News
2021
Jan. 22 Katie is quoted in a Healthline news article about Moderna's SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.
2020
Dec. 1 Kathy Fein brilliantly defends her thesis during the Whitehead Lab's first virtual defense. We are delighted that Dr. Fein will be staying with us for her postdoctoral work.
Nov. 30 We say good-bye to superstar postdoc, John Gleeson, as he departs for a position at Merck advising on oral drug delivery.
Oct. 2 Whitehead Lab students do a wonderful job at another ChEGSA Symposium. Namit wins the first place prize, The Geoffrey D. Parfitt Memorial Award, and Rose wins the second place Symposium Award. Congratulations!
June 30 Jilian is awarded the Gene Editing and Gene Delivery Focus Group Trainee Award from the Controlled Release Society. Wonderful work!
June 29 Katie accepts the Young Investigator Award at the Controlled Release Society's Annual Meeting.
June 15 The Whitehead Lab initiates the reopening process.
Mar. 20 The Whitehead Lab and all CMU research labs close due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Feb. 4 The Integrative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley publishes an interview with Katie Whitehead.
Jan. 14 Nature Biomedical Engineering publishes a News and Views article on the lab's Nov 4 publication in Nat BME on silica nanoparticles as permeation enhancers for oral delivery.
Jan. 6 Curious Science Writers publishes an article on the lab's breast milk cell research.
Jan. 5 Undergrad researcher Pooja Pandya wins a SURG grant for her Spring 2020 research project mentored by Ph.D. student Mariah Arral.
2019
Nov. 11 CEN covers our experimental use of silica nanoparticles as a mean of drug delivery.
Nov. 4 Nick, Kathy, & Adrian publish in Nature Biomedical Engineering on the exciting results of silica coated nanoparticles to enhance permeation of protein drugs delivered orally to mice.
Oct. 28 Nick, Rebecca, and Kathy publish their work on a more cost effective model of the intestine for oral drug delivery experiments in Pharmaceutical Research.
Oct. 19 Whitehead Lab represents at the ChEGSA student run campus symposium and 5th year Ph.D. student Kathy Fein took home the gold prize, The Geoffrey D. Parfitt Memorial Award for best student talk!
Oct. 18 Nick and our collaborators at UCSF publish in the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics on a biomaterial-based means of increasing intestinal drug absorption while minimizing toxicity.
Oct. 17 Prof Whitehead is interviewed by Cheddar Innovates TV on our work developing an oral delivery method for patients with diabetes.
Aug. 11 Our new chemoresistant model for the aggresive and incurable mantle cell lymphoma makes the news.
Aug. 28 Press release issued on our strawberry derived method to potentially deliver insulin and other protein drugs orally.
Aug. 1 Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Weiss, who has wrapped up his postdoc and is moving on to a faculty position at Carlow University.
July 24 Prof. Whitehead is elected to the Board of the Controlled Release Society as a Director-at-Large.
July 22 Welcome to Trish Hredzak-Showalter, our new lab manager!
June 17 Jia, Khalid, and Chris publish their work on a chemoresistant Mantle cell lymphoma cell line in Experimental Biology and Medicine.
May 15 The Whitehead Lab receives funding as part of the DARPA PREPARE program. We will be developing RNA therapeutics to protect against radiation damage.
May 1 We are delighted to welcome Dr. John Gleeson, formerly on University College Dublin and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, to the lab as a Postdoctoral Associate.
Apr. 25 Khalid Hajj wows the audience with his thesis defense. Congratulations, Doctor!
Apr. 19 Nick Lamson is a Doctor of Philosophy! Congratulations on a successful defense!
Apr. 1 The Whitehead Lab receives DARPA funding as part of the PREPARE program to develop RNA-based therapeutic systems to prevent and treat radiation poisoning.
Feb 27 CEN covers our project characterizing breast milk, from local goats to local Moms, with the long term prospects of genetically engineering breast milk cells to treat sick infants.
Feb. 1 Prof. Whitehead is promoted to Associate Professor, effective July 1.
Jan. 30 Prof. Whitehead is named a Dean's Early Career Fellow.
