Department Seminar: Dr Anita Shukla

PLEASE NOTE: This seminar is a hybrid event taking place in-person and online. You can choose to order an in-person ticket or a virtual attendance ticket when registering to attend.

For those attending in person, refreshments will be served immediately after this seminar in RSM 3.24.

Title: Smart Antimicrobial Biomaterials

Abstract: We have now entered a “post-antibiotic era” in which antimicrobial resistance is leading to fatal outcomes for common, once-treatable infections. A 2019 United Nations report warned of the catastrophic impact of failing to immediately address rising antimicrobial resistance. Bacteria and fungi constantly evolve new resistance mechanisms to antimicrobials, the rates and complexity of which can be exacerbated by frequent use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials and prolonged exposure. The formation of microbial biofilms further complicates infection treatment. These complex three-dimensional microbial communities exhibit numerous mechanisms of antibiotic evasion, including a physical barrier to antibiotic diffusion. Smart microbe-responsive and targeted drug delivery systems have the potential to effectively treat and prevent infections while limiting resistance development and host toxicity.

In this talk, I will describe our recent work developing responsive and targeted biomaterials for the treatment of bacterial and fungal infections. These materials range from nanoparticles to functional coatings and hydrogels for the treatment of systemic and localized infections. I will first describe our multi-stimuli-responsive biopolymer nanoparticles that have shown promising biofilm penetration and disruption ability. I will also discuss the development of liposomal nanoparticles that we are currently optimizing for increased interaction with fungal cells to limit host toxicity, a common complication with antifungal therapeutics. Finally, I will describe our work on developing bacteria-responsive hydrogels which degrade and release therapeutic cargo specifically in the presence of bacterial beta-lactamases, a family of enzymes commonly involved in antimicrobial resistance. These smart hydrogels exhibit bacteria-triggered drug-release properties in the presence of many of the ESKAPE pathogens in vitro. We have also recently demonstrated successful bacteria-triggered hydrogel degradation and drug release in vivo using a murine skin abrasion Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection model, leading to infection clearance.

Biography: Anita Shukla is an Associate Professor of Engineering at Brown University. Professor Shukla's research involves the development of nano- to macroscale biomaterials for the treatment of bacterial and fungal infections. Professor Shukla is the recipient of several national and University honors and awards for both her research and teaching, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, an Office of Naval Research Director of Research Early Career Grant, and a Brown University Early Career Research Achievement Award and Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Prior to joining Brown in 2013, Professor Shukla was a National Institutes of Health Ruth Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011 as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Professor Shukla also received an M.S. in Chemical Engineering Practice from MIT. She received her B.S. at Carnegie Mellon University in 2006 with majors in chemical engineering and biomedical engineering.