The Lab
Our mission is to develop and translate innovative technologies through biomaterials design at the interface of nanoscience, engineering, biology, and medicine to address the unmet critical needs in healthcare.
Our lab specializes in engineering nanomaterials for delivery of nucleic acid and protein therapeutics, soft tissue regeneration, and immunoengineering. Specifically, we aim to understand the structure-property-function relationship of biomaterials and technology platforms to enhance their therapeutic efficacy and develop new methods for scalable manufacturing and translation.
We build upon the strong collaborative projects with top scientists and clinicians at Hopkins and beyond. We are part of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology (INBT) and Department of Materials Science and Engineering located on the engineering campus, and the Translational Tissue Engineering Center (TTEC) and Department of Biomedical Engineering located on the medical campus. Our research has a strong translational focus and enjoys strong collaborations with industry partners.
News
Selected Recent Publications
Wei C*, Zhu Y*, et al., Lipid nanoparticle composition directs systemic trafficking and tissue-specific T cell immunity after intramuscular injection. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 2026.
Kong J*, Goodier K*, et al., Synergistic tissue remodeling by stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles and nanofiber-hydrogel composite ameliorates radiation dermatitis. Cell Biomaterials. 2026.
Liu X*, Zhu Y*, et al., Crosslinking of lipid nanoparticles enhances the delivery efficiency and efficacy of mRNA vaccines. Nat. Chem. Eng. 2026.
Lu X*, Zhu Y*, et al., A multistep platform identifies spleen-tropic lipid nanoparticles for in vivo T cell–targeted delivery of gene-editing proteins. Science Advances. 2025.
Zhu Y, Ma J, et al., Screening for lipid nanoparticles that modulate the immune activity of helper T cells towards enhanced antitumour activity. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 2024. PMID: 38082180.
Ma J’, Zhu Y’, et al., Tuning extracellular fluid viscosity to enhance transfection efficiency. Nat. Chem. Eng. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44286-024-00116-3
Livingston N, et al., In Vivo Stimulation of Therapeutic Antigen-Specific T Cells in an Artificial Lymph Node Matrix. Advance Mat. 2024 Feb 15.
Hu Y’, Tzeng S’, et al., Supramolecular assembly of polycation/mRNA nanoparticles and in vivo monocyte programming. PNAS. 2024 Aug 22.
Li X, Cho B, et al., Nanofiber-hydrogel composite-mediated angiogenesis for soft tissue reconstruction. Sci. Transl. Med. 2019; 11(490). pii: eaau6210. PMID: 31043572.
Hickey JW, et al., Engineering an artificial T-cell stimulating matrix for immunotherapy. Adv. Mater. 2019 Apr 10: e1807359. PMID: 30968468 [Cover].