The research in the Saltzman Lab is motivated by the desire to create safer and more effective medical and surgical therapy. We focus on tissue engineering and on creating better methods for drug delivery.

Our group has developed technology based on the use of bio-compatible polymeric materials for the controlled delivery of drugs, proteins, and genes. We have also developed new polymeric materials that influence the growth and assembly of tissues.·

However, even better than treating disease is to prevent disease from occurring in the first place. Our intent, therefore, is to develop the most economical, transportable, and accessible methods for disease prevention.

We are also committed to training a new generation of chemical and biomedical engineers. We believe in providing a stimulating and collaborative environment that promotes the free exchange of ideas and encourages creative blending of technology and modern biological science.

DRUG DELIVERY

The practice of medicine has changed dramatically in our lifetimes, and even greater changes are anticipated in the next 20 years.  Drug delivery is one area of substantial progress. Drugs have long been used to improve health and extend lives, but a number of new modes of drug delivery, which were made possible primarily through the work of biomedical engineers, have entered clinical practice recently.  In addition, biomedical engineers have contributed substantially to our understanding of the physiological barriers to efficient drug delivery such as transport in the microcirculation and drug movement through cells and tissues.  Still, with all of this progress, many drugs—even drugs discovered using the most advanced molecular biology strategies—have unacceptable side effects.  Side effects limit our ability to design drug treatments for cancer, neurodegenerative, and infectious diseases.  Our laboratory is working on alternate strategy for drug delivery, which is based on physical targeting, or placement of the delivery system at the target site.  

We are currently working on several drug delivery projects:

Molecular and Cellular Transport in Mucus (with Erv Goldberg, Northwestern University)

• Intravaginal vaccine delivery with diffusion enhanced polymer particles  

Microfluidic/controlled Release Systems on Brain Microprobes (with William Olbricht, Cornell University) 

Modular Nanodevices for Creation of Smart, Adaptable Vaccine Delivery Vehicles (with Tarek Fahmy and Michael Caplan) 

Polymeric Delivery Systems for Treatment of Cancer  

Transport Processes in a Tissue Mimic 

TISSUE ENGINEERING

Tissue engineering is a new field of inquiry, defined about 20 years ago, but it is emerging as an option for certain patients. The field has grown rapidly from definition to the production of clinical products. Tissue engineering combines knowledge from the biological sciences with the materials and engineering sciences to develop new approaches to repair tissues, and to develop replacements for tissues. Tissue engineering thus involves a combination of disciplines to achieve new therapies and, in some cases, entirely new approaches to therapy.

We are currently working on several tissue engineering projects:

Micro- and Nano-engineering of Biomineralized Materials

Spatially Defined Addressing of Cells to Surfaces (with Frank Brietling, German Cancer Research Center)

Optimizing Therapeutic Revascularization by Endothelial Cell Transplantation (with Jordan Pober, Department of Immunobiology)

• Integration of Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering for Therapeutic Vascularization  

Generation of Synthetic Human Islet Microorgans (with Al Bothwell, Department of Immunobiology)