Prof. Paula T Hammond

Vice Provost for Faculty and Institute Professor

Assistant

Liz Galoyan
lgaloyan@mit.edu

Areas of Interest and Expertise

Macromolecular Design and Synthesis
Targeted Drug Delivery for Cancer
Nanoscale Assembly of Synthetic Biomaterials
Electrostatic and Directed Materials Assembly

Research Summary

The Hammond Research Group at the MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research focuses on the self-assembly of polymeric nanomaterials, with a major emphasis on the use of electrostatics and other complementary interactions to generate functional materials with highly controlled architecture. The uniting theme of the lab – the understanding and use of secondary interactions to guide materials assembly at surfaces and in solution – encompasses four major areas of research:

(1) Layer-by-layer controlled release thin film coatings for biomedical implants that address bone regeneration, wound healing, tissue engineering and transdermal delivery from microneedle platforms,

(2) Nanoparticle drug carriers for targeted nanoparticle drug, gene, and siRNA delivery for cancer treatment using unique platforms that enable combination and sequenced delivery strategies,

(3) High-throughput, data-driven layered nanoparticle screening and design,

(4) Engineering synthetic blood substitutes using polymer-based hemoglobin carriers and artificial hemostat for improved oxygen transport and coagulation control.

Recent Work