Katarzyna (Kasha) Slowinska

Research is focused on the structure/property relationship and dynamic behavior of collagen and collagen-inspired materials.

The triple helical structure of collagen is key to its strength, flexibility, and ability to self-assemble into higher-order structures. Our group is interested in fundamental principles that govern the self-assembly processes of helical proteins and peptides.  We plan to apply these fundamental principles in design and synthesis of new collagen-based materials possessing interesting structural and physical properties.

Collagen gels are often used in drug delivery and tissue engineering. By modifying both the gel, and the potential drug, we endeavor to achieve the control over drug diffusion within these gels. We are particularly interested in designing new delivery vehicles for low-solubility cancer drugs. The reversible self-assembly of collagen and hybrid peptides allows for the development of new methods in drug delivery. 

Our group is also interested in application of collagen peptides as spatially well-defined support for green catalyst, development of the analytical tools to study polydisperse biosystems and delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics.