PEARSON LAB 

Dec. 2021    Nhu Truong received the PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in Drug Delivery. This fellowship will support Nhu's stipend for the next 2 years. Congratulations, Nhu!

Dec. 2021    Our lab receives a renewal of our Maryland Industrial Partnership Grant from MTechUMD. This work is done in collaboration with a Maryland small biotech company working on novel formulations for treating heterotopic ossification. Ryan is a co-PI with Dr. Stephen Hoag.

Nov. 2021    Congratulations to Jackline, Andrea, Brianna, and Nhu for their paper in Pharmaceutics, entitled: "Immunomodulatory Nanoparticles Mitigate Macrophage Inflammation via Inhibition of PAMP Interactions and Lactate-Mediated Functional Reprogramming of NF-κB and p38 MAPK." This paper is a result of lots of hard work and a great collaboration with the Hong and Shapiro labs to evaluate the anti-inflammatory nature of poly(lactic acid) nanoparticles.

Oct. 2021   Jackline Lasola defended her PhD! Jackline is the first graduate of the Lab and we are extremely proud of all of the fantastic work that she has done to discover the mechanisms of action for immunomodulatory nanoparticles. Congratulations, Jackline! Keep in touch and you'll be missed! She will now head back to medical school to complete the MD portion of her MSTP.

Oct. 2021    Brianna Scotland is awarded the Genentech-Meyerhoff Graduate Fellowship Progam fellowship. This is funded by Genentech and will provide Brianna the opportunity to intern during summer 2022 at Genentech and have her stipend covered for 1 year. Congratulations, Brianna! 

Oct. 2021    The lab attends the AAPS PharmSci360 meeting in Philadelphia. Nhu, Brianna, and Ryan all present research. It was great to finally be in-person at a scientific meeting!

Sept. 2021   Shruti Dharmaraj joins the lab as a rotation student (1st year PhD PSC program). Welcome Shruti!

Sept. 2021   Congratulations to Nhu, Sheneil, Jacob, and Brianna for their paper in The AAPS Journal, entitled: "Microfluidics-generated immunomodulatory nanoparticles and formulation-dependent effects on lipopolysaccharide-induced macrophage inflammation." This is Nhu's first-first author paper in the lab and the first using microfluidics to formulation nanoparticles for immunomodulation. 

Aug. 2021    Jacob Shaw formally joins the lab 2nd year PhD student in Molecular Medicine. Welcome Jacob! 

Aug. 2021    Andrew Alvarez joins the lab as a post-bacc student as part of the UMB STAR-PREP program. He will be with us for 1 year. Welcome Andrew!

Jul. 2021      The lab is awarded the Shock Society Faculty Research Award supporting our efforts to develop nanoparticle-based immunotherapies to treat sepsis over the next 2 years! 

Jun. 2021     The lab is awarded the prestigious R35 MIRA ESI grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)! This 5-year grant will support the lab's projects on developing and understanding the fundamental design criteria for nanoparticle-based immunotherapies and is worth over $1.9M!

May 2021    Nicholas Caprio joins the lab as a 2nd year UMB School of Pharmacy PharmD student. Welcome Nicholas!

May 2021    Samantha Rea joins the lab as a summer intern from Stevenson University as part of the Nathan Schnaper Intern Program (NSIP). Welcome Sam!

Apr. 2021    Ryan presents a virtual seminar on the lab's nanoparticle approaches for immunomodulation and drug delivery to immune cells at the University of South Carolina - Biomedical Engineering.

Mar. 2021   Our collaborative mini-review with Dr. Courtney Dumont from University of Miami is published in AAPS PharmSciTech. This mini-review discusses nanoparticle-based strategies to treat spinal cord injury. Congratulations to co-first authors Atanu and Andrew (UMiami)!

Feb. 2021     Ryan presents a virtual seminar on the lab's immune engineering research at Notre Dame University of Maryland.

Jan. 2021     Atanu and Jelena's paper is published as a Pre-print on BioRxiv. This is the first publication from our collaborative team between UMB (Pearson, Hoag) and Nostopharma (Vert-Wong, Gvozdenovic-Jeremic). "Hedgehog pathway inhibitors significantly reduce the formation of heterotopic ossification in a direct trauma/burn mouse model. Congrats to all!

Jan. 2021     Ryan presents a virtual seminar at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill as part of the Rising Stars in Drug Delivery and Novel Carriers Series!

Jan. 2021     Andrea Cottingham joins the lab as a new PSC rotation student. Welcome back to the lab Andrea!

Jan. 2021     Jacob Shaw joins the lab as a new rotation student from his home department of Molecular Medicine in the School of Medicine. Welcome Jacob!

Dec. 2020    Ryan joins the AAPS Scientific Programming Committee as a Track Leader for Discovery and Basic Research!

Dec. 2020    Our lab receives a Maryland Industrial Partnership Grant from MTechUMD. This work is done in collaboration with a Maryland small biotech company working on novel formulations for treating heterotopic ossification. Ryan is a co-PI with Dr. Stephen Hoag.  

Dec. 2020    Ryan presents the Rising Star seminar during the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology & Education Annual Meeting!

Oct. 2020     Ryan is elected Vice Chair of the CRS Immuno Delivery Focus Group! He will be serving a 2-year term!

Oct. 2020     Ryan joins the editorial advisory board (EAB) for Pharmaceutical Research.

Oct. 2020     Brianna passed her comprehensive exam for the UMB PSC department. She is now a Ph.D. Candidate, well done! She is developing nanoparticles to evaluate the impact of physicochemical properties on immune tolerance using allergy models.

Oct. 2020     Jackline passed her proposal defense as part of the UMB MSTP program! Great work using nanoparticles for sepsis! Congratulations!

