Research
The intersection of chemical biology and nanotechnology offers vast opportunities to improve our understanding and treatment of human disease. The Finbloom lab applies design principles found in nature to create new classes of bioinspired nanomaterials to solve intractable biomedical problems. Some of the applications of our research include studying and treating antibiotic resistant bacterial infections, improving the oral delivery of probiotics to treat gastrointestinal disorders, designing injectable scaffolds for regenerative medicine, and advancing cancer detection and drug delivery.
Antimicrobial Drug Delivery with Nanomaterials
As a postdoc in the lab of Prof. Tejal Desai at UCSF, Joel developed a new class of polymeric drug carrier to deliver combinations of synergistic antimicrobials. These drug carriers eradicated resistant bacterial biofilms and treated cystic fibrosis lung infections in mice. A central focus of this project was engineering the drug carrier biointerface to overcome biological barriers to drug delivery.