NSERC CREATE ContRoL Training Program

Thank you to @NSERC_CRSNG for funding the NSERC CREATE Training Program for Controlled Release Leaders! @McMasterU @McMasterEng. We can't wait to get started. Find out more about us and opportunities to get involved at our new website: control-create.mcmaster.ca

We would like to welcome our Year 3 cohort of summer students! This week meet Jack Girardi, who is working under Dr. Mandana Tavakolian and Kayla Baker on developing mesoporous silica/cellulose gels for wound healing and agricultural applications.

We would like to welcome our Year 3 cohort of summer students! This week meet Justin Chan, who joined the Wylie lab and has been working on refining methods for oxygen-tolerant polymerization, in hopes of making high throughput analysis of polymers in drugs possible.

We would like to welcome our Year 3 cohort of summer students! This week meet Carolyn Denton, an undergrad in McGill's Bioengineering program. Carolyn is working in Martha Cerruti's lab, under the supervision of Nima Zakeri, to prepare pH responsive graphene oxide membranes.

We would like to welcome our Year 3 cohort of summer students! This week meet Bryant Zheng, who will be developing a bioprinter for a drug-loaded hydrogel via subcutaneous 3D printing.

We would like to welcome our Year 3 cohort of summer students! This week meet Kris Lin, working with Ricky Chang to design a Python program to calculate PC-SAFT equations for crosslinked and non-crosslinked polymer interaction with poorly soluble drugs.

Welcome to our Year 3 cohort of summer students! This week meet Jordan Classen, working with Parizad Katila on developing a guar-gum based hydrogel with interspersed de-acetylated chitin nanowhiskers to optimize its treatment applications for patients with epidermolysis bullosa!

We would like to welcome our Year 3 cohort of summer students! This week meet Ella Chow, working under Lei Zhang, in enhancing POEGMA polymers with lysine-based peptides, making innovations in nanoparticle and hydrogel applications for drug delivery and tissue engineering!

Parizad Katila, from our Year 3 cohort, completed her undergrad in Chem. Eng. with a minor in Biology at McMaster. Now pursuing a MASc. in Dr. Hoare’s lab, she focuses on developing naturally occurring polymer-based hydrogels for treating individuals with fragile skin conditions.

Meet Lei Zhang, from our Year 3 cohort. Lei is a PDF working on peptide-based biomaterials for advanced applications in the Hoare lab. He earned his B.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Nanjing Tech University, with his Ph.D. also being co-cultured at the University of Waterloo.

Meet Alexis Larios, from our Year 3 cohort. Alexis is starting a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at McMaster University at Hoare Lab, working on Tissue Engineering and Microfluidic Fabrication of Degradable Cell-Supportive Zwitterionic Microgels for Biomedical Applications.

Meet Cameron Macdonald, from our Year 3 cohort. Cameron, who recently completed his B.Eng.BME is starting his master’s this year in the Hoare Lab, researching the effects and applications of different functionalization of starch nanoparticles.

Meet Megan Reinsma, from our Year 3 cohort. Megan is doing her M.A.Sc. in Chemical Engineering with Dr. Heather Sheardown. In the lab, she is working with polymeric micelles for sustained delivery of therapeutics to the front of the eye. #brighterworld #MacEng

Meet Rita Maria Kenaan El Rahbani, from our Year 3 cohort. Rita is developing a project on delivering a peptide-targeted lipid nanoparticle formulation for a therapeutic nucleic acid delivery, under the supervision of Dr. Davide Brambilla.

Meet Nima Zakeri, from our year 2 cohort. Nima is a PhD student in Materials Engineering at McGill University. Under the supervision of Professor Marta Cerruti, he is working on developing graphene oxide-based stimuli-responsive systems for delivery applications.

Meet Ricky Chang, from our year 2 cohort. Ricky has an HBSc. in Pharm. Chem., a MSc. in Pharm. Sci., both at the University of Toronto. He doing his PhD in Pharm. Sci. under Dr. Shirley Wu at the UofT, using machine learning for the application of controlled release.

Meet Alex Caschera, he is in his second year of Chemical Engineering doctorate under the expert supervision of Dr. Todd Hoare and his research is based on developing improved and novel antimicrobial coatings.

Meet Amber Monteiro, from our Year 2 cohort. Amber’s project will focus on controlled release strategies for delivery of RNA technology to the back of the eye.

Meet Mya Sharma, Year 2 cohort. Mya’s project will focus on creating anti-infective hydrogels for two different applications. The first will be to create anti-infective coatings for surgical masks, the second will be to create inherently antimicrobial self-assembled microgels.

Meet Kayla Baker, from our Year 2 cohort. Kayla is working on ultrasound triggered drug release from microcapsules, hoping to achieve pulsatile delivery that can switch between on and off states.

Meet Michael Celejewski, from our Year 2 cohort. Michael is developing a hydrogel drug delivery vehicle that specifically targets anti-inflammatory tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and delivers established therapeutics to treat solid tumors.