Jan. 15 Khalid, Becca, Daria, Chris, and two of our undergrads - Sarah and Shridhar - publish a paper in Small describing the exquisite effect of lipid chemsitry on mRNA delivery.
Jan. 7 We're delighted to welcome Dr. Sam LoPresti from the University of Pittsburgh to our lab as a Postdoctoral Associate.
2018
Dec. 20 Lisa's paper on an siRNA treatment for diabetic wounds is published in Bioengineering and Translational Medicine. Please enjoy the open access article!
Dec. 18 STAT News publishes an article about Prof. Whitehead and the lab's NIH-funded breast milk project.
Dec. 13 Welcome to the two newest members of the Whitehead Lab: Chemial Engineering M.S. students Shiv Rekhi and Shena Marshall. Glad to have you!
Nov. 6 Prof. Whitehead receives the George Tallman Ladd Award from the Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering for excellence in research.
Nov. 5 Prof. Whitehead is featured on the podcast series, People Behind the Science. She discusses her inspiration, motivation, failures, and successes.
Oct. 30 Our superstars represent in the graduate student award sessions at AIChE. Khalid Hajj won the 1st place speaking prizes in 22B Bionanotechnology, and Nick Lamson won the 2nd place speaking prize in 8B Biomaterials. Kathy Fein won a Division 15 poster presentation award!
Oct. 26 Whitehead Lab Ph.D. students win awards at the annual Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association symposium. Nick Lamson is awarded the Geoffrey D. Parfitt Memorial Award for best overall talk, and Khalid Hajj is awarded an Honorable Mention for his presentation. Very proud of our lab's communication skills!
Oct 16 Press release issued on genetically engineered breast milk project to potentially treat sick infants, inspired by Prof Whitehead's own personal experience as a mother.
Oct. 2 Prof. Whitehead receives an NIH Director's New Innovator Award for the study and genetic engineering of breast milk cells. CMU College of Engineering story here and NIH recipient list here.
Sept. 20 Welcome to three new members of the Whitehead Lab - Mariah Arral (1st year Chemical Engineering Ph.D. student + NSF Fellow), Chenmin Ni (BME Master's student), & Dr. Jilian Melamed (postdoc). We are delighted to have you join us!
Sept. 19 Prof. Whitehead is quoted in C&EN magazine on an article from You Han Bae's group describing bile acid-coated nanoparticles for oral drug delivery.
Aug. 15 Prof. Whitehead is elected as the next vice-chair, along with Vadim Dudkin of Johnson & Johnson, of the Gordon Research Conference on Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology. She will be vice-chair in 2020 and chair in 2022.
Aug. 15 Prof. Whitehead's abstract on the co-delivery of siRNA and mRNA is chosen for a late-breaking talk at the Gordon Research Conference on Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology.
Aug. 12 Khalid wins a Best Poster Award at the Gordon Research Symposium on Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology for his work on mRNA delivery.
Aug. 6 The Whitehead Lab members go rafting in Ohiopyle State Park. Prof. Whitehead was dumped into the river only once. Nick realized his true calling as a river raft captain. Kathy practiced being excellent.
July 24 Khalid wins one of the coveted Poster Awards at the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting. He was one of four winners out of hundreds of posters.
July 22 Prof. Whitehead is recognized by the Controlled Release Society for her efforts as the inaugural chair of the Oral Delivery Focus Group.
July 15 The Whitehead Lab receives NSF funding for the engineering of polymer-protein conjugates for oral protein delivery.
June 1 Prof. Whitehead receives the DARPA Director's Fellowship in support of the lab's work on mRNA delivery systems.
May 18 Prof. Whitehead gives a keynote lecture on RNA delivery at the Canadian Society of Biomaterials Annual Meeting.
May 2 We have a new doctor! Lisa Kasiewicz defends her thesis. Congratulations!
Apr. 25 Becca, Khal, & two of our UGs, Jamie and Palak, publish their paper in Nano Letters on a lipid nanoparticle formulation for synergistic co-delivery of siRNA and mRNA.
