Principal Investigator
Catherine A. Fromen
Current Staff
Jenny Yun
Laboratory Manager
Joint with A. Kloxin Lab
Joined Winter 2024
Research Interests: Understanding fundamental of CAR-T cell therapy and optimize in engineering
Hobbies: Gardening, Photographing, Birdwatching
Email: zyun@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: There are 600 million alveoli in the lung! If we add the surface area it is 75 square meters, it equals to the size of a tennis court.
Current Postdoc Members
Aida Lopez-Ruiz
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Joined Winter 2023; co-advised with A. Kloxin
Research Interests: Using nanoparticles as drug delivery systems to achieve better drug efficiency and immune engineering to target specific diseases in the body without a negative immune response.
Hobbies: Running, reading
Email: alopezr@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: The right and left lung are not the same sizes!
Patrick McCauley
EDH Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Joined Fall 2023; co-advised with A. Bayles
Research Interests: Improving throughput and cell viability in 3D bioprinting using advective assembly
Hobbies: Hiking, reading
Email: patmccau@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: Blue whales have the largest lung capacity, holding up to 5000 liters!
Current Graduate Student Members
Emma Sudduth
Chemical Engineering PhD Candidate and CBI Fellow
Joined Spring 2022
Research Interests: Inhalable vaccines using model PEG-based hydrogel nanoparticles for more effective aerosolized immunotherapies of the elderly population.
Hobbies: Soccer, Volleyball, and Softball
Email: esudduth@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: The average adult breaths 13 pints of air every minute!
Michael Trautmann Rodriguez
Chemical Engineering PhD Candidate and GAANN Fellow
Joined Fall 2021
Research Interests: Nanoparticle-Antigen Presenting Cell interactions, and development of PEG-based hydrogel nanoparticle immunotherapies for driving immune tolerance.
Hobbies: Volleyball, Reading, and Painting
Email: matr@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: The lungs only use 5% of the oxygen we breathe in!
Jodi Graf
Chemical Engineering PhD Candidate and GRFP Fellow
Joined Fall 2022; co-advised with A. Kloxin
Research Interests: Engineering macrophages in different micro environments to better model respiratory therapeutics in vitro.
Hobbies: Volleyball, Exercising and Cooking/Baking
Email: grafjo@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: The lung is able to float on water because of the aveoli which expand their diameter nearly 20x when filling with air!
Eric Slaughter
Chemical Engineering PhD Candidate and GAANN Fellow
Joined Fall 2022; co-advised with A. Kloxin
Research Interests: Improving CAR T-cell therapy manufacturing through tangential flow filtration and tunable hydrogel materials.
Hobbies: Tennis, Cooking/Baking, Video games w/ friends
Email: ersla@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: You lose water when you exhale. At rest, the body loses approximately 0.5 ounces of water!
Sam Fine
Chemical Engineering PhD Candidate
Joined Winter 2024, co-advised with M Blenner
Research Interests: Using synthetic biology to increase viability of CAR macrophages as a therapeutic
Hobbies: personal finance, National Guard
Email: samfine@udel.edu
Fun Fact: If you combined your lungs’ airways end-to-end, they would stretch about 1500 miles!
Lisa Bain
Chemical Engineering PhD Candidate and GRFP Fellow
Joined Winter 2024
Research Interests: Engineering nanoparticle immunotherapies to investigate the effect of degradation on macrophage survival and cellular structure
Hobbies: MLB Baseball (Go Cardinals!), Broadway Musicals, and playing my Ukulele
Email: lbain@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: Women have a faster breathing rate than men. This is because women have a higher physiological cost of moving a given amount of air in and out of the lungs coupled with a smaller lung volume.
Kyle Hess
Chemistry & Biochemistry PhD Student
Joined Winter 2024
Research interests: Combining organic total synthesis and cellular assays in the design and optimization of macrocyclic anti-cancer compounds.
Hobbies: Soccer, baseball, origami, cooking
Email: kylehess@udel.edu
Fun fact: The lungs help remove up to 70% of your body’s waste products, mostly consisting of carbon dioxide and water!
Dominic Hoffman
Chemical Engineering PhD Candidate
Joined Winter 2024
Research Interests: Aerosol Mass Transfer
Hobbies: Powerlifting
Email: domhof@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: the lung is the only human organ that can float on water
Katie Austin
Chemical Engineering PhD Candidate and NSF GRFP Fellow
Joined Fall 2024
Research Interests: drug delivery, sensors, neuroscience
Hobbies: crochetting, reading, going on adventures with friends, food (cooking AND eating)
Email: kaustin@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: Elephants move their lungs around with their chest muscles!
Dhana Mahadik
Biomedical Engineering PhD Candidate
Rotating Winter 2025
Logan Whitesel
Biomedical Engineering PhD Candidate
Rotating Winter 2025
Richard Zhang
Chemical Engineering PhD Candidate
Joined Fall 2024, co-advised with M. Sullivan
Research Interests: Engineering mRNA cargo loading of macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles using nanoparticle-driven strategies
Hobbies: Cooking, Hiking, Video games w/friends
Email: rzhang@udel.edu
Fun Fact: Even after exhaling, humans still have about 1 liter of air remaining in their lungs.
Current Undergraduate Student Members
Joaquina Somma
UD CBE Class of 2025
Research Interests: Understanding how different factors like diseases and age affect the lung’s structure and functionality.
Hobbies: Listening to music, swimming, and reading
Email: jfsom@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: A person could live with one lung and life expectancy would not significantly change!
Adhya Anilkumar
UD BME Class of 2026
Research Interests: utilizing nanoparticles and therapeutics for pulmonary drug delivery, and exploring molecular transportation mechanisms for targeted delivery of biomedical interventions within the body
Hobbies: Exercising, Solving Puzzles, Painting, and Baking/Cooking
Email: adhya@udel.edu
Fun Fact about the Lung: The lungs play a key role when we speak! Air is pushed up through the Trachea and into the Larynx (voice box), where the vocal cords vibrate and create sound as air passes.
Avery Tran
UD CBE Class of 2026
Research Interests: Exploring the interactions of nanoparticles with immune cells by optimizing pulmonary drug delivery systems and designing targeted immune therapies.
Hobbies: Volleyball, basketball, video games
Email: averyt@udel.edu
Fun fact: The lungs take in about 2,900 gallons of air every day!
Vilina Akala
UD BME Class of 2027
Research Interests: Utilizing nanoparticle therapeutics and understanding their movement through different types of cells to improve drug efficiency.
Hobbies: listening to music, hiking/nature walks
Email: vilinaak@udel.edu
Fun Fact: The animal with the smallest lungs is the Bornean flat-headed frog, which was previously thought to not have any lungs.
Group Alumni
Group Pictures
