C Berkland

Education

• Post Doc Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering - University of Illinois, Urbana 2004
• PhD Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering - University of Illinois, Urbana May 2003
• MS Chemical Engineering - University of Illinois, Urbana May 2001
• BS Chemical Engineering Iowa State University, Ames Dec 1998

Research

In recent history, through the merger of engineering and biological sciences, biotechnology has pressed toward improving methods for regenerating tissues, developing biosensors, and effectively delivering therapeutic agents. Accomplishing such tasks requires specifically designing biomedical or drug delivery devices that possess the required physicochemical properties. Our lab focuses on developing precision engineering technologies at the macro- to molecular scale for novel or improved biomedical and drug delivery devices.

Precision Particles

Precisely sized micro- or nanoparticles offer several advantages over conventional particulate drug formulations. Our previous work has established uniform biodegradable particles as a means to control and define the release profile of drugs over time. In addition, specifically modulating microsphere size offers an attractive means to improve drug administration while controlling release. For example, the deep lung can be effectively reached by 1-3 micron particles while 10-20 micron particles can embolize a tumor bed for localized delivery of chemotherapeutics. Finally, the design of microcapsules utilizing a degradable polymeric shell of controlled thickness may provide a novel platform for the development of pulsatile drug release profiles as desired for vaccine formulations

Precision Tissue Scaffolds

The properties of tissue scaffolds, such as overall size/shape, degradability, compression strength, porosity, and surface structure are difficult to control using conventional techniques and need to be specifically tuned depending on the medical application. By combining various device fabrication techniques such as soft lithography, precision particle fabrication, and electrostatic spraying, polymeric devices exhibiting precision macro-, micro-, and nano-structure can be produced. Utilizing these techniques in combination provides biomedical devices exhibiting controlled properties including biodegradable tissue scaffolds with periodic structure.

Peer Reviewed Publications

L. Shi and C. Berkland pH-Triggered Dispersion of Nanoparticle Clusters. Advanced Materialsin press.

EJ. Pollauf, C. Berkland, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2005) In vitro degradation of polyanhydride/polyester core-shell double-wall microspheres International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 301(1-2):294-303.

C. Raman, C. Berkland, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2005) Modeling small-molecule release from PLG microspheres: effects of polymer degradation and nonuniform drug distribution Journal of Controlled Release, 103(1):149-158

C. Berkland, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2004) Controlling double-walled microcapsule shell thickness offers modulated piroxicam release Journal of Biomedical Materials Research 70A(4):576-584

C. Berkland, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2004) Uniform double-walled polymer microspheres of controllable shell thickness Journal of Controlled Release, 96(1):101-111

C. Berkland, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2004) Controlling Surface Nano-Structure using Flow-Limited Field-Injection Electrostatic Spraying (FFESS) of Poly-(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide). Biomaterials, 25(25):5649-58

C. Berkland, M.J. Kipper, B. Narasimhan, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2004) Microsphere Size, Precipitation Kinetics, and Drug Distribution Control Drug Release from Biodegradable Polyanhydride Microspheres. Journal of Controlled Release, 94(1):129-141

C. Berkland, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2004)Precision polymer microparticles for controlled-release drug delivery. ACS Symposium Series, 879:197-213

C. Berkland, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2003) PLG microsphere size controls drug release rate through several competing factors. Pharmaceutical Research, 20(7):1055-1062

C. Berkland, M. King, A. Cox, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2002) Precise control of PLG microsphere size provides enhanced control of drug release rate. Journal of Controlled Release, 82(1):137-147

C. Berkland, K. Kim, and D.W. Pack (2001) Fabrication of PLG microspheres with precisely controlled and monodisperse size distributions. Journal of Controlled Release, 73(1):59-74