 2018 – Mike presents our research on multiple myeloma gene therapeutics at the World Congress of Biomechanics in Dublin, Ireland.

July 2018 – Our paper on advances in biomaterials for drug delivery is published in Advanced Materials and is featured in the Advanced Materials Hall of Fame.


July 2018 –
Mike’s abstract on nanoparticle-mediated siRNA silencing in the bone marrow niche is selected for a talk in the Gene Delivery and Gene Editing Focus Group at the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting in New York City.

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July 2018 – Sarah Shepherd joins the Mitchell Lab as a BE PhD Student.

June 2018 – Alvin Mukalel joins the Mitchell Lab as a BE PhD Student, and is awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

May 2018 – Rachel is awarded an NIH NHLBI T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Biology.

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April 2018 – Mike presents our research on multiple myeloma gene therapeutics at the Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

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March 2018 – Mike is named a Member of the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine.

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February 2018 – Pedro’s paper on nanoparticles for immune cytokine TRAIL-based cancer therapeutics is published in ACS Nano and is featured by Penn Bioengineering.

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February 2018 – Mike is named a Member of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at Penn Medicine.

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January 2018 – Mike is named a Member of the Penn Center for Orphan Disease Research and Therapy.

January 2018 – Rachel Riley joins the Mitchell Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Rachel officially starts at Penn in June 2018 after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Delaware.

2017

October 2017 – Mike is named a 2017 Wunderkind by STAT News and is featured by the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.

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October 2017 – Our paper on engineering and physical sciences in oncology with Rakesh Jain (Harvard Medical School) and Robert Langer (MIT) is published in Nature Reviews Cancer and is featured as the cover article. Paper is featured by Penn Bioengineering.

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September 2017 – Mike is interviewed by Nature about his experience as a postdoctoral fellow in the Langer Lab at MIT.

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August 2017 – Our collaborative paper with the Khademhosseini Lab (Harvard Medical School) on “rose spike” nanostructured fibrous membranes is published in Nano Letters.

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July 2017 – Mike is awarded the Merck Graduate Research Advances in Delivery Science Award by the Controlled Release Society.

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July 2017 – Mike is interviewed by Penn Bioengineering about his upcoming research program at the University of Pennsylvania.

March 2017 – Our paper on engineering polymeric mechano-amplifiers of tumor cell apoptosis is published in Nature Communications and is featured by several news outlets, including MIT News, Science Daily, Drug Delivery Business News, International Business TimesAZoNano, and Science Newsline.

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March 2017 – Our paper on lipid nanoparticle-mediated mRNA delivery for cancer immunotherapy is published in Nano Letters and is featured as the cover article.

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January 2017 – Mike receives a Postdoctoral Research Award at the BMES Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Conference in Hawaii, for his work on engineering a polymeric mechano-amplifier of tumor apoptosis.

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2016

July 2016 – Mike wins the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface, recognizing interdisciplinary scientists and engineers who are “bridging science fiction with reality”. Award is featured by MIT News.

June 2016 – Mike wins an AACR Scholar in Cancer Research Award at the AACR Special Conference on Engineering and Physical Sciences in Oncology.

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June 2016 – Our report on Convergence: The Future of Health, co-chaired by Phillip Sharp, Tyler Jacks, and Susan Hockfield, is presented at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington D.C. and featured by MIT News.

February 2016 – Mike is appointed to the 2016 Young Investigator Council of the journal Tissue Engineering.

January 2016 – Our paper on TRAIL-coated leukocytes to therapeutically target the metastatic spread of prostate cancer is published in Journal of Controlled Release and featured as the cover article. Study is featured by several news outlets, including the Cornell Chronicle, Cornell Daily SunFuturity, and Science Daily.

January 2016 – Mike receives a Postdoctoral Research Award at the BMES Joint Cellular and Molecular Bionengineering and Advanced Biomanufacturing Conference in New Orleans, for his work on shear stress effects on circulating tumor cell survival in the circulation.

