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WCBE RESEARCHER BUILDS BRIDGES TO
MEDICINE’S FUTURE

Surya Mallapragada is one engineer who wants the structures she builds to fall apart—but not until they’ve served a critical purpose.

Mallapragada isn’t talking bridges, skyscrapers, or anything “big” that comes to mind when people think of structural engineering. Instead, the associate professor of chemical and biological engineering is thinking even bigger by developing new ways to rebuild critical body tissues on the smallest scales.

“The overall theme of my research is to try to control the nanostructuring of polymers at the surface in different types of structures,” says Mallapragada.

What this means is nothing less than using some of the smallest particles known to science to build polymer “scaffolds” over which individual cells may either link up with other cells or regenerate various body tissues to replace those lost to disease or surgery. Once these nanostructures serve their purpose, they can dissolve and pass harmlessly from the body.

Yet another project incorporating this technology envisions customized polymeric dosage systems for the controlled release of drugs, a possible means to freeing diabetic patients from the tyranny of daily insulin injections.

Drawn to medical applications while a doctoral student at Purdue, Mallapragada developed her skills in tissue engineering at MIT and Rice University. As one of her initial projects she tackled the development of polymer surfaces that effectively bridge severed nerves to create channels across which neurons may regenerate, re-establishing function in peripheral nerve networks that control motion in the arms and legs. And while her current research doesn’t directly address issues related to the central nervous system, it’s an area that’s definitely on her radar screen.

“There are different issues relating to spinal cord injury and the central nervous system, and we’re beginning to look at those using adult stem cells, “ Mallapragada said. “Initially, it looks promising.”

Mallapragada’s innovations in polymers have already borne fruit for her career: in 2002 she was named by Technology Review as one of the world’s top 100 young innovators, a group that, in the words of the magazine’s publishers, “will have a deep impact on how we live, work and think in the century to come.”

Derrick Rollins
Assistant Dean for Diversity
116 Marston Hall
Ames, IA 50011-2151
Phone: (515) 294-5516
Fax: (515) 294-9273