Apr. 11 Chris and Jia's paper on triple siRNA cocktails for mantle cell lymphoma therapy is published in the open access journal Bioengineering and Translational Medicine.
Apr. 1 Namit is awarded the Weiland Graduate Fellowship in Chemical Engineering. Congratulations, Namit!
Mar. 1 The Whitehead Lab is awarded a grant from the Curci Foundation to study the influence of mRNA sequence on the mRNA delivery process.
Feb. 22 Becca successfully defends her thesis. Congratulations, Doctor!
Feb. 13 Prof. Whitehead is quoted in a CE&N magazine article describing the delivery challenges behind CRISPR-based gene editing technology.
Feb. 1 Becca's paper on the fate of lipid nanoparticles in the GI tract is published open access in Scientific Reports.
Jan. 15 Becca is awarded the Mahmood I. Bhutta Graduate Fellowship in Chemical Engineering.
Jan. 10 Kathy Fein is awarded the Bradford and Diane Smith Graduate Fellowship from the College of Engineering. Congratulations, Kathy!
2017
Dec. 19 Prof. Whitehead is quoted in Science Magazine on a new paper describing mRNA delivery to treat a rare metablic disorder.
Dec. 6 A warm welcome to our two new M.S. students from the Department of Chemical Engineering: Chinedu Okorafor and Sijie Xian!
Nov. 16 Welcome to our new Ph.D. students, Namit Chaudhary and Rose Doerfler, and M.S. student, Daria Strelkova. Welcome also to Kristina Friis, our new postdoc, who will be based in Gothenburg, Sweden to facilitate a collaboration with AstraZeneca.
Nov. 1 Rebecca Ball and Lisa Kasiewicz majorly represent at the AIChE annual meeting by winning 1st place graduate student podium presentation awards in divisions 22B Bionanotechnology and 8B Biomaterials, respectively. Congratulations, Becca and Lisa!
Oct. 27 Nick Lamson wins an Honorable Mention podium presentation award at the annual Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association symposium. Congratulations, Nick!
Sept. 12 Khalid's article reviewing the current lanscape of non-viral mRNA delivery materials is published in Nature Reviews Materials.
Aug. 15 Lisa's review article on biomaterials for the treatment of diabetic wounds is published in Biomaterials Science as part of the 2017 Emerging Investigators special issue.
June 10 Kathy, Becca & our Russell Lab collaborators publish on a new technique for enhancing oral protein delivery in Journal of Controlled Release.
May 21 Congratulations to the biggest batch ever of Whitehead Lab graduates - Chris Knapp (Ph.D.), Yan Zhang and Ya-Wen Cheng (M.S.), and Anna Zhang & Vishal Ahuja (B.S.)!
May 1 The illustrious Chris Knapp is the first Whitehead Lab student to defend his Ph.D.! Congratulations to Chris on a job well done.
Apr. 3 Kathy and Nick's paper on phenylpiperazine intestinal permeation enhancers is published in Pharmaceutical Research.
Mar. 14 Prof. Whitehead is named the 2017 Emerging Female Scientist Awardee from the Carnegie Science Center.
Jan. 5 Chris Knapp is selected for the Rothfus Graduate Fellowship in Chemical Engineering.
2016
Dec. 31 Becca's paper on LNP storage is published in the International Journal of Nanomedicine.
Dec. 14 Prof. Whitehead's article, "A new lease on half-life", is published online at Science Translational Medicine.
Nov. 30 Prof. Whitehead publishes "Muscling out gene mutations" in Science Translational Medicine.
Nov. 15 New Ph.D. student Kyle Cochran joins the group. Welcome!
Oct. 21 Whitehead Lab Ph.D. students win awards at the annual Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association symposium. Lisa Kasiewicz is awarded the Geoffrey D. Parfitt Memorial Award for best overall talk, and Rebecca Ball is awarded an Honorable Mention for her presentation. Very proud of our students' ability to communicate their science effectively to a broad audience.
Oct. 19 Prof. Whitehead publishes the article "Protecting kids with a patch" at Science Translational Medicine.
