Mohammad Azad
North Carolina A & T State University, NC·Biomedical Engineering
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) cause chronic, relapsing inflammation of the gut and affect several million people worldwide. IBD arises from a complex interplay of the patient's body, gut microbes and environmental factors.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Computer Science
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
inflammatory bowel disease
theragnostics
engineered bacteria
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Model how host, gut microbe and environmental factors such as diet and smoking interact in inflammatory bowel disease, using data science on the IBD Multi-omics Database to find key biomarkers.
- Engineer bacteria with synthetic biology that sense IBD-related inflammation markers and respond by producing anti-inflammatory molecules.
- Develop a 3D-printed smart pill that delivers the engineered bacteria safely to target regions of the gut, and evaluate the integrated detect-and-treat system.
More about the research
How this interplay triggers disease is unclear, which makes IBD hard to diagnose and treat. This collaborative project aims to model that interplay and build a theragnostic tool, one that both detects and treats disease, that can be delivered safely to the gut.
Why it matters
People living with IBD, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, need more accurate diagnosis and more effective ways to control symptoms. An ingestible pill carrying bacteria that sense and counter gut inflammation could help patients manage flare-ups. The approach may also serve as a model for detect-and-treat tools for other chronic diseases.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Benjamin Terry
Brigham Young University, UT·Biomedical Engineering
Design and fabricate a tethered capsule optimized for prolonged retention in the gastrointestinal tract, using a biocompatible, degradable tether and tethered odometry to track position.
Pawel Kiela
University of Arizona, AZ·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine whether loss of NAD+ or excess PARylation by the enzyme PARP1 is the main driver of experimental colitis, using PARP1 knockout mice and drug inhibition.
Sana Syed
Duke University, NC·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Build a computational metabolic network reconstruction specific to the ileum, the part of the small intestine most affected by Crohn's disease, to serve as a reference model of healthy and diseased gut metabolism.
The school
North Carolina A & T State University: 5 labs on PI Pages, $82M a year on research, 72 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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