Polymers for cerebral cardiovascular repair and modeling

The research focuses on the design of next-generation liquid embolization agents for the treatment of brain aneurysms. Injectable polymeric hydrogels that behave as low-viscosity liquids outside the body, enabling minimally invasive delivery, and rapidly transform into stable solids once exposed to physiological conditions inside blood vessels, are engineered. The design is grounded in fundamental polymer physics, including micellar self-assembly, chain entanglement, and controlled crosslinking, allowing precise tuning of injectability, gelation kinetics, swelling, and mechanical strength. Part of the project focuses on developing on polymeric systems that would be suitable for implantation and utilization as study models for complicated vascular geometries.

Students joining this project gain hands-on experience across the full translational pipeline of biomaterials development. This includes polymer synthesis and characterization, rheology, and structure–property relationships, as well as cell culture studies to evaluate cytocompatibility and biological response. Advanced stages of the project involve in vivo studies, where material performance, stability, and safety are assessed in relevant animal models. Through this work, students are exposed to interdisciplinary research at the interface of materials science, bioengineering, and medicine, with opportunities to contribute to publications, presentations, and clinically motivated innovation.

Engineering Biopolymer-Enhanced Soils for Climate-Smart and Sustainable Agriculture

Our research develops and evaluates biopolymer-enhanced soils as an innovative platform for improving crop productivity, soil health, and plant-soil interactions in water-limited, nutrient-deficient, and degraded landscapes. By integrating soil mechanics, pore-scale imaging, plant phenotyping, elemental analysis, and molecular profiling, this work addresses critical challenges in climate-smart agriculture, soil degradation mitigation, regenerative farming, and land restoration.

Biopolymer soil amendments are designed to modify soil structure, porosity, and mechanical behavior while maintaining a root-permissive physical environment. Through controlled comparisons between unamended and polymer-amended substrates, this research area elucidates how engineered soil microenvironments influence root architecture, root elongation, branching patterns, and overall plant biomass. Mechanistic insights from micro-computed X-ray tomography reveal how biopolymers restructure pore networks to balance strength with aeration and water retention, conditions essential for healthy root development.

To connect soil physical properties with biological outcomes, plant growth is evaluated across diverse conditions to quantify shoot and root biomass, morphological traits, and stress adaptation. Elemental profiling and multivariate analysis (e.g., PCA) of plant tissues identify nutrient distribution trends associated with improved growth performance. Complementary genomic and transcriptomic analyses reveal coordinated plant responses at the molecular level, including activation of stress protection pathways and metabolic adaptations that support robust root and shoot development.

By linking soil structural engineering, plant growth performance, nutrient dynamics, and gene expression, this interdisciplinary research advances biopolymer-based amendment strategies to support climate-smart agriculture, soil stabilization, ecosystem restoration, and regenerative farming. The findings inform the design of scalable soil enhancement technologies that optimize plant productivity while preserving soil function and environmental sustainability.

Severe climate change has intensified wildfires highlighting the urgent need for safer and more effective prevention strategies. This project develops an environmentally sustainable, sprayable flame-retardant coating that proactively reduces fire ignition and spread. The water-soluble, non-toxic, phosphorus-based formulation adheres uniformly to vegetation and, upon heat exposure, interacts with plant cellulose to induce endothermic cooling and form a protective char layer that suppresses flames. This mechanism extends beyond vegetation to any cellulose-based material (e.g., cotton), making the formulation a highly effective and versatile fire-protection solution. Accordingly, beyond its relevance to forest and land-management agencies, the project has attracted interest from the Suffolk County Firefighter Burn Unit, which has volunteered to evaluate the coating in a mock residential fire environment used for training purposes. Suitable for outdoor landscapes and indoor applications such as Christmas trees, and compatible with scalable, drone-based deployment, the coating offers a durable and safer alternative to conventional wildfire retardants.

Nanoconfinement effect onto interfacial structure in PS/PLA bland thin film model systems

Polymer blend thin films confined to planar substrates exhibit phase behavior and mechanical responses that differ fundamentally from their bulk counterparts, yet the mechanisms linking nanoscale morphology to interfacial properties remain poorly understood. Polystyrene (PS)/poly(lactic acid) (PLA) blends provide a model system to investigate how nanoconfinement and substrate interactions alter phase separation, crystallization, and energy dissipation. This project will combine controlled thin-film processing with atomic force microscopy (AFM) friction and nanomechanical mapping and grazing-incidence X-ray scattering to resolve lateral morphology and buried interfacial structure across length scales. In situ synchrotron measurements will track structural evolution during thermal annealing. The results will establish predictive process–structure–property relationships for confined polymer blends and inform the design of functional polymer coatings and sustainable composite materials.

Graphene-Enhanced Biodegradable, Non-Toxic, 3D-Printable Polymer Nanocomposites for Electrically Conductive Applications

Global electronic waste is rising rapidly, prompting the development of biodegradable alternatives for conductive components. We have developed biodegradable, non-toxic polymer/Graphene nanocomposites, balancing the tradeoff that high graphene loading embrittles polymers while low loading reduces conductivity. To achieve electrical conductivity at lower Graphene content, we have designed an immiscible two-phase blend to lower the percolation threshold by localizing graphene in the continuous phase. By combining high- and low-T_g polymers and selecting a low-T_g, low-surface-energy matrix, we have maintained flexibility and improved 3D printability.