Overview

Biomimetics is an interdisciplinary field that takes inspiration from nature and biological systems to develop innovative materials and technologies against complex health problems.

The Menon Lab is working at the interface of nanotechnology, biomaterials and tissue engineering to develop novel biomimetic approaches to study and treat cancer, fibrosis and inflammation with a focus on diseases affecting the lungs and liver. In particular, we are developing biomimetic coatings to enhance nanoparticle retention at the site of action, for targeted and sustained drug delivery. We are also harnessing our expertise in tissue engineering to develop bioinspired microenvironments for in vitro modeling of physiological systems.

Research

Project 1: Porous polymeric microparticle substrates with controllable pore diameters for cancer tissue engineering

It is becoming increasingly evident that conventionally used monolayer cultures are incapable of accurately predicting human responses to experimental therapeutics, as they fail to recapitulate the cell-cell interactions and three-dimensional cellular arrangement seen within the body.

To overcome some of the limitations of currently used 2D and 3D cell cultures, we have been developing collagen-coated porous polymeric microspheres by a controlled pore formation method involving alginate microsphere porogens. We are currently testing and optimizing different polymer blends for this application.

Project 2: Bio-inspired Microwell Arrays for High-throughput culture and generation of 3D spheroids

We have developed novel bio-inspired polymeric gel microwell arrays for the generation and easy isolation of 3D spheroid cultures

Project 3: Biomimetic Inhalable Nanoparticle Formulations to evade Macrophage Uptake in the Lungs

Our lab is also developing inhalable nanoparticle formulations with innovative biomimetic coatings that can evade macrophage uptake. These nanoparticles are hence retained in the lungs for longer periods of time for site-specific and sustained drug delivery.

Outreach

Our lab is excited to offer interactive virtual and hands-on training opportunities on lab techniques in Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering, to High schools within Rhode Island and other parts of the country!

We are committed to encouraging students from diverse backgrounds to consider a career in STEM.

If you need more information on how to collaborate with our lab and participate in these opportunities, please contact Dr. Menon at jmenon@uri.edu

 

