DAVID W GRAINGER portrait
  • Distinguished Professor, Biomedical Engineering
  • Chair, Biomedical Engineering
  • Distinguished Professor, Molecular Pharmaceutics
  • Adjunct Professor of Orthopedics, Orthopaedic Surgery Operations
  • Adjunct Professor, Chemistry
  • Ole and Marty Jensen Endowed Professor, School Of Dentistry

Research Statement

My research interests and group focus on the crossroads of materials and medicine. I am interested in the thematic as well as literal interfaces of biomaterials and living systems. This translates to study and innovation in medical diagnostic systems and bioassays, medical implant designs and improvement using innovative biomaterials and on-baord drug delivery, implant-related infections, surface analysis in biomedical systems, drug delivery systems for proteins and vaccines, and novel surface modification strategies.  I have substantial experience in technology transfer, industrial technology translation, consulting, expert witness and technical writing in diverse aspects of medical and drug delivery technology.   I have run numerous technical short courses for industrial and academic audiences upon request.   I am routinely invited to speak at government advisory, academic and industrial forums, panels, workshops, and working groups. 

Research Keywords

  • Translational Research
  • Surface Chemistry
  • Research Reproducibility
  • Regenerative Medicine
  • Polymer surface modification
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nanobiotechnology
  • Medical polymers
  • Medical Technology
  • Medical Devices
  • Ethics, Research
  • Drug Delivery Systems
  • Diagnostics Assays
  • Cellular Therapy
  • Biotechnology
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomaterials
  • Bacterial Infections
  • Animal model to study human polymicrobial biofilm infections
  • Ultrathin Protein and Polymer Films
  • Tissue Engineering
  • Protein-Surface Interaction
  • Protein Immobilization and Release
  • Polymeric drug delivery systems
  • Molecular Diagnostics
  • Membrane Biophysics
  • Gene Expression, Microarray
  • Fluorinated Surface Chemistry
  • Drug Delivery in Combination Services
  • Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering
  • Drug Delivery
  • Diagnostic and Microarray Surfaces
  • Colloids
  • Cell-Surface Interaction
  • Brucella Vaccine
  • Biopharmaceutical and physicochemical problems related to dosage forms and drug delivery systems
  • Bioengineering
  • Bacteria-Surface Interaction

Presentations

  • Invited plenary speaker (virtual COVID-altered Zoom talk), “Tracing translational pathways in biomedical technology”, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain, April 5, 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/05/2021.
  • “Responsible conduct, reproducibility and ethical issues in research”, School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 01/15/2020.
  • “Responsible conduct, reproducibility and ethical issues in research”, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Utah. Other, Presented, 10/29/2019.
  • “Point-Counterpoint: Wearable sensors will be more medically impacting than invasive sensors”, Surface in Biomaterials Foundation, Park City, UT. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/04/2019.
  • “Overview of Clinical Experiences with Nanoparticles”, Drug Delivery West, San Francisco, CA. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/06/2019.
  • “Delivery of biotech drugs from surgically placed implants - combination devices", Millennium Biotechnology Pan Arab Conference, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/24/2019.
  • “Barriers to translating biomedical technology,” 2018 Global Opportunities and Partnering Event for Innovative Medical Electronics and Medical Imaging. Ministry of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/29/2018.
  • “Comparing clinical and preclinical performance of nanomedicines: a disconnect?” European Society for Biomaterials, Maastricht, NL. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/13/2018.
  • “Antimicrobial Combination Medical Device Translation: Barriers in the University-Industry Translational Ecosystem”, National Materials and Manufacturing Board’s “Roundtable on Biomedical Engineering Materials and Applications”, National Academies, Washington D.C., . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/26/2018.
  • “Comparing 2D and 3D kidney nephrotoxicity organoid models for drug screening,” TWIns, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Tokyo, Japan. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/07/2018.
  • “Strategies to immobilize and analyze biomolecules on surfaces”, Chemical Technology, RIKEN Institute, Saitama, Japan. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/07/2018.

Research Groups

  • Eva Serio, Undergraduate Student. Biomedical Engineering. 06/22/2020 - 12/30/2021.
  • Sophia Bou-Ghannam, Graduate Student. Bioengineering. 08/16/2015 - 05/06/2021.
  • • Hallie Thorp, Graduate Student. Bioengineering. 08/16/2015 - 05/15/2021.

Research Equipment and Testing Expertise

  • Access to University Core Lab facilities as described on-line for the University, including the imaging, microscopy, histology, flow cytometry, and bioanalytical chemistry, and the Nano-Fab core facility with surface analysis tools, including imaging XPS and ellipsometry, SEM and TEM. Contact: David Grainger , , Biomedical Engineering.

Languages

  • English, fluent.
  • German, functional.

Geographical Regions of Interest

  • Germany
    Humboldt Foundation postdoctoral fellow, Mainz, 1989 Helmholtz Foundation programme reviewer, 2014 Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Medicine, Berlin, 2013-2016 Co-Organizer, Berlin Translate! conference series.
  • Japan
    frequent invited guest and JSPS Visiting Faculty Fellow, Tokyo Women's Medical University, 1998; Visiting Professor, Keio University, 2019-2021.
  • Netherlands
    regular visitor and consultant to the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Royal University of Groningen.
  • Republic of Korea
    Joint Inha-Utah Drug Delivery Center, Inha, Korea.
  • Switzerland
    advisor to the AO Foundation, EMPA, TEDD, and the CCMX Board Chair, Materials Science Initiative, Switzerland.
  • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
    Scientific Advisor to EPSRC Next Generation Biomaterials Discovery Programme R&D Centre, University of Nottingham, U.K.

