Biomaterials and Drug Delivery Systems
Associate Professor & J. Crayton Pruitt Family Term Fellow
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Florida
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic
Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 2005
B.A. Sc, Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, 1999
Dr. Sharma’s research program investigates fundamental material-cell interactions at multiple length scales to guide the development of targeted drug and cell delivery systems for applications in both regenerative medicine and cancer. At this intersection lies the dysfunctional inflammatory mechanisms that propagate tumor development as well as degenerative diseases like osteoarthritis. Dr Sharma’s research seeks to understand the role of specific immune cells and inflammatory mechanisms in tissue pathology and develop therapeutic approaches to direct inflammatory mechanisms in a site-specific manner. For a given application, her group engineers biomaterials to enable therapeutic cells or molecules to overcome specific physiological barriers so they can successfully reach their tissue target.