Publications

* = Corresponding author, Ϯ = Equal contribution

1. Ghumman M, Dhamecha D, Gonsalves A, Fortier L, Sorkhdini P, Zhou Y, Menon JU*. Emerging Drug Delivery Strategies for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Treatment. Eur J Pharm Biopharm 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2021.03.017
2. Dhamecha D, Le D, Chakravarty T, Perera K, Dutta A, Menon JU*. Fabrication of PNIPAm-based Thermoresponsive hydrogel microwell arrays for tumor spheroid formation. Mater Sci Eng: C Mater Biol Appl 2021. 112100.
3. Ramasamy S, Dhamecha D, Kiruthiga K, Pillai AS, Alexander A, Premnath D, Menon JU*, Enoch IVV*. Magnetic hydroxyapatite nanomaterial–cyclodextrin tethered polymer hybrids as anticancer drug carriers. Materials Advances 2021. DOI: 10.1039/D1MA00142F
4. Dhamecha D, Le D, Movsas R, Gonsalves A, Menon JU*. Porous polymeric microspheres with controllable pore diameters for tissue engineered lung tumor model development. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2020. 8: 799.
5. Le D, Dhamecha D, Gonsalves A, Menon JU*. Ultrasound-enhanced chemiluminescence for bioimaging. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 2020. 8: 25.
6. Owen J, Thomas E, Menon JU, Gray M, Gill MR, Walington S, Skaripa-Koukelli I, Miller RL, Vallis KA, Carlisle R. Indium-111 after-loading of preformed EGF-containing liposomes for molecularly targeted radionuclide delivery via ultrasound-induced cavitation. J Control Release 2020. 319: 222-233.
7. Pandey N, Menon JU, Takahashi M, Hsieh JT, Nguyen KT, Wadajkar AS. Thermo-responsive Fluorescent Nanoparticles for Multimodal Imaging and Treatment of Cancers. Nanotheranostics 2020. 4(1): 1-13.
8. Dhamecha D, Movsas R, Sano U, Menon JU*. Applications of Alginate microspheres in therapeutics delivery and cell culture: past, present and future. Int J Pharmaceutics 2019. 569: 118627
9. Thomas E, Menon JU, Owen J, Wallington S, Gray M, Mannaris C, Skaripa-Koukelli I, Carlisle R, Vallis KA. Ultrasound-mediated cavitation enhances the delivery of an EGFR-targeting liposomal formulation designed for chemo-radionuclide therapy. Theranostics 2019. 9(19): 5595-5609
10. Kuriakose A, Hu W, Nguyen KT, Menon JU*. Effects of Porogens and Pore sizes on Porous Polymeric Microparticle Substrates for In vitro 3D Lung Tumor Formation. PLOS One 2019. 14(5): e0217640
11. Dane DM, Yilmaz C, Gyawali D, Iyer R, Menon JU, Nguyen KT, Ravikumar P, Estrera AS, Hsia CCW. Erythropoietin inhalation enhances adult canine alveolar capillary formation following pneumonectomy. Amer J Phys – Lung Cell Mol Phys 2019. 316 (5): L936-945.
12. Menon JU. 3D tumor models for cancer drug discovery: Current status and outlook. Journal of Medicine and Therapeutics 2018. 2(3): 1-2
13. Gill MRϮ, Menon JUϮ, Jarman PJ, Owen J, Skaripa-Koukelli I, Able S, Thomas JA, Carlisle R, Vallis KA. 111 In-labelled polymeric nanoparticles incorporating a ruthenium-based radiosensitizer for EGFR-targeted combination therapy in oesophageal cancer cells. Nanoscale 2018. 10: 10596-10608.
14. Menon JU, Kuriakose A, Iyer R, Hernandez E, Gandee L, Zhang S, Takahashi T, Zhang Z, Saha D, Nguyen KT. Dual-Drug Containing Core-Shell Nanoparticles for Lung Cancer Therapy. Scientific Reports 2017. 7.1: 13249
15. Ravikumar PϮ, Menon JUϮ, Punnakitikashem P, Gyawali D, Togao O, Takahashi M, Zhang J, Ye J, Moe OW, Nguyen KT, Hsia CCW. Nanoparticle Facilitated Inhalational Delivery of Erythropoietin Receptor cDNA Protects Against Hyperoxic Lung Injury. Nanomedicine 2016. 12(3): 811-821.
16. Menon JU, Jadeja P, Tambe P, Thakore D, Zhang S, Takahashi M, Xie Z, Yang J, Nguyen KT. Polymeric nanoparticles as dual-imaging probes for cancer management. Biomaterials and Biomechanics in Bioengineering 2016. 3(3): 129-140
17. Menon JU. Cancer-targeting mechanisms of nanoparticles. Phenotype Magazine by Oxford University Biochemical Society 2016. 23: 18-19
18. Menon JU, Tumati V, Nguyen KT, Saha D. Polymeric nanoparticles for targeted radiosensitization of prostate cancer cells. J Biomed Mater Res Part A 2015. 103(5): 1632-1639
19. Punnakitikashem P, Truong D, Menon JU, Nguyen KT, Hong Y. Electrospun biodegradable elastic polyurethane fibers with dipyridamole release for vascular tissue engineering. Acta Biomaterialia 2014. 10(11): 4618-4628
20. Menon JU, Ravikumar P, Pise A, Gyawali D, Hsia CCW, Nguyen KT. Polymeric nanoparticles for pulmonary protein and DNA delivery. Acta Biomaterialia 2014. 10(6): 2643-2652 (Featured in ‘Materials Today’ journal)
21. Homayoni HϮ, Menon JUϮ, Nguyen KT. Chitosan-based nanoparticles for drug delivery. Rev Nanosci. Nanotechnol 2014. 3(2): 133-148(16).
22. Sundaresan V, Menon JU, Rahimi M, Nguyen KT, Wadajkar AS. Dual-responsive polymer-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for drug delivery and imaging applications. Int J Pharm 2014. 466(1-2): 1-7
23. Ilyas A, Islam M, Asghar W, Menon JU, Wadajkar AS, Nguyen KT, Iqbal SM. Salt-leaching synthesized porous PLGA nanoparticles show enhanced drug release. IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology 2013 12(6):1082-1088 (Featured on the cover of the issue)
24. Wadajkar AS, Menon JU, Tsai Y-S, Gore C, Dobin T, Gandee L, Kangasniemi K, Takahashi M, Manandhar B, Ahn JM, Hsieh JT, Nguyen KT. Prostate cancer-specific thermo-responsive polymer-coated iron oxide nanoparticles. Biomaterials 2013. 34(14): 3618-3625
25. Wadajkar AS, Menon JU, Kadapure T, Tran R, Yang J, Nguyen KT. Design and application of magnetic based theranostic nanoparticle systems. Recent Pat Biomed 2013. 6(1): 1-11
26. Menon JU, Jadeja P, Tambe P, Vu K, Nguyen KT. Nanomaterials for photo-based diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Theranostics 2013. 3(3): 152-166
27. Menon JU. Nanomedicine and its potential in medical applications: A Review. Institution of Engineers (India) – Qatar Chapter Annual Souvenir 2012. 21-25
28. Wadajkar AS, Menon JU, Nguyen KT. Polymer-coated magnetic nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Reviews in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 2012. 1(4): 284-297.
29. Menon JU, Kona S, Desai F, Wadajkar AS, Wadla A, Nguyen KT. Effects of surfactants on the properties of PLGA nanoparticles. J Biomed Mater Res Part A 2012.100A:1998–2005
30. Menon JU, Gulaka PK, McKay M, Geethanath S, Kodibagkar VD. Dual-modality, dual-functional nanoemulsions for cellular and molecular imaging. Theranostics 2012. 2(12):1199-1207