Publications

  • Dunn CM, Kameishi S, Parker T, Grainger, DW & Okano TO (2023). Cellular Interactions in Cell Sheets Enhance Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Immunomodulatory Properties. Tissue engineering. Part A. Vol. 29, 594603594-603. Published, 11/01/2023.
  • Duda GN, Grainger DW, Guldberg RE & Prestwich, GD (2023). Measuring translational research impact requires reaching beyond current metrics. Science translational medicine. Vol. 15, eabp8258eabp8258. Published, 08/01/2023.
  • Gamble LJ, Radford D & Grainger, DW (2023). Quantitative evaluation of perfluorinated alkanethiol molecular order on gold surfaces. Biointerphases. Vol. 18. Published, 06/01/2023.
  • Kuramoto G, Hammad IA, Einerson BD, Allshouse AA, Grainger, DW, Okano, TW & Silver, R (2022). Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Sheets Improve Uterine Incision Repair in a Rodent Hysterotomy Model. American journal of perinatology. Vol. 39, 121212221212-1222. Published, 08/01/2022.
  • J.D. Oliver, S. Jia, L.R. Halpern, E.M. Graham, E.C. Turner, J.S. Colombo, D.W. Grainger, R. D'Souza (2020). Innovative Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics in Cleft Palate Tissue Engineering. Tissue Eng. Part B Rev. Published, 09/28/2020.
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32873216/
  • Kim K, Thorp H, Bou-Ghannam S, Grainger DW & Okano T (2020). Stable cell adhesion affects mesenchymal stem cell sheet fabrication: Effects of fetal bovine serum and human platelet lysate. Journal of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Vol. 14, 741-753. Published, 09/01/2020.
  • Busscher HJ, Alt V, van der Mei HC, Fagette PH, Zimmerli W, Moriarty TF, Parvizi J, Schmidmaier G, Raschke MJ, Gehrke T, Bayston R, Baddour LM, Winterton LC, Darouiche RO & Grainger DW (2019). A Trans-Atlantic Perspective on Stagnation in Clinical Translation of Antimicrobial Strategies for the Control of Biomaterial-Implant-Associated Infection. ACS biomaterials science & engineering. Vol. 5, 402-406. Published, 11/01/2019.
  • Moriarty TF, Harris LG, Mooney RA, Wenke JC, Riool M, Zaat SAJ, Moter A, Schaer TP, Khanna N, Kuehl R, Alt V, Montali A, Liu J, Zeiter S, Busscher HJ, Grainger DW & Richards RG (2019). Recommendations for design and conduct of preclinical in vivo studies of orthopedic device-related infection. Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society. Vol. 37, 271-287. Published, 10/01/2019.
  • Diekjürgen D & Grainger DW (2018). Drug transporter expression profiling in a three-dimensional kidney proximal tubule in vitro nephrotoxicity model. Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology. Vol. 470, 1311-1323. Published, 11/01/2018.
  • Falconer JL, Alt JA & Grainger DW (2018). Comparing ex vivo and in vitro translocation of silver nanoparticles and ions through human nasal epithelium. Biomaterials. Vol. 171, 97-106. Published, 03/01/2018.
  • F. Liu & D.W. Grainger (2017). Fluorinated Biomaterials. Vol. II, Comprehensive Biomaterials. Published, 06/02/2017.
  • Abou-El-Enein M, Duda GN, Gruskin EA & Grainger DW (2016). Strategies for Derisking Translational Processes for Biomedical Technologies. Trends in biotechnology. Vol. 35, 100-108. Published, 08/01/2016.
  • Aamodt JM & Grainger DW (2016). Extracellular matrix-based biomaterial scaffolds and the host response. Biomaterials. Vol. 86, 68-82. Published, 03/01/2016.
  • M. Avula, D. Jones; A. Rao, D. McClain, L.D. McGill, D.W. Grainger; F. Solzbacher, “Local release of masitinib alters in vivo implantable continuous glucose sensor performance”, Biosensors Bioelectron. (2016) 77 149–156;DOI 10.1016/j.bios.2015.08.059. Published, 01/2016.
  • J. Falconer, S. Lu, C. Jones, D.W Grainger,Carbon Nanomaterials Rescue Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon Toxicity in Zebrafish Embryo Cultures”, Environ. Sci. Nano, 2015, 2, 645 – 652; DOI: 10.1039/C5EN00111K. Published, 06/2015.
  • H. Herd Gustafson, D. Holt-Casper, D.W. Grainger, H. Ghandehari,, “Nanoparticle Uptake: The Phagocyte Problem“, NanoToday, 2015 Aug; 10(4): 487-510. doi: 10.1016/j.nantod.2015.06.006; PMCID: PMC4666556; NIHMSID: NIHMS707252. Published, 03/2015.
    http://dx/doi.10.1016/j.nantod.2015.06.006
  • Brooks BD, Sinclair KD, Grainger DW & Brooks AE (2015). A resorbable antibiotic-eluting polymer composite bone void filler for perioperative infection prevention in a rabbit radial defect model. PloS one, 2015 Mar 27;10(3):e0118696. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118696D. PMID: 25815727. Published, 03/01/2015.
  • Grainger DW (2014). Cell-based drug testing; this world is not flat. Advanced drug delivery reviews. Vol. 69-70, vii-xi. Published, 05/01/2014.
  • “A 3-D organoid in vitro kidney model for in vivo nanomaterials toxicity assessment,” Biomaterials, 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2014.04.060, 2014.. Published, 02/05/2014.
  • “Biophysical aspects of nucleic acids on surfaces relevant to microarray performance, Biomaterials. Sci., (2014) 2(4), 436-471. DOI:10.1039/C3BM60181A. Published, 02/04/2014.
    http://dx/DOI.10.1039/C3BM60181A