Nanomedicine Laboratory

Akshada Mutha, (left) and Aishwarya Gangadhar (right), each received the Best Basic Science Research Poster Award. They’re joined by Divya Bijukumar, assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences. — Akshada Mutha, (left) and Aishwarya Gangadhar (right), each received the Best Basic Science Research Poster Award during Research Day 2024. They’re joined by Divya Bijukumar, assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences.

Divya Bijukumar, PhD, is the principal investigator of the University of Illinois College of Medicine’s Nanomedicine Lab in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. She is also a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University, in Evanston.

Dr. Bijukumar’s research focuses on nanodrug delivery and nanotoxicology. She was trained as a nanobiotechnologist and had experience in cellular and molecular biology research to study cell-material interactions. Her team has been working on developing polymeric nanoparticles to improve the efficiency of hydrophobic drugs for therapeutic applications of retinal diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and retinopathy of prematurity that share the common pathophysiology of neovascularization with cancer. Her lab is also working on developing a combinatorial approach for arthritis treatment using natural products. Most of her investigations were centered on improving the solubility and bioavailability of the existing drugs for better efficiency in cancer treatment.

Dr. Bijukumar extended her research to the neurotoxicity and immunotoxicology of metallic nanoparticles. She has been involved in the recent development of cell accelerated corrosion at the head taper modular junction by detailed evaluation of macrophage phenotypes induced by metal nanoparticles and their role in corrosion in implants. Her research work received the prestigious William. H. Harris Award from the Orthopedic Research Society in 2020 for the contribution towards providing experimental evidence of cell-induced implant corrosion research area.

Dr. Bijukumar is collaborating with Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University and Rush University Medical Center. Her research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NINDS and NIH/NIBIB) and the Blazer Foundation.