About
Overview
The Suggs Lab aims to develop clinically relevant and robust biomaterial platforms for characterizing, modeling and treating disease and injury, including applications in ischemic and inflammatory disease as well as cancer. Towards this goal we develop synthetic and natural polymeric hydrogels and well as micro and nanoparticle systems. In particular, we are interested in modeling, controlling and characterizing the cellular response to biomaterials. Our portfolio includes: injectable hydrogels to deliver stem cells and growth factors to treat ischemic disease, metal nanoparticle platforms used in combination with photoacoustic imaging to characterize the inflammatory response to stem cell therapies, material systems to interrogate the effects of matrix stiffness on cancer cells and cells of the tumor immune microenvironment, and nanoparticle systems to drive macrophage polarization either towards pro- or anti-inflammatory phenotypes depending on the disease condition.
Research
Macrophage Repolarization
Characterizing macrophage repolarization by engulfed apoptotic cells in regenerative medicine
Tumor Micro-environment
Imaging tumor vasculature response to anti-angiogenesis treatments
Self-Assembling Peptides
Design of self-assembling, peptide-based hydrogels for drug delivery and tissue engineering
Publication
Dr. Kraynak's "Apoptotic body-inspired nanoparticles target macrophages at sites of inflammation to support an anti-inflammatory phenotype shift" was published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.
Review
Liz's "Cell-Inspired Biomaterials for Modulating Inflammation" was published in the Tissue Engineering Reviews.
Wenbai Huang
PhD Candidate
Wenbai Huang successfully defended his dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Huang!
Wenbai Huang
PhD Candidate
Wenbai Huang successfully defended his dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Huang!
Alexander Noblett
PhD Candidate
Alexander Noblett succesfully defended his dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Noblett!
Alexander Noblett
PhD Candidate
Alex's publication "Controlling Nucleopeptide Hydrogel Self-Assembly and Formation for Cell-Culture Scaffold Applications" was accepted and published in ACS.
Contact
Contact Us
Location:
107 W Dean Keeton St, Austin, TX 78712
Email:
suggs@utexas.edu