Oct. 18 Prof. Whitehead wins DARPA Young Faculty Award to develop next-generation mRNA delivery materials. CMU College of Engineering story here.
Sept. 7 Prof. Whitehead's article on "Gobbling up inflammation to ameliorate autoimmunity" is published at Science Translational Medicine.
Aug. 12 Prof. Whitehead is named a 2016 Young Innovator of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering. CMU College of Engineering story here; journal editorial here.
July 27 Prof. Whitehead's article, "A captive peptide for T cell activation", is published online at Science Translational Medicine.
July 11 The Whitehead Lab receives a four year grant from the Wadhwani Foundation for their work on studying the immune response to nanoparticle delivery systems. Press release at phys.org.
June 15 Prof. Whitehead publishes the article "Pancreatic cells play switcheroo" at Science Translational Medicine.
May 26 The Whitehead Lab receives a two year grant from the Disruptive Health Technology Initiative for their work on treating inflammatory bowel disease.
May 17 Jia He graduates with her M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering - congratulations on a job well done!
May 4 Undergrad Himali Ranade wins another 1st place poster prize for her work with Lisa Kasiewicz on siRNA delivery for wounds! This one was part of the Sigma Xi competition (100+ participants) at CMU's Meeting of the Minds.
May 4 Undergrads Anna Zhang & Vishal Ahuja win a 3rd place poster prize in the SRC competition at CMU's Meeting of the Minds.
Apr. 27 Prof. Whitehead's article on "A one-two punch for pain control" is published at Science Translational Medicine.
Apr. 15 Chris and Penghong's paper is published in Cellular and Molecular Engineering - congratulations!
Mar. 29 The talented Nick Lamson wins an NSF Graduate Fellowship!!!
Mar. 27 Chris' manuscript on Mcl-1 silencing for Mantle cell lymphoma therapy is published online at Experimental Biology & Medicine.
Mar. 23 Prof. Whitehead's first Science Translational Medicine article as an Associate Scientific Adivsor is published. It highlights a new broad-spectrum antiseptic that wipes out even the most vexing microbial infections.
Mar. 2 Prof. Whitehead is selected as a 2016 Associate Scientific Advisor for Science Translational Medicine.
Feb. 2 Chris Knapp is awarded the John and Claire Bertucci Fellowship for his research on Mantle cell lymphoma therapy.
Jan. 5 Nick & coauthors publish in Molecular Pharmaceutics on epithelial permeation enhancement with piperazines.
2015
Dec. 22 Lisa's paper in Acta Biomaterialia on 2-for-1 gene silencing in wounds is published online.
Dec. 18 Kanika Suri is awarded her M.S. degree - congratulations!
Nov. 9 Congratulations to Himali Ranade on her 1st place prize at the Food, Pharmaceutics, and Biotechnology Undergraduate Poster Session at AIChE!
Nov. 6 Welcome to our newest Ph.D. student, Kathy Fein!
Oct. 29 Prof. Whitehead participates in a Faculty Forum Online, Alumni Edition webcast on Advances in Nanotechnology put on by the MIT Alumni Association. You can watch the webcast here.
Oct. 23 Second year Ph.D. student, Khalid Hajj, wins the Gary Powers 1st place poster prize at the annual ChEGSA Symposium.
Oct. 13 Prof. Whitehead and the Whitehead Lab mascot, the Honey Badger, are featured in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette news article.
Oct. 6 The Whitehead Lab welcomes BME M.S. students, Yawen Cheng and Yan Zhang.
Sept. 23 Prof. Whitehead is named as one of 2015's Brilliant 10 by Popular Science magazine. PopSci story here, as well as a CMU press release and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story.
Sept. 21 Undergrad Himali Ranade is selected as a Berg scholar at the first John Berg Undergraduate Research Symposium. Himali will present her research at this fall's AIChE meeting in Salt Lake City.
July 20 Becca and Chris' paper is online at PLOS One!
June 25 Prof. Whitehead is selected as a participant in the National Academy of Engineering's 21st U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. NAE and CMU press releases.
May 16 Prof. Whitehead receives the 2015 Kun Li Excellence in Education Award.
