December 2012
Hannah Frizzel, a junior in BME, presents her poster entitled "Oral delivery of siRNA for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease". Hannah is supervised by NSF Fellow and ChE PhD candidate Diane Forbes and has been working with us for more than a year (December 7, 2012).

December 2012
Yasmine Khairandish, a BME sophomore, who is supervised by Brenda Carrillo-Conde and Matilde Duran Lobato, is seen in front of her poster entitled "P(HEMA-co-MAA) hydrogel nanoparticles for oral vaccine delivery" (December 7, 2012).

December 2012
Elizabeth Fischer, a BME senior, supervised by BME PhD student Stephanie Steichen (right) is seen in front of the poster "Characterization of Poly(methacrylic acid-co-N-vinyl pyrrolidone) hydrogels for improved bioavailability of orally delivered protein therapeutics" (December 7, 2012).

November 2012
Mary Caldorera-Moore, Nicholas Peppas and Stephanie Steichen in the lab.

November 2012
Graduate and post doctoral researchers of the lab. From left:
Front row: Brenda Carrillo-Conde, Mary Caldorera-Moore, Diane Forbes, Michael Koetting, Heidi Culver, Lindsey Sharpe, Sarena Horava, Stephanie Steichen, Jenny Knipe, Eileen Dawson, Matilde Duran-Lobato
Back row: Amey Puranik, Nicholas Peppas, Jonathan Peters, Adam Daily, Bill Liechty.

November 2012
Undergraduate research assistants of the lab. From left:
Front row: Yasmine Khairandish, Frances Chen, Sarah Propst, Grace Fletcher, Courtney Tanwar.
Back row: Hannah Frizzell, Amy Bergeron, Rebekah Scheuerle, Elizabeth Fischer, Nicholas Peppas, Stanley Verghese, Tu Pham.

November 2012
Seniors in Chemical Engineering celebrate the renaming of the department as the John J. McKetta Jr. Department of Chemical Engineering with professor Johnny McKetta on November 8, 2012. Born in Pennsylvania in October 17, 1915, Johnny McKetta was speaking only Ukrainian until the age of 6 (link). After high school, he worked as a coal miner for two years (1933-35) and until he decided that he wanted to study “how chemicals could be produced from coal”. In August 1935 he was admitted to Tri-State University (now Trine University) from where he graduated in 1937. Trine has named its Chemical Engineering Department after McKetta. After a few years of work with Wyandotte, he did his graduate work with Don Katz at the University Michigan, receiving his PhD in 1946. See also (link). He started at UT Austin in 1946, became Chair of ChE in the early 1950s and Dean of Engineering in 1961. Today, at the age of 97 he continues coming to the department at least once a week, driving his distinctly decorated car and being an inspiration to all students and faculty.
In this photograph we see also (third from the left) Rebekah Scheuerle (BS ‘13), president of the UT AIChE Chapter for two years. Rebekah has worked in our laboratory since her freshman year and has excelled in scholarly activities and in leadership. She has represented the Department in two national AIChE meetings and many other activities. In the summer 2011, when she was just a sophomore, she participated in the legendary course of Professor Robert Langer at MIT “Advances in Drug Delivery”, probably the youngest student to have ever been admitted in this prestigious industrial course in its 32-year history. Her research has received awards from the Society for Biomaterials. In February 2012 she received the Student Leadership Award of the Cockrell School of Engineering. In the summer 2012, she was an intern in the prestigious summer program of Merck. She has two original publications (with Prof. Peppas and her direct mentor Bill Liechty) on the development of siRNA delivery systems for oral administration. Her work has contributed to our understanding of how siRNA can be delivered to specific sites for treatment of colitis and related diseases.

October 2012
Dr. Mary Caldorera-Moore, Professor Ali Khademhosseini and Stephanie Steichen at the poster session of the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) meeting, New Orleans, LA, October 5, 2012.

October 2012
Stephanie Steichen and Prof. Ali Khademhosseini of Harvard University at the poster session of the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) meeting, New Orleans, LA, October 5, 2012.

