PhD Student
Email: bmjohnst [at] mit . edu
he/him/his
Dendritic Polymers for Avascular Tissue Drug Delivery
Articular cartilage poses a difficult challenge for drug delivery systems due to its dense, avascular collagen matrix and its rapid clearance of foreign materials. When the tissue is damaged due to a traumatic injury, little can be done to repair the defect and the associated pain and inflammation. Similarly, tissue degradation due to diseases like osteoarthritis often end in knee transplantation, as there are no disease modifying therapies available. My research focuses on developing a dendritic drug delivery platform to interact with the collagen matrix in order to evade rapid clearance and penetrate deep into the avascular tissue while delivering sustained and localized doses of drugs to prevent further tissue degradation and to better manage symptoms.