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David W. Grainger

Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Professor of Bioengineering

B.A. Dartmouth College

Ph.D. University of Utah

Research

References

 

David Grainger's Lab Page

David Grainger's PubMed Literature Search

Research

Biomedical materials applications. The Grainger group is broadly interested in applications of materials in medicine, including surgical implants, drug delivery systems, diagnostic assays, regenerative medicine, biotechnology and infection. Research requires broad use of many tools and techniques to yield new knowledge about these complex systems. Materials synthesis, extensive characterization, drug formulation, in vitro assays and in vivo testing often comprise a typical student research program.

Diagnostic assays. Many new innovations in capabilities to capture, detect and identify organisms (e.g., viruses, bacteria), proteins (disease markers), and other important analytes require interactions of biological samples with captures surfaces to generate assay signals. This is relevant to ELISA, microarray, optical, and lateral flow assays. Discrimination of analyte from plentiful noise in biological milieu determines assay performance. We focus on improving nucleic acid microarray performance by first understanding how DNA is immobilized into micron spots for these assays, then studying complementary DNA target capture to these spots. We use many surface analytical methods to produce chemical and physical information on DNA at interfaces. We are among first on record to specifically quantify amounts of DNA immobilized in arrays, and the efficiency of DNA analyte capture in array surface spots of decreasing size, cross-correlating DNA on surfaces with various analytical methods. We are moving to immobilized protein arrays as the next frontier.

Cell and bacterial colonization of surfaces. Many biomaterials seek to encourage cell attachment to integrate these materials into biological systems or human tissue. Risks associated with any biomaterials implanted into tissue include the hallmark foreign body response (i.e., rejection and unresolved inflammation), infection, and blood reactivity. Our group examines two aspects of these adverse reactions: 1) inflammatory cellular reactions with implanted materials, and 2) bacterial adhesion and infection of biomaterials. The major cellular mediator of the foreign body response is the macrophage. We have studied various aspects of macrophage interrogation of implant materials, markers for their reactivity and mechanisms of their cell-surface adhesion. Additionally, we study bacterial attachment to surfaces and methods to improve microcidal strategies to prevent implant-centered infection.

Drug delivery and combination devices. Biomaterials suffer from numerous shortcomings: drug delivery from devices is being increasingly used to help mitigate implant problems within tissue. These medical devices that both function in prosthetic replacement as well as release drugs are termed ‘combination devices’. Our interests lie in producing delivery systems for new drug families from the surface of implantable surgical devices. These include cardiovascular and orthopedic devices that release small and large biopharmaceutical drugs, and antibiotic release from implants. Additionally, we have produced a novel living vaccine delivery system for wildlife that has broad applicability to remote delivery of many other biological therapeutics.

References