Nikolaos A. PeppasProfessor

Our research contributions have been in several areas of biomaterials, biomolecular engineering, drug delivery, mathematics and simulations of biological and drug/tissue processes, engineering design of novel biological active entities, polymers and biomedical engineering. The multidisciplinary approach of his research in biomolecular engineering blends modern molecular and cellular biology with engineering to generate next-generation systems and devices, including bioMEMS with enhanced applicability, reliability, functionality, and longevity. The fundamental studies of his group have provided valuable results on biomaterials design and development, drug delivery systems and advanced, intelligent, feedback controlled biological systems.

Our group is known for our work on the preparation, characterization and evaluation of the behavior of compatible, crosslinked polymers (hydrogels), which have been used as biocompatible materials and in controlled release devices, especially in controlled delivery of drugs, peptides and proteins, development of novel biomaterials, biomedical transport phenomena, and biointerfacial problems. Our group has provided the fundamental basis for a rational development of intelligent systems. In addition, our work has led to a series of novel environmentally responsive controlled release systems, swelling protein delivery systems, a series of pH-sensitive devices for peptide delivery and a wide range of bio- and mucoadhesive systems. Other biomedical work of our group had dealt with understanding of transport of biological compounds in tissues, analysis of polymer/tissue interactions, and understanding of the behavior of biomembranes. Our polymer research has examined fundamental aspects of the thermodynamics of polymer networks in contact with penetrants, the conformational changes of networks under load or in the presence of a diluent, the anomalous transport of penetrants in glassy polymers, and the kinetics of fast UV-polymerization reactions.