Clegg

EDUCATION

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard University and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

Ph.D., 2019, Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

M.A., 2018, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education, Univerisity of Texas at Austin

M.S.E., 2016, Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

B.S., 2014, Biomedical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

RESEARCH & PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS

The Neuro-Immuno-Engineering Collective (Clegg Lab) explores hydrogel and innate immune cell-based therapeutics for the treatment of neurological diseases and traumatic injuries. Our approach is to develop application-specific therapeutics, and to evaluate their efficacy using both biomimetic tissue devices (i.e. engineered biological barriers or organs on chips) and animal models. Our current efforts are focused in the following areas:

• Hierarchical synthesis and assembly of soft biomaterials for the sustained release of immunomodulators.
• Development and application of engineered brain-tissue barrier models.
• Evaluation of macrophage cell-based therapeutics that are delivered in tandem with an immunomodulatory scaffold. 
• Translation of these therapeutics to treat brain inflammation (multiple sclerosis, traumatic injury, secondary brain damage) and brain cancer.

PUBLICATIONS

• Kapate N, Clegg JR, Mitragotri S. (2021). Non-Spherical micro- and nanoparticles for drug delivery: Progress over 15 years. Adv. Drug Delivery Reviews. doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2021.05.017.
• Wang L.L.W., Janes M.E., Kumbhojkar N., Kapate N., Clegg J.R., Prakash S., Heavey M.K., Zhao Z., Anselmo A.C., & Mitragotri S. (2021) Cell Therapies in the Clinic. Bioengineering and Translational Medicine, 6(2), e10214.
• Clegg J.R., Sun, J.A., Gu J., Venkataraman A.K., & Peppas N.A. (2021) Peptide Conjugation Enhances the Cellular Co-localization, but not Endosomal Escape, of Modular Poly(Acrylamide-co-Methacrylic Acid) Nanogels. Journal of Controlled Release. 329 1162-1171. 
• Mandal A., Clegg J.R., Anselmo A.C., & Mitragotri, S. (2020) Hydrogels in the Clinic. Bioengineering and Translational Medicine, 5(2) e10158.
• Clegg J.R., Irani A.S., Ander E.W, Ludolph C.M., Venkataraman A.K., Zhong J.X., & Peppas N.A. (2019) Synthetic Networks with Tunable Responsiveness, Biodegradation, and Molecular Recognition, for Precision Medicine Applications. Science Advances. eaax7946.
• Clegg J.R., Wagner A.M., Shin S.R., Hassan S, Khademhosseini A., & Peppas N.A. (2019) Modular Fabrication of Intelligent Material-Tissue Interfaces for Bioinspired and Biomimetic Devices. Progress in Materials Science. 100589.
• Culver, H. R., Clegg, J. R., & Peppas, N. A. (2017). Analyte-Responsive Hydrogels: Intelligent Materials for Biosensing and Drug Delivery. Accounts of Chemical Research, 50(2), 170-178.