Category: CNMB Members

Congratulations to CNMB’s Drs. Kharlampieva & Wasko

Join the Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration (CNMB) in congratulating members Dr. Eugenia Kharlampieva and Molly Wasko who will be helping the National Science Foundation decide how to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to build the technologies of the future (The UAB Reporter). Dr. Kharlampieva is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry as well as the Co-Director of the CNMB and Dr. Wasko is University Professor/Associate Dean, Collat School Of Business Dean’s Office.

Their roles as program directors through NSF’s rotator program, will be integral in magnifying UAB’s existing reputation as an outstanding research institution. The rotator program is designed to bring practicing scientists into the upper echelon of scientific decision-making in the United States, where they work alongside the agency’s permanent staff.

As reported in the UAB Reporter, according to Dr. Kharlampieva, “This experience is unique and exciting and really puts you out of your comfort zone.,” In September 2023, the NSF invested $72.5 million through the DMREF in 37 new four-year projects. Kharlampieva helped to select those recipients, whose projects include designing the next generation of rechargeable batteries, organic semiconductor systems, AI-enabled automated design of ultra-strong and ultra-elastic metallic alloys, and fast energy storage. Although much of the work is administrative — selecting expert participants in grant panels, following up with principal investigators on their progress and notifying those not selected — “I am always a scientist first,” Kharlampieva said. “This keeps me on the cutting edge of research and in knowing how to find the best science.”

You can read the full story here.

January 2023 CNMB Member Spotlight: Dr. Eugenia Kharlampieva

Dr. Euguenia Kharmlampieva, CNMB Co-director, is among 3 UAB chemists fighting cancer. Kharlampieva and Veronika Kozlovskaya, Ph.D., research associate in Kharlampieva’s lab and her longtime collaborator, have created a cloaking device for fragile anti-cancer drugs. Their nanocapsules can be 60 times smaller than a red blood cell and produced at industrial scale. And they are smart; that is, they can release their cargo at precise locations when triggered by a burst of ultrasound energy, a specified temperature or the acidic environment around cancer cells. Click here to see original article in it’s entirety as published in the UAB Reporter.

NSF EPSCoR Program Harnesses Non-thermal Plasma Processing for Nano-structuring 3D Printed Tissue-Scaffolds: 

Vinoy_Thomas
Dr. Vinoy Thomas, Materials Science and Engineering

A UAB team led by Dr. Vinoy Thomas, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, has surface engineered 3D Printed polymeric soft biomaterial scaffolds by an in-situ robust synthesis of nanoparticles using low temperature dusty plasma.

The proof-of-concept communication published in ACS Applied Nano Materials, reports a rapid and easy method for nanoparticles (SiNp) synthesis from a liquid precursor into dusty plasma and deposition of them onto 3D printed polymer. “Non-thermal plasma has emerged as a viable method for surface engineering soft materials and biomaterials”, says Dr. Vineeth Vijayan, (first author of the publication), “and we have successfully utilized non-thermal plasma for making super-hydrophilic and blood-friendly materials surfaces in our previous publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry”.

As part of the NSF supported EPSCoR collaborative CPU2AL program, the new method we reported has many appealing attributes:

    1. It is a single step greener and cost effective process
    2. The radiofrequency plasma reactor can be an ideal scalable technology for industries to produce and modify the surface of various biomedical scaffolds/devices with SiNp, and
    3. This method can simultaneously modify the 3D printed scaffolds with SiNp for biomedical applications (bone tissue engineering) and also sterilize them.

The future aspects of this present work will deal with (I) functionalization and attachment of SiNp with biochemical moieties by using volatile amino acids in the plasma phase and (II) strategies for preparation titanium dioxide nanoparticles and nanowires via plasma process which in turn could be used for decontaminate corona virus during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Eugenia Kharlampieva Appointed as Co-Director of CNMB

Congratulations to Dr. Eugenia Kharlampieva

Eugenia Kharlampieva
Dr. Eugenia Kharlampieva, Chemistry

Dr. Eugenia Kharlampieva has been appointed as Co-Director of the Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointergration.  Dr. Kharlampieva’s primary appointment is Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry where her research is in the design of polymeric materials for biomedical applications. Her lab works on synthesis and assembly of water-soluble stimuli-responsive macromolecules to develop novel nanostructured materials as “intelligent” platforms for therapeutic applications such as controlled drug delivery, regenerative medicine, and biosensing.

Dr. Kharlampieva joined the Chemistry faculty in 2010 from Georgia Institute of Technology. Since coming to UAB, she has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publication and five book chapters. Dr. Kharlampieva was a recipient  of NSF CAREER Award, UAB Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentorship, UAB College of Arts and Sciences Interdisciplinary Innovation Award, Faculty Innovator of the Year Award from the UAB Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She was named as an Emerging Investigator by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

In her role as Co-Director of the CNMB, her primary responsibilities will be assisting in advancing the mission of the Center which is to promote interdisciplinary research and student training in the synthesis and characterization of nanoscale materials with broad applicability in materials under extreme environments, nano-enabled biomedical imaging and drug delivery platforms, and nanostructured coatings and materials for biomedical implants and vascular grafts. Dr. Kharlampieva will play an instrumental role in aiding in the achievement of core-objectives of CNMB, identify and lead interdisciplinary grant opportunities, contribute to acquiring new and maintaining existing core facilities.

Applying Old Technology to Cutting-Edge Science

Wet-lay Process Could Accelerate Pace of Tissue Engineering Research

Vinoy_Thomas
Dr. Vinoy Thomas, Materials Science & Engineering

Tissue engineering is a transformative branch of regenerative medicine —a cutting-edge field that has the potential to revolutionize the future of healthcare.

See enitre article at the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research web site.