RTP BMES Chapter

2015

December 2015 – Our paper in collaboration with the Lammerding Lab (Cornell University) on nuclear lamin effects on tumor cell survival in the circulation is published in American Journal of Physiology – Cell Physiology, as part of a special issue on cellular and molecular processes in cancer metastasis.

October 2015 – Our award-winning paper at the Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting on biomaterials for the capture of metastatic tumor cells in the absence of antibodies is published in Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A.

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September 2015 – Mike receives a Burroughs Wellcome Fund PDEP Award for his work on engineering a new nanoparticle platform for the delivery of therapeutic genes to bone marrow.

August 2015 – Mike is awarded an NIH F32 Ruth L. Kirschtein National Research Service Award from the National Cancer Institute, for his work on the development of a nucleic acid delivery platform to fundamentally understand and therapeutically target bone metastasis.

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April 2015 – Mike receives the Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Research from the Society for Biomaterials, for his work on nanostructured biomaterials for differential adhesion of metastatic tumor cells and immune cells under blood flow.

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April 2015 – Our paper on nanostructured biomaterials for differential tumor and immune cell adhesion and capture under flow is published in Biomaterials.

March 2015 – Our paper on leukocytes as carriers for targeted cancer drug delivery is published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery.

February 2015 – Our collaborative paper with the Reinhart-King Lab (Cornell University) on combined shear stress and substrate stiffness effects on endothelial cell behavior is published in Biophysical Journal.

January 2015 – Mike is awarded a MIT Postdoctoral Association Travel Grant and is featured by the MIT Postdoctoral Association.

January 2015 – Mike receives a Ph.D. Student Research Award at 2015 BMES Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Conference in St. Thomas, for his work on nanostructured biomaterials for the isolation of circulating tumor cells from patient blood.

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2014

October 2014 – Mike receives the Innovation and Career Development Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society at the BMES Annual Meeting in San Antonio, for his work on engineering immune cells to target and kill metastatic tumor cells in the circulation.

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June 2014 – Our paper on unnatural killer cells to prevent bloodborne metastasis is published in Expert Review of Cancer Therapy.

June 2014 – Our collaborative paper with the Reinhart-King Lab (Cornell University) on a microfluidic device to select for cells based on chemotactic phenotype is published in Technology.

May 2014 – Our paper on fluid shear stress-enhanced neutrophil activation in the presence of platelet-activating factor is published in Biophysical Journal.

January 2014 – Our paper on the role of cell glycocalyx in the vascular transport of circulating tumor cells is published in American Journal of Physiology – Cell Physiology, as part of a special themed issue on physical biology in cancer.

January 2014 – Our paper on engineering TRAIL-coated leukocytes to kill cancer cells in the circulation is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and featured by several news outlets, including the Cornell ChronicleBBC NewsScience Daily, Science Newsline, Medical Xpress, Ars Technica, and PBS.

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2013

October 2013 – Mike wins the Separations Division Award from the American Institute for Chemical Engineers at the AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco, for his work on engineering biomaterials for circulating tumor cell isolation from patient blood.

September 2013 – Our paper on hematopoietic stem cell enrichment via selectin receptors under acidic conditions is published in Sensors.

September 2013 – Mike receives the Graduate Research and Design Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society at the BMES Annual Meeting in Seattle, for his work on engineering immune cells with nanoparticles for cancer therapy.

RTP BMES Chapter

March 2013 – Our paper on computational and experimental models of the cancer cell response to fluid shear stress is published in Frontiers in Oncology, as part of a special issue on computational modeling in oncology.

January 2013 – Our paper on fluid shear stress-based sensitization of tumor cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis is published in New Journal of Physics.

2012

December 2012 – Our paper on nanostructured surfaces to target and kill metastatic tumor cells while repelling immune cells is published in Journal of Nanomaterials.

June 2012 – Our paper on E-selectin liposomal and nanotube-targeted therapeutic delivery to circulating tumor cells in published in Journal of Controlled Release.

April 2012 – Our paper on shear-induced resistance to neutrophil activation via the formyl peptide receptor is published in Biophysical Journal.