People

Christopher B. Rodell, PhD

Assistant Professor
School of Biomedical Engineering,
Science and Health Systems
Drexel University
Email: cbr58@drexel.edu

Biography
Dr. Christopher B. Rodell is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Health and Science Systems at Drexel University. Chris received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tulane University as part of the historic ‘Katrina Class’ of 2009. He went on to conduct his doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania, working on the development and in vivo application of injectable supramolecular hydrogels. Following completion of his PhD, Chris was a postdoctoral scholar with the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, exploring drug delivery platforms for innate immune activation and their applications toward cancer immunotherapy. To date, Chris has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, 7 patent applications, and is the recipient of a number of awards, including an a Materials Research Society Gold Award, the Solomon R. Pollack Award for excellence in graduate biomedical engineering research from the University of Pennsylvania, an Individual Biomedical Research Award from the Hartwell Foundation, an NIH R35 MIRA, and a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association.

Education
Postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School, 2016-2019
PhD in Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, 2016
MS in Biomedical Engineering, Tulane University, 2011
BS in Biomedical Engineering & Physics, Tulane University, 2011

Editorial Service
Early Career Editorial Advisory Board: ACS Biomater. Sci. & Engr. (Jan. 2022-Present)
Guest Editor: Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews (Ongoing)
Associate Scientific Advisor: Science Translational Medicine (Feb. 2020 – Feb. 2021)

Research Interests
Biomaterials, supramolecular chemistry, and drug delivery. Therapeutic applications including the etiology of disease, organ injury, cardiovascular engineering, immune engineering, and biomedical imaging.

Current Students

  • Biplab Sarkar
    Cotswold Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow

  • Shreya Soni
    PhD Candidate, BIOMED
    BS, Biomedical Engineering; Rutgers University

  • Arielle D’Elia
    PhD Candidate, BIOMED
    BS, Biomedical Engineering; Rutgers University

  • Kenneth Kim
    PhD Candidate, Microbiology & Immunology
    BS, Biological Sciences, Penn State
    MS, Biomed. Sciences, NCI/Hood College

  • Akari Seiner
    PhD Candidate, BIOMED
    BS, Bioengineering; Oregon State University
    MS, Biomedical Engineering; University of Idaho

  • Alex Osidach
    PhD Student, BIOMED
    BS, Biology; Penn State

  • Ezgi Tezer
    PhD Student, BIOMED
    BSSc, Biomedical Enginering; Istanbul Technical University
    Co-advisor: Vijay Bhoj, MD, PhD (University of Pennsylvania)

  • Sylvia Cho
    STAR Scholar, Summer 2021
    Undergraduate Researcher, BIOMED

  • Olivia Jones
    BS/MS Student, BIOMED
    Undergraduate Researcher

  • Lindsay Hager
    BS/MS Student, BIOMED
    2023 Goldwater Scholar Nominee

  • Rachel Gontarski
    BS Student, BIOMED

  • Mary Afonkina
    STAR Scholar, Summer 2024
    BS Student, Chemistry

  • Winni Gao
    MD Student, 2024 Medical Student
    Summer Research Fellow

  • Gloriana Joy
    Imaging Specialist

  • Bella Rae
    Lab Manager

Lab Alumni

Undergraduate Students

Manthan (Manny) Patel
Undergraduate Student, CBE
Fall 2019 – Fall 2020

Neha Nevasekar
Undergraduate Student, BIOMED
Fall 2019 – Fall 2020

Nathan N. Nazareth
Undergraduate Research Co-op, BIOMED
Fall 2021 – Winter 2022

Master's Students

Jocelyn Kurtze
MS Student, BIOMED
Fall 2019 – Spring 2021
BS, Biomedical Engineering; Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Abdulrahman
(Abed) Alsasa
MS Student, BME
BS, Biomedical Engineering; University of Rhode Island

Victor Mishin
BS/MS Student, BIOMED
Summer 2021 – Summer 2022
Thesis: Photoresponsive Hydrogels Enable Geometrically Tunable Blood Shunts for Pediatric Use
Co-Advisor: Amy L. Throckmorton, PhD

Elisabeth Posthill
MS Student, BIOMED
Summer 2022 – Summer 2023
Thesis: Development and Characterization of Covalently Crosslinked Hydrogels for Use in Geometrically Tunable Blood Shunts

Olivia Jones
BS/MS Student, BIOMED & 2023 Barry Goldwater Scholar
Summer 2022 – Summer 2023
Thesis: Supramolecular Assembly of Granular Hydrogel Composites for Multi-Drug Delivery

Mentored Senior Design Groups

A Hemocompatible Blood Shunt for the Treatment of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome in Neonates

Team Members: Bryan Ferrick, Danika Meldrum, Kristen Shema, and Amber Thomas
Primary Mentor: Dr. Amy Throckmorton
2019-2020

HydroSim: A Computational Model of Controlled Drug Release

Team Members: Samuel Huang, Joshua McGuckin, Amy Tieu, Julianne Wagner
2020 – 2021

Geometrically-Tunable Blood Shunt for Heart Reconstructive Surgeries

Team Members: SCarley Bachner, Slava Beliaev, Maklah Sheldon, Marie Trang, Josh Yang
2022 – 2023