May 16 Daniel Lee graduates with his M.S. degree - congrats!
May 6 Congratulations to Anna Zhang and Vishal Ahuja, mentored by Becca Ball, on their poster award at CMU's Meeting of the Minds.
May 1 The Whitehead Lab receives funding from the Berkman Faculty Devleopment Fund for intestinal disease therapy.
Apr. 24 Undergrad Sevahn Vorperian receives ChESS funding for 2015 summer research - congratulations!
Apr. 22 Freshman Himali Ranade is awarded CNAST summer research support, funded by the DSF Charitable Foundation.
Mar. 10 Becca wins best Cellular & Gene Therapy poster at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine's scientific retreat!
Jan. 2 The Whitehead Lab receives seed funding as part of the CMU Center for Polymer-Based Protein Engineering, supported by the College of Engineering and Mellon College of Science.
2014
Dec. 30 The Whitehead Lab is awarded a 3 year grant from CNAST, made possible by the David Scaife Family Charitable Foundation. This award will be used to support the lab's efforts in siRNA delivery.
Dec. 18 Chang Liu is awarded his M.S. degree - congratulations!
Dec. 15 ChE M.S. student Kanika Suri joins the lab - welcome!
Dec. 12 Nick Lamson is awarded the Thomas & Adrienne Klopack Graduate Fellowship! Congratulations, Nick.
Nov. 28 Prof. Whitehead's paper is published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.
Nov. 26 Vishal & Anna are accepted into the competitive SRO-URO program at CMU for 2015 - 2016.
Nov. 14 Ph.D. students Khalid Hajj and Nicholas Lamson join the group.
Nov. 8 Prof. Whitehead is a guest on the Regenerative Medicine Today podcast. Listen to Podcast #140 describing the lab's work with nanoparticles.
Nov. 1 M.S. student Jia He joins the lab - glad to have you!
Oct. 6 Prof. Whitehead discusses the lab's work on immune cell siRNA delivery at the NanoDDS symposium in Chapel Hill, NC.
Sept. 23 Prof. Whitehead speaks at EmTech 2014 as an MIT Technology Revew Innovator Under 35 honoree. Behind the scenes question and answer here.
Sept. 22 Chris' manuscript is published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery.
Sept. 19 Chris Knapp is awarded a Dowd-ICES Fellowship for his work on B-cell lymphoma.
Sept. 2 Undergrads George Degen & Vishal Ahuja join the lab - welcome!
Aug. 12 Prof. Whitehead is named as a Pioneer on the MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 list for her contributions to biotechnology and medicine. CMU press release found here.
July 12 College of Engineering video features Prof. Whitehead discussing the lab's work in oral delivery.
June 30 Prof. Whitehead's paper is published in Nature Communications.
May 18 Gabrielle graduates with her M.S. degree - congratulations!
Mar. 7 Anna is awarded an HHMI scholarship for summer research.
Feb. 19 Lisa is awarded the Gulf Oil Fellowship.
2013
Dec. 15 Penghong receives her M.S. degree - congratulations!
Dec. 12 M.S. student Chang Liu joins the group.
Nov. 14 Ph.D. students Rebecca Ball & Lisa Kasiewicz join the lab.
Oct. 1 M.S. student Daniel Lee and undergraduate Anna Zhang join the Whitehead lab - welcome to you both.
June 11 The Whitehead & Matyjaszewski labs receive a seed grant from the Disruptive Health Technology Initiative to develop polymeric dressings for chronic wounds.
June 1 The Whitehead Lab joins the Center for Nucleic Acids Science and Technology at CMU.
May 1 Prof. Whitehead is appointed as an affiliate member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Apr. 15 Prof. Whitehead secures funding for an IVIS Spectrum CT imaging system for the CMU campus.
Mar. 1 Prof. Whitehead is appointed as a courtesy member of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
2012
Dec. 15 M.S. student Penghong Guo joins the group - welcome!
Nov. 15 Ph.D. students Chris Knapp & Gabrielle Cusimano join the group.
Apr. 15 Not-yet-Prof. Whitehead signs with CMU!