August 2012
A photograph of Hannah Frizzell (BS’14), Mary Dockery (BS ‘13) and Peppas. Hannah has been working in the lab for a year and she has already a publication with Diane Forbes (PhD’ 14) and Mar Creixell (postdoc ‘12) from her work on siRNA delivery.

August 2012
The newest member of the group has just arrived. Visiting scientist Mati Durán Lobato (right) and postdoctoral fellow Brenda Carrillo Conde in front of UT’s tower. Mati is a senior PhD student in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology of the University of Sevilla, Spain, working with Professor Mercedes Fernández Arévalo (link). Her research with us will be in the area of pharmaceutical nanotechnology.

July 2012
Nicholas Peppas with Grace Fletcher and Bill Liechty, who received awards during the Biomaterials day meeting that was held at Rice University on Friday, July 27, 2012. Grace Fletcher received the third prize in the undergraduate poster competition, while Bill Liechty received the second prize in the graduate poster paper competition. (July 27, 2012).

July 2012
Mar Creixell, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab, explains her poster “Responsive polycationic nanoparticles for co-delivery of siRNA and chemotherapeutical agents to overcome multidrug resistance in cancer therapy” at Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Day, Rice University, Houston TX, July 27, 2012.

July 2012
Diane Forbes, a ChE PhD student, in front of her poster “Comparing ARGET ATRP with traditional free radical poylerization for versatile polycationic hydrogel nanoparticles” at Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Day, Rice University, Houston TX, July 27, 2012.

July 2012
Grace Fletcher, a BME senior with her poster “Environmentally Responsive Polymeric Carrier Systems for Oral Delivery of Protein-Based Chemotherapeutic Drugs” at Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Day, Rice University, Houston TX, July 27, 2012.

July 2012
Bill Liechty is seen presenting his poster “The Influence of Enhanced Core Hydrophobicity on Membrane-Disruptive Properties of Polycationic Nanoscale Hydrogels Containing 2-(Diethylaminoethyl) Methacrylate” at Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Day, Rice University, Houston TX, July 27, 2012.

July 2012
Michael Koetting, a ChE PhD student, in front of his poster “pH-Responsive Hydrogels for Oral Delivery of Therapeutic Proteins” at Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Day, Rice University, Houston TX, July 27, 2012.

July 2012
Brenda Carrillo-Conde (left), a postdoctoral fellow in the lab and Amey Puranik (right), a ChE PhD student, are seen in front of their respective posters “Complexation hydrogels as Oral Delivery Vehicles of Therapeutic Antibodies" and "Intelligent Polymeric Biomaterials for Oral Delivery of Hydrophobic Therapeutic Agents for Cancer Treatment". Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Day, Rice University, Houston TX, July 27, 2012.

July 2012
Jenny Knipe, a ChE PhD student, in front of her poster “Synthesis and Characterization of Composite Hydrogel Particles for Oral Delivery of Small Interfering RNA” at Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Day, Rice University, Houston TX, July 27, 2012.

July 2012
Stephanie Steichen, a BME PhD student, in front of her poster “Design of pH-Responsive Carriers for the Oral Delivery of High Molecular Weight Protein Therapeutics” at Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Day, Rice University, Houston TX, July 27, 2012.

July 2012
Hannah Frizell, a BME junior in front of her poster “Two-part Oral siRNA Delivery Systems: Polycationic Hydrogel Nanoparticles and Alginate Matrices” at Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Day, Rice University, Houston TX, July 27, 2012.

July 2012
Summer program of K-12 education and research. Four juniors who participated in the Graduate Research in High School Hands program in summer 2012, along with members of the lab. From left: Mar Creixell, Emily Steger, Brianna Waugh, Mattie Mouton-Johnston, Leticia Ortiz, Jenny Knipe, Diane Forbes.

July 2012
Summer program of K-12 education and research. Here are four juniors who participated in the Graduate Research in High School Hands program in summer 2012. From left: Emily Steger, Leticia Ortiz, Mattie Mouton-Johnston, Brianna Waugh.