Book chapters

1. Menon JU, Song L, Falzone N, and Vallis KA. Nanomaterial-Antibody Hybrids. In Hybrid Nanomaterials: Design, Synthesis, and Biomedical Applications, Chen F and Cai W. (ed). CRC Press 2016; 83-110
2. Menon JU, Nguyen DX and Nguyen KT. Chapter 9. Development and Characterization of Stimulus-Sensitive Nano/Microparticles for Medical Applications. In Handbook of Nanoparticles, Aliofkhazraei M. (ed). Springer International Pub 2016; 347-384.
3. Menon JU, Wadajkar AS, Xie Z, Nguyen KT. Chapter 5. Nanomaterials for management of lung disorders and drug delivery. In Nanomaterials in drug delivery, imaging, and tissue engineering, Tiwari A. (ed). Scrivener Pub 2013; 167-202

Patents

1. Nguyen KT, Menon JU. 2016. “MultiFunctional Nanoparticle Systems and Methods For Cancer Diagnosis and Combination Therapy”. US Patent Application number 15/260,835, filed September 2016.
2. Owen J, Frisk J, Menon JU. “Centrifuge tube handling device”. International Patent Application number PCT/GB2018/052026, filed July 2018.

 Detailed publication information available at : https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nZkHfjAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Team

Dr. Jyothi Menon heads the Nanotherapeutics and Biomaterials Engineering Research Laboratory located in 335 Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering at the University of Rhode Island.

She received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Joint Program between the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas and UT Arlington, where she worked on developing inhalable polymeric nanoformulations for the delivery of proteins, cDNA and combination therapies to treat lung diseases. She then moved to the UK, where she was part of EPSRC-funded multidisciplinary research at the University of Oxford, at the Oxford Center for Drug Delivery Devices (OXCD³). She was promoted to an independent faculty position in 2017, and is currently spearheading research on developing novel biomimetic drug delivery and tissue engineering strategies for the management of chronic conditions in the lungs and liver.

Andrea Gonsalves
Presently a third year Ph.D. student at URI, her research primarily focuses on developing novel biomimetic inhalable nanoparticles for sustained drug delivery in the treatment of lung cancer. Prior to joining Dr. Menon’s lab, she worked as a formulation scientist developing solid and liquid orals at Alkem laboratories, St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated with a master’s degree in Industrial Pharmacy from Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York where she worked on optimizing spray-drying of nanoparticles.

Moez Ghumman
Currently in his second year, Moez’s research is focused on developing a novel nanoparticle drug delivery system for treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Prior to beginning his graduate career, Moez worked for several months as an intern in the Formulation Laboratory at Rhodes Pharmaceuticals. He joined Dr. Menon’s lab as an undergraduate student with an interest in drug development and dosage form design. After completing his Bachelor’s in Pharmaceutical Sciences, he returned as a graduate student to pursue his Master’s with a concentration in Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics. 

Kalindu Perera
An alumnus of the University of Westminster and Loughborough University, UK, with a background in biochemistry and pharmacology. His most recent experience was at the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology, where his work focused primarily on bioactives/natural products isolation and encapsulation in multilayer polymeric nanoparticles. Currently a first-year PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences student at URI, his primary research will look at developing a novel targeted nanomedicine-based approach to pulmonary hypertension in chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.

Undergraduate Students

• Seraphina Negash
• Lauren Fortier
• Sabrina Delva
• Johnny Trolander
• Heather Bettencourt
• Thu Le

Interested in joining our team? Contact Dr. Menon at jmenon@uri.edu to learn more about research opportunities in the lab!

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Past Lab Members

Post-docs

• Dr. Dinesh Dhamecha (current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard University)
• Dr. Duong Le (current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Connecticut)

Undergraduates

• Hannah Nguyen
• Pascaline Uwase
• Jade Supino
• Jasmine Bazinet
• Joseph Bowler
• Rachel Movsas
• Sueeun Bae
• Ugene Sano
• Vanessa Jabbour
• Emilie Burrill

Jyothi U. Menon, Ph.D.

• Assistant Professor
• Office: FCAE 310 Lab: FCAE 335 (Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering)
• Phone:401.874.4914
• Email:jmenon@uri.edu

Full Bio