Self-Assembly Approaches toward Directed Drug Delivery: from Patchy Micelles to MAD Nanolayers
Event Date: | November 3, 2009 |
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Speaker: | Dr. Paula T. Hammond |
Speaker Affiliation: | Bayer Professor & Executive Officer
Department of Chemical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Time: | 3:30 - 4:30 PM |
Location: | FRNY G140 |
Professor Paula T. Hammond is the Bayer Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is currently serving as its Executive Officer. She is also a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and is a founding member of the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology. Paula Hammond earned her S.B. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984, her M.S. degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1988, and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 1993 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1993 to 1995, she held the NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemistry while working at Harvard University’s Chemistry Department.
Her work encompasses two major areas: the development of new biomaterials via nano to microscale fabrication using directed and self-assembly of polymers, including drug delivery thin films with temporal control and novel polymer architectures for targeted nanoparticle drug and gene delivery; and self-assembled materials systems for electrochemical energy devices, including fuel cells, batteries and photovoltaics. Her group has recently examined the linear-dendritic block copolymer construct as a means of presenting ligands on nanoparticles in highly controlled cluster size arrangements that impact intracellular uptake. Other areas of focus in biomaterials include the design of alternately assembled drug release systems that enable incorporation of a broad range of therapeutics, including biologic drugs such as growth factors, with temporal and sequential control. Professor Hammond was awarded the NSF Career Award, the EPA Early Career Award, the DuPont Young Faculty Award, and the Junior Bose Faculty Award at MIT. Recently her work in nanomaterials has been recognized and featured in several venues, including the journal Nature, the “Top 100 Science Stories of 2008” in Discover Magazine, the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award in 2006, The Economist, Forbes Magazine and Technology Review. Professor Hammond is an Associate Editor for the journal ACS Nano, and serves on the Advisory Board of several additional journals. Other honors include Caltech Kavli Distinguished Lecturer, Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University, Georgia Tech Outstanding Young Alumni Award, the Lloyd Ferguson Award for Outstanding Young Scientist, and Fellow of the American Physical Society.