May 2012
Heather Hutson, a senior in BME, presents her poster on "Hydrophobic Nanoparticles Encapsulated in Hydrophilic Hydrogels for Oral Delivery of Chemotherapeutics" supervised by Cody Schoener. Heather has worked with us for three years, has written a BS thesis and has published two papers (link)(link). In April 2012 she was awarded an NSF Fellowship and will pursue her PhD degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin working under the supervision of Kristin Masters, a former PhD student of Jennifer West and postdoc of Kristi Anseth (May 4, 2012).

May 2012
This is Hannah Frizell’s first semester with us. She is a junior in BME and her poster (under the direction of Diane Forbes) was on “pH-Responsive Nanoscale Hydrogels Designed for siRNA Delivery" (May 4, 2012).

May 2012
Sarah Propst, a BME junior, along with BME PhD student Brandon Slaughter in front of the poster “Optimizing Purification and Emulsion Parameters for Therapeutic Nanoparticles” (May 4, 2012).

May 2012
Amy Bergeron, a BME junior, has been working in the lab for more than a year. Here she is in front of her poster “The Influence of Polymer Composition on Membrane Disruption and Toxicity of Responsive Nanogels for siRNA Delivery” (May 4, 2012).

May 2012
Tu Pham, a junior in ChE, in front of his poster supervised by PhD student and NSF Fellow Jenny Knipe and entitled "Development of an Emulsion Polymerization Recipe for Poly(methacrylic acid-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone) as a Carrier for Oral Drug Delivery" (May 2, 2012).

May 2012
Rebekah Scheuerle and her ChE poster "Probing Network Structure of Responsive Nanoscale Hydrogels Through Pyrene Fluorescence Spectroscopy" supervised by PhD student and NSF Fellow Bill Liechty (right). Rebekah just finished her junior year in ChE and has been working with us for three years. She has two papers and two presentations in preparation. (May 2, 2012).

May 2012
Courtney Tanwar and her ChE poster “Advanced Biomaterials for Oral Delivery of Chemotherapeutics”. Courtney is supervised by PhD student Amey Puranik and has just finished her junior year in ChE (May 2, 2012).

April 2012
MRS Vice President Dr. Orlando Auciello presents the Mid-Career Researcher Award to Kristi S. Anseth (BS ‘92, postdoc ‘95) of the University of Colorado-Boulder for her “exceptional achievement at the interface of materials and biology enabling new, functional biomaterials that answer fundamental questions in biology and yield advances in regenerative medicine, stem-cell differentiation, and cancer treatment” (MRS meeting, April 10, 2012).

December 2011
            The group at a Christmas 2011 party. From left: First row: Travis Forbes, Jonathan Peters (PhD student, ChE), Amey Puranik (PhD student, ChE), Prof. Ali Khademhossseini of Harvard (a good friend of the group and 2011 Harrington Fellow). Second row: Stephanie Steichen (PhD student, BME), Emily Liechty, Michael Koetting (PhD student, ChE), Brenda Carillo-Conde (postdoctoral fellow), Arden Moore, Mary Caldorera-Moore (postdoctoral fellow), Sarah Propst (research assistant), Amy Bergeron (research assistant), Jenny Knipe (PhD student, ChE), Grace Fletcher (research assistant), Nicholas Peppas. Third row: Bill Liechty (PhD student, ChE), Carl Schwab, Diane Forbes (PhD student, ChE), Cody Schoener (PhD student, ChE). Fourth row: Eileen Dawson (PhD student, BME), Molly Schoener, Greg Mullen, Mar Creixell (postdoctoral fellow), Brandon Slaughter (PhD student, BME) Absent: Rebekah Scheuerle (research assistant), Heather Hutson (research assistant), Courtney Tanwar(research assistant), Jordan Keller (research assistant), Tu Pham (research assistant).

December 2011
Heather Hutson, a senior in BME, presents her poster on "Hydrophobic Nanoparticles Encapsulated in Hydrophilic Hydrogels for Oral Delivery of Chemotherapeutics" supervised by Cody Schoener. Heather has worked with us for two years and has published two papers (link)(link). In April 2012 she was awarded an NSF Fellowship and will pursue her PhD degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin.

December 2011
Brenda Carrillo-Conde (postdoc), Mar Creixell (postdoc) and Grace Fletcher in front of Grace’s poster (December 2011).