Sept. 2020   Jake Weiner joins the lab as a Rotation student in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Ph.D. Program. Welcome!

Sept. 2020   Ryan gives a presentation at the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Retreat as part of the UMGCCC.

Aug. 2020    Ryan is selected to receive the Rising Star Scholarship from the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology & Education (NIPTE)!

Aug. 2020    Atanu's first author research article entitled: "Serum-independent non-viral gene delivery to innate and adaptive immune cells using immunoplexes" is accepted for publication in ACS Applied Bio Materials! Congratulations to all authors Atanu, Jackline, Nhu, and Ryan!

Jun. 2020     Jackline's first-author review with co-authors Henry and Michael is accepted for publication by Frontiers in Immunology! We hope to use this review as the basis for our immunomodulation in sepsis project. Well done by everyone!

Jun. 2020     Our lab receives a Maryland Industrial Partnership Grant from MTechUMD. This work is done in collaboration with a Maryland small biotech company working on infectious diseases! Ryan is a co-PI with Dr. Stephen Hoag.  

Apr. 2020     Nhu formally joins the lab as the lab's 3rd Ph.D. student. Welcome Nhu!

Mar. 2020     Ryan is chosen to receive the ICTR Innovative Collaboration Pilot Grant to study new approaches to cancer vaccine development. This project will be carried out with co-PI Nevil Singh from UMSOM. Congrats to all!

Feb. 2020      Ryan is chosen to receive the 2020 AAI Early Career Faculty Travel Grant. Congrats!

Jan. 2020       Our co-authored manuscript is published in Gastroenterology! This paper represents the significant labor that goes into preclinical development of nanotechnologies. This paper describes the development of TIMP-GLIA by Cour Pharma for the treatment of Celiac disease. Takeda has subsequently licensed TIMP-GLIA and a Phase I and II clinical trial have been successfully completed! Congrats to all involved in this massive effort! I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Jan. 2020       Ryan participated as an external judge at the Francis Scott Key Elementary School Science Fair. The students did a fantastic job, congrats!

Nov. 2019      Ryan is appointed as an Associate Member of the Program in Oncology at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Nov. 2019      Nhu Truong joins the lab as a rotation student in the PSC Ph.D. program. Welcome Nhu! 

Oct. 2019        Jackline receives the President's Entrepreneurial Fellowship fro UM Ventures to learn about how to translate technologies developed in academia. Congrats Jackline!   

Oct. 2019        Ryan and Atanu present at the Biomedical Engineering Society Annual meeting in Philiadelphia. The lab presented 2 posters and 1 collaborative poster with the Szeto Lab at UMBC.

Oct. 2019        Atanu presents a poster at the Drexel Immunomodulation Symposium in Philiadelphia. Ryan and Jackline also attend. Well done Atanu!

Sept. 2019      Noel Thomas joins the lab for her research practicum project from Baltimore Polytechnic High School. Welcome Noel, we look forward to having you in the lab!

Aug. 1, 2019   Our summer intern, Andrea Cottingham, presents her poster at the UMB School of Pharmacy research day. Congrats Andrea, great job! 

Jul. 2019          Ryan presents at the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting in Valencia, Spain! 

Jul. 2019          Ryan presents at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Annual Meeting in Chicago!

Jul. 1, 2019      The lab publishes its first paper in Biomaterials with the Shea lab at University of Michigan entitled, "Cargo-less nanoparticles program innate immune cell responses to Toll-like receptor activation." Ryan is co-corresponding author with Lonnie Shea. Congrats!

Jun. 10, 2019   Andrea Cottingham joins the lab as a summer intern from Salisbury University as part of the Pharmaceutical Sciences intern program. Welcome Andrea!

May 29, 2019  Darien Campisi joins the lab as a summer intern from University of North Carolina as part of the Nathan Schnaper Intern Program (NSIP). Welcome Darien!

Mar. 11, 2019  Jackline receives a travel award from the Shock Society to present her work on nanoparticle-induced immunomodulation in sepsis. Congrats!

Jan. 24, 2019   Ryan is chosen to receive the AACP New Investigator Award. This grant will be used to support our nanoparticle-sepsis project! 

Jan. 7, 2019     Brianna Scotland joins the lab as a first year PSC rotation student. Welcome Brianna!

Dec. 13, 2018  The lab receives a MIPS Phase 2 award from Maryland Industrial Partnerships to support our collaborative research project with Nostopharma. Ryan is a co-I with Dr. Stephen Hoag.  

Nov 7, 2018     Henry Kamdem joins the lab as a P3 student at the UMB School of Pharmacy. Welcome Henry!

Oct 26, 2018    The lab receives notification from the UMB Institute for Clinical & Translational Research that they will fund our voucher application to study nanoparticle-mediated cellular reprogramming! 

Oct 23, 2018    Joyce Alemgang joins the lab as an intern from Baltimore City Community College (BCCC). Welcome Joyce!

Oct 23, 2018    Michael McDaniel joins the lab as a P3 student at the UMB School of Pharmacy. Welcome Michael! 

Oct 19, 2018    Ryan presents the lab's first invited conference talk at the BMES conference in Atlanta, GA. 

Aug 20, 2018    Jackline Joy Lasola joins the lab as a rotation student. Welcome Jackline!

Jul 25, 2018       Jeffrey Baffoe-Bonnie joins the lab as a rotation student. He comes to us with a background in Biology (Neuroscience) and Biotechnology. Welcome Jeffrey!

Jul 23, 2018      Ryan presents the lab's first poster at the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting in New York City! Come visit our poster #250.

Jul 1, 2018        The Pearson Lab joins the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.