The world population is projected to reach 9 billion by year 2050. It is a pressing problem to increase food production to feed the world population with more food demand despite the exacerbating climate conditions like degrading soil, extreme weather events, and more. From increasing food production, to preventing food losses during transportation and consumption, to extending food shelf life, researchers are racing with time and working on every aspect of the food problem. Marelli's lab at MIT has been training me to think about planetary health and how we can use biopolymeric technologies to tackle agricultural and environmental problems.
|
|
Image from Climate Change 2023 Synthesis Report, a report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
|
|
Underwater Vaccination Using Biopolymeric Microneedles
My current research priority is to develop a microneedle-based technology for efficient underwater fish vaccine delivery. Fish disease is the leading cause of fish loss in aquaculture. In 2023, 86% of the lost trout in the US were lost due to diseases. Effective vaccination at an early stage is essential in preventing diseases to secure the aquacultural food supply. Among all the vaccine administration routes, intramuscular injection is the most effective method. However, it is labor-intensive, requires fish sedation, and poses safety hazards for farm workers. The generated needle waste is costly and energy intensive to process. To overcome these challenges, microneedle technology using food-grade biomaterials will be developed to deliver vaccines underwater, especially to young fish. Microneedles loaded with vaccines will release the cargo into fish skin and muscular tissues to provide immunological protection. The success of this project will provide a vaccination method that can be automated to relieve workload, deliver valuable vaccines precisely, and avoid needle waste by replacing it with non-plastic and biodegradable materials.
Stay tuned for incoming papers!
Stay tuned for incoming papers!
Polymeric Microneedle Technology for Plant Drug Delivery
Wearable devices, either for monitoring our health (such as smart watches) or for sustainably release therapeutics (such as insulin), are becoming more accessible and recognized. But wearable devices for crops, not so much. Just like animals, plants respond to various biotic and abiotic stressors, and often times when the symptoms become visible it is too late to reverse the damage. Traditional methods such as foliar spraying to apply fertilizers/pesticides/herbicides can be susceptible to various problems: most applied materials are dispensed to the air or fall to the soil instead of received by the crop foliage; following irrigation or rain events could cause run-off and further decrease delivered amount and contaminate soil and water. To overcome these challenges, microneedle technology can be applied as a carrier to direct deliver nanosensors, drugs, growing factors to plants with accurate dosage and high delivery efficiency by bypassing various plant surface barriers. Collaborating with the Singapore team, we are exploring a library of biomaterials, study how their associated microneedles behave, and what their interaction with plant hosts are.
Stay tuned for incoming papers!
Stay tuned for incoming papers!