December 2011
Rosalind Ambler and Mary Caldorera-Moore (postdoc) at the BME Poster Symposium (December 2011).

December 2011
Prof. Michael Smolensky, a lab collaborator, at the BME Poster Symposium (December 2011).

October 2011
From the celebration of the Purdue Chemical Engineering Centennial (October 7, 2011). An old photo of two collaborators of the laboratory decorates now one of the walls of the new Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University. From left, John Howell (BS Chem ’83) and Serge Segot-Chicq (in white labcoat, Visiting scientist in 1983 and later DEA ’85 from the University of Paris-Sud under Peppas’ supervision).

August 2011
David Kryscio and Nicholas Peppas immediately after David’s PhD thesis defense on August 9, 2011. An NSF Fellow and participant in the 2009 Nobel Laureates meeting in Lindau, Germany, David published 5 papers from his PhD thesis. David was also the recipient of the 2010 University-wide Research Award for best graduate research at UT. David was the 92nd PhD student to graduate from the laboratory since the first student graduated in August 1979. David, who received also an MBA degree will be employed as a Research Manager at Futurrex of Franklin, NJ.

July 2011
Summer program of K-12 education and research. Here are four juniors from Akins High School who participated in the program in summer 2011. From left: Alann Cruz, Gladys Cruz, Christy Nguyen, Johan Gonzalez

April 2011
Three PhD students who started in the Fall 2010 work in the lab. From left: Diane Forbes, Amey Puranik and Jenny Knipe.

April 2011
Lorrel Hodgson and her ChE poster “Development of pH Sensitive Hydrogel Carrier Systems for Oral Drug Delivery” supervised by Dr. Mary Caldorera-Moore. Lorrel is a junior in ChE and has been working with us for a year.

April 2011
Jordan Keller and her ChE poster “Analysis of pH Responsive Nanoparticles for Oral Delivery of Chemotherapeutic Agents” supervised by Dr. Mary Caldorera-Moore. Jordan is a junior in ChE and has been working with us for a year.

April 2011
Julie Fogarty and her ChE poster “Synthesis of Hydrogel Nanoparticles for Cellular Uptake” supervised by Maggie Phillips. Julie just finished her sophomore year in ChE and has been working with us for two years. 

April 2011
Katy Bartlett and her ChE poster “Surface Decoration of Dextran on P(MAA-g-EG) Hydrogels” supervised by Maggie Phillips. Katy is a graduating student in ChE and has been working with us for four years.

April 2011
Linh Nguyen and her ChE poster “Molecularly Imprinted Thin Films for the Recognition of Bovine Serum Albumin” supervised by David Kryscio. Linh is a graduating student in ChE and has been working with us for one year.

April 2011
Rebekah Scheuerle and her ChE poster “Synthesis and Characterization of Degradable Crosslinked Dual-Responsive Hydrogel Systems” supervised by Bill Liechty. Rebekah just finished her sophomore year in ChE and has been working with us for two years.

April 2011
Heather Hutson and her BME poster “Polymeric Platforms for the Oral Delivery of Chemotherapeutics” supervised by Cody Schoener. Heather is a a junior in BME and has been working with us for one year.

April 2011
Amy Creecy and her BME poster “Incorporation of Hydrophobic Nanoparticles into Hydrogels for Oral Delivery” supervised by Maggie Phillips. Amy is a graduating student in BME and has been working with us for four years. She will be pursuing a PhD at Vanderbilt University.

April 2011
Grace Fletcher and her BME poster “Sequential Interpenetrating Networks for the Oral Delivery of Chemotherapeutics” supervised by Cody Schoener. Grace is a a junior in BME and has been working with us for two years.

April 2011
Michael Fleming and his BME poster “Denaturing Effects of Common Monomers and Solvents Used in Bulk-Imprinted Protein Molecularly Imprinted Polymers” supervised by David Kryscio. Michael is a graduating student in BME and has been working with us for three years. He will be pursuing a PhD at the University of Colorado.

