(7jm) Microfabricated Devices for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering Applications

My main research interest is in the use of biomaterials for tissue engineering and controlled drug delivery with a focus on translational and platform technologies. Specifically, I plan to leverage the exceptional resolution of microfabrication tools originally developed for the integrated circuit industry to create microscalescale devices with the potential to improve patient health. Drug delivery devices have the potential to improve therapeutic outcomes and patient compliance by providing prolonged and/or targeted release that maintains drug concentrations within the therapeutic window. My research will focus on creating material- and geometry-dependent release devices that can be tuned to achieve different release kinetics for applications ranging from cancer to infectious disease. In addition, I also plan on using a similar set of techniques to create tissue engineering constructs such as a microfluidic retina-on-a-chip. This device will serve as a valuable drug screening tool, platform for the controlled study of genetic disease, and precursor to implantable tissue engineering scaffolds.

Postdoctoral Research

My postdoctoral research under the supervision of Robert Langer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has largely focused on three main projects. My first project aims to develop microfabricated particles with pulsatile release kinetics for single-injection vaccination, the second focuses on the use of microneedle-delivered ultrastable NIR quantum dots for on-patient medical records, and the third aims to improve the evaluation of in vivo release kinetics using fluorescence imaging and positron emission tomography.

PhD Research

As a graduate research assistant under the supervision of Magali Saint-Geniez at Harvard Medical School I worked on two projects. My first project involved the development of nanoporous polymeric scaffolds for retinal tissue engineering and the second used finite element modeling of oxygen distribution in the retina as a predictive tool for the progression of age-related macular degeneration.

Selected Publications

McHugh KJ*, Nguyen TD*, Linehan AR, Yang D, Behrens AM, Rose S, Tochka ZL, Tzeng SY, Norman J, Anselmo AC, Xu X, Tomasic S, Taylor MA, Lu J, Guarecuco R, Langer R, Jaklenec A. Fabrication of fillable microparticles and other complex 3D microstructures. Science 2017;357:1138-42.

Anselmo AC, McHugh KJ, Webster J, Langer R, Jaklenec A. Layer-by-layer encapsulation of probiotics for delivery to the microbiome. Adv Mater 2016;28:9486-90.

McHugh KJ, Tao SL, Saint-Geniez M. Porous poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds for retinal pigment epithelium transplantation. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2014;55:1754-62.

Cao H, McHugh K, Chew SY, Anderson JM. The topographical effect of electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds on the in vivo and in vitro foreign body reaction. J Biomed Mater Res A 2009;93:1151-9.

*Indicates equal contributions

Patents

McHugh K, Jaklenec A, Langer RS. Microdevices with complex geometries. Filed September 13, 2017. Application Number: US 62/558,172.

Jaklenec A, McHugh KJ, Langer RS. Microneedle tattoo patches and use thereof. Filed July 16, 2017. Application Number: US 62/533,081.

Jaklenec A, Gates W, Eckhoff PA, Nikolic B, Wood LL Jr., Langer RS, Nguyen TD, Tzeng SY, Norman JJ, McHugh K. Micromolded or 3-D printed pulsatile release vaccine formulations. Filed December 16, 2014, Application Number: US 14/572,631.

McHugh KJ, Saint-Geniez M, Kim L. Predicting retinal degeneration based on three-dimensional modeling of oxygen concentration. Filed April 24, 2013. Application Number: US 14/786,952.

Successful Proposals:

NIH (NIBIB) Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F32) awarded for "fluorescence-based molecular imaging of in vivo release kinetics," The Grimshaw Foundation grant received for "patient-specific modeling of oxygen distribution for predicting retinal degeneration," and NIH LRP awarded for "micromolded particles for single-injection pediatric vaccines."

Teaching Interests

As a PhD student I spent two semesters as a Graduate Teaching Fellow at Boston University teaching Biomedical Instrumentation II (ENG BE 492), a core laboratory class primarily for juniors majoring in biomedical engineering. Between this experience and my research expertise, I am particularly well suited for teaching courses that focus on micro- and nano-fabrication processes, drug delivery, polymeric biomaterials, bioreactor design, biomanufacturing, microfluidics, and thermodynamics, but I am capable of teaching other graduate and undergraduate core courses as well. Further, in addition to my teaching duties, I also look forward to the opportunity to mentor students. I have been fortunate to train under some of the leading researchers in biomaterials, biocompatibility, drug delivery, and tissue engineering. Their mentorship has allowed me to not only gain new technical skills, but also appreciate the positive effect that mentorship can have on a student's professional development. Since graduate school I have mentored seven undergraduates, eight technicians, and several graduate students. My interactions with these junior level have been overwhelmingly positive, so I look forward to continuing to grow my mentee network as an independent investigator.