Collagen Biografts for Tunable Drug Delivery

Rucha Joshi, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of California, Davis, focusing on engineering education research and instructional innovation in Biomedical Engineering. Prior to joining UC Davis in 2018, she was post-doctoral fellow in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, working on multiple educational projects in enhancing teaching, learning, outreach, and diversity of engineers. Rucha's current research focuses on approaching challenges in teaching engineering through the lens of design thinking. Previously, Rucha contributed to instructional innovation in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue, and worked on an NSF-funded grant for studying the professional formation of engineers and enhancing diversity and inclusion within Purdue. Rucha is also actively involved in educational entrepreneurship projects and making engineering accessible to underrepresented high school students in the United States,as well as India.

Rucha received a BS in Biotechnology Engineering from Shivaji University, India, in 2009, and MS in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in 2011, where she worked on creating smart microspheres for drug delivery with Dr. Craig Duvall. At Vanderbilt, she designed and developed a dual temperature and pH-responsive microsphere delivery system for sustained protein delivery to ischemic environments. She also synthesized & characterized micro-particle based delivery system platform from reactive oxygen species (ROS) responsive poly(propylene sulfide) (PPS) for sustained drug delivery. Rucha received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University in 2016, where she worked on creating designer collagen biografts for enabling controlled drug delivery. Rucha developed multifunctional 3D collagen-fibril biograft materials with tunable physical and molecular delivery properties with Prof. Sherry Voytik-Harbin. She also devised and validated an in vitro model system for quantifying kinetics of molecular release from collagen, and applied collagen biograft materials for enhanced local neovascularization in vitro and in vivo CAM model.

Rucha has received several scholarships and awards for thought leadership, entrepreneurship, and community engagement, including the Ross Fellowship for outstanding PhD applicants, and the Burton D. Morgan Fellowship for entrepreneurial students at Purdue. She was honored by. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the late president of India, for her invention of "low calorie biscuits from banana peel pulp" and for her STEM popularization efforts. Rucha authored a book in Marathi "Bhartiya Balvaidnyanik achi Garudzep" summarizing her life experiences in inspiring Indian students towards STEM pursuits that won a literary award from Maharashtra State Government.