Undergrad Pizza Party

Undergrad Pizza Party

February 2011 - Peppas Laboratory

Front row: Amy Creecy, Amey Puranik, Lorrel Hodgson, Grace Fletcher, Linh Nguyen, Jordan Keller, Dr. Mary Caldorera-Moore

Second Row: Heather Hutson, Eileen Dawson, Diane Brown, Maggie Phillips, Julie Fogarty, Rebekah Scheuerle, Jennifer Knipe, Dr. Nicholas Peppas

Back row: David Kryscio, Cody Schoener, Bill Liechty, Katy Bartlett, Quinn Fleming, Brandon Slaughter

December 2010
Julie Fogarty and her ChE poster  “Surface Decoration of P(MAA-g-EG) Hydrogels for Oral Delivery of Vaccines.” Julie is a sophomore in ChE and has been working with us for a year.

December 2010
Katie Maass (and her graduate student supervisor Maggie Phillips, left) in front of her ChE poster “Characterization of pH-Sensitive Polymers for Drug Delivery Systems." Katie has been working in the lab for two years.

December 2010
Katy Bartlett, another ChE senior who has been working with us since she was a freshman, is shown here in front of her poster “Polysaccharide Decorated P(MAA-g-EG) Hydrogels for Oral Insulin Delivery”

December 2010
Rebekah Scheuerle, a sophomore in ChE, is in her second year of work in the lab. She is shown here in front of her poster “Synthesis and Characterization of a Degradable Crosslinking Agent for Dual-Responsive Hydrogel Systems.”

October 2010
Former and present students, collaborators and family, after the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal Award at the BMES meeting on October 6, 2010.
From left: Tony Mikos (Rice Univ), Nicholas Peppas, Omar Fisher (MIT), Zach Hilt (Univ Kentucky), Lisa Brannon-Peppas, Esmaiel Jabbari (Univ South Carolina), Mary Caldorera-Moore (postdoc, UT), Ali Khademhosseini (Harvard), Steve Marek (postdoc, UT), Tania Betancourt (Innosense), Alexi Peppas, Amber Doiron (Univ Calgary), Brandon Slaughter (UT), Katia Peppas, Maggie Phillips (UT), David Kryscio (UT), Bill Liechty (UT), and Cody Schoener (UT).

May 2010
Grace Fletcher explains her BME poster on Nano- and Microparticles for Oral Delivery of Cancer Therapeutics.

May 2010
Asha Fleury with her BME poster on pH-Sensitive Intelligent Hydrogels. Asha has been with the lab for two years and did additional research at Iowa State University with Prof. Surya Mallapragada (PhD ’96).

May 2010
Amy Creecy with her BME poster on Mucoadhesion of Dextran Containing Hydrogels. Amy has been with the laboratory since she was a freshman and has worked with Maggie Phillips (PhD ’10) on the improvement of the targeting of oral protein delivery carriers.

May 2010
Andrea LeBlanc with her BME poster on the Hemolytic Activity of pH-Responsive Nanogels for Oral Delivery of siRNAs, a project she is doing in collaboration with Bill Liechty (PhD ’12).

May 2010
Lauren Collins with her BME poster Systems for Targeted Anticancer Therapy. Lauren has been with the group since she was a freshman (May 2010).

May 2010
Michael “Quinn” Fleming with his latest poster on Protein Imprinted Hydrogels, a work he has been conducting for some time with David Kryscio (PhD ’11).

May 2010
Monica Richards at the 2010 BME Graduation.

May 2010
David Kryscio receives the 2010 Outstanding Graduate Research Award of the University of Texas at Austin. Here he is shown with Provost Steven Leslie (left), George Mitchell, and Associate Dean of Engineering Jerry Speitel (right).

March 2010
Anh Nguyen and Ana Fernandez Olleros in Austin

March 2010
(From left to right) Emily Liechty, Molly Schoener (with Noah), Cody Schoener, Chelsea and Adam Ekenseair

January 2010
From a visit of Professor Kristi Anseth (BS ‘92, postdoc ‘94) of the University of Colorado to the UT campus on January 21, 2010. A photograph with current members of the lab. From left: Marty Gran, Cody Schoener, Adam Ekenseair, David Kryscio, Brandon Slaughter, Maggie Phillips, Diana Snelling, Prof. Anseth, Prof. Peppas, Bill Liechty and Dr. Steve Marek.