Our Lab News
Helna Earns OARSI 2026 Early Career Investigator Travel Support Award
Congratulations to Helna Mary on receiving the OARSI 2026 ECI Travel Support Award! Well-deserved recognition for her work and a great opportunity to connect with the OA research community in West Palm Beach. https://congress.oarsi.org/awards
ORS 2026 Recap!
We had a great time at ORS 2026 presenting our work and getting to see the latest developments in the orthopedic field. It was a great time full of science and catching up with old friends.
Check out our work at the ORS 2026 Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC!
Helna, Bill, Andrew, and Hengli will share exciting work on charge-based drug and gene delivery for osteoarthritis treatment. Please stop by our talk and posters! We're looking forward to it!
Dr. Chris Evans Seminar at Northeastern University
Dr. Chris Evans, professor of orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic, visited Northeastern University and gave a wonderful seminar talk. It was great to learn about his amazing work in osteoarthritis IL-1RA gene therapy!
Congratulations to Ella Hannes on receiving a PEAK Summit Fellowship!
Congratulations to Ella Hannes on receiving a PEAK Summit Fellowship for the Spring 2026 semester. Ella was rewarded this prestigious award from Northeastern University Undergraduate Research and Fellowships to support on the project "Engineering Hybrid Exosomes for...
Congratulations to Dr. Tim Boyer and co-authors on the recent publish work on cartilage targeting IL-1RA to prevent OA inflammation in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage
In this work, led by Dr. Tim Boyer, we engineered a cationic interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (cat-IL-1Ra) by fusing a cartilage-targeting cationic peptide carrier (CPC) to IL-1Ra. This design enabled selective targeting of anionic cartilage and the formation of...
Congratulations to Helna Baby and co-authors on the publication of their book chapter in Harnessing Endogenous Mechanisms for Targeted Drug Delivery!
Our new book chapter, led by Helna, explores the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in biological membrane trafficking and discusses their inherent limitations. The chapter further presents engineering design principles and state-of-the-art surface modification...
Our Cartilage-Targeting CPC Platform for Diagnostic Applications Has Been Patented!
Our work, pioneered by Dr. Chenzhen Zhang (read the paper [HERE]), showcased CPC's capability to enhance contrast agent delivery for CT imaging purposes. The patented platform provided a high-quality imaging modality at a significantly lower dosage compared to the...
Congrats to Helna Baby and co-authors on their Nano Today publication about engineering EVs to overcome physiological barriers
Our new review, led by Helna, examines how extracellular vesicles (EVs) interact with key biological barriers, including cartilage, the blood–brain barrier, the gastrointestinal tract, the eye, and the skin, and the effects on pharmacokinetics and tissue transport. We...