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Katherine Chen

Katherine Chen

Graduate Student (Faculty: Dr. Kevin McHugh)

Bioengineering

CONTACT

kc128@rice.edu

WEBSITE(S)| McHugh Lab

SURF Mentoring

Potential projects/topics: Biomaterials and Drug Delivery. Investigating pulsatile surface-eroding microparticles for vaccine delivery. Conducting degradation and release studies to understand material behavior and release kinetics. Analyzing payload bioactivity throughout microparticle fabrication and release.

Potential skills gained: General lab techniques, Microparticle fabrication, ELISA, Plate Reader

Required qualifications or skills: Bioengineering, biomedical engineering, biology major related. Have taken biology course and/or lab preferred.

Direct mentor: Graduate Student

Research Areas

Designing microscale drug delivery devices. We are broadly interested in applying highly controlled fabrication methods to solve a variety of issues in drug delivery. In particular, we seek to direct the immune response using spatial and temporal control of biologics to overcome challenges in cancer and infectious disease. However, we are also working on highly predictable release platforms that can be used to increase drug efficacy, reduce off-target toxicity, and improve patient compliance.