New Jersey Center for Biomaterials

Joachim Kohn, PhD

Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Professor Joachim Kohn is the Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry at Rutgers University. He has served as Director of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials since its establishment in 1997. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Chair of the International College of Fellows of Biomaterials Science and Engineering. He is the principal investigator of several leading federally-funded R&D programs: NIH-funded postdoctoral training program in Tissue Engineering, NIH funded National Resource for Polymeric Biomaterials (RESBIO), the DoD-funded Center for Military Biomaterials Research (CeMBR) and the DoD-funded Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM).

Professor Kohn's research interests focus on the development of new biomaterials. He pioneered the use of combinatorial and computational methods for the optimization of biomaterials for specific medical applications. He is mostly known for his seminal work on "pseudo-poly(amino acid)s". He has published over 200 scientific manuscripts and reviews, and holds 45 patents.

Since 1997, Professor Kohn has received over $75 Million in research support from US government agencies, the New Jersey state government, and private corporations and foundations. He is the scientific founder of three spin-off companies. As Director of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials, Professor Kohn initiated the Center's industrial membership program that has currently 10 member companies.

In 2007, Professor Kohn was inducted into the New Jersey High-Tech Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for best medical technology patent in New Jersey, once in 1999 for his invention of tyrosine-derived polycarbonates, and once in 2006 for his invention of the first combinatorially designed library of polyarylates. His other awards include the 2003 Clemson Award for Basic Science of the Society for Biomaterials.

Selected Publications:

Recent publications from Professor Kohn’s laboratory, selected to show the breadth of research topics being investigated by Professor Kohn and his group members.

M. D. Treiser, E. H. Yang, S. Gordonov, D. M. Cohen, I. P. Androulakis, J. Kohn, C. S. Chen and P. V. Moghe, "Cytoskeleton-based forecasting of stem cell lineage fates", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A, 2010, 107(2), 610-615.

A. D. Costache, L. Sheihet, K. Zaveri, D. D. Knight and J. Kohn, "Polymer-drug interactions in tyrosine-derived triblock copolymer nanospheres: A computational modeling approach", Mol Pharmaceutics, 2009, 6(5), 1620-1627.

R. Rojas, N. K. Harris, K. Piotrowska and J. Kohn, "Evaluation of automated synthesis for chain and step-growth polymerizations: Can robots replace the chemists", J Polym Sci: Part A: Polym Chem, 2009, 47(1), 49-58.

H. J. Sung, P. Chandra, M. D. Treiser, E. Liu, C. P. Iovine, P. V. Moghe and J. Kohn, "Synthetic polymeric substrates as potent pro-oxidant versus anti-oxidant regulators of cytoskeletal remodeling and cell apoptosis", J. Cell Physiol., 2009, 218(3), 549-557.

P. F. Holmes, M. Bohrer and J. Kohn, "Exploration of polymethacrylate structure-property correlations: Advances towards combinatorial and high-throughput methods for biomaterials discovery", Prog. Polym. Sci., 2008, 33, 787-796.

V. Kholodovych, A. V. Gubskaya, M. Bohrer, N. Harris, D. Knight, J. Kohn and W. J. Welsh, "Prediction of biological response for large combinatorial libraries of biodegradable polymers: polymethacrylates as a test case", Polymer, 2008, 49, 2435-2439.

L. Sheihet, P. Chandra, P. Batheja, D. Devore, J. Kohn and B. Michniak, "Tyrosine-derived nanospheres for enhanced topical skin penetration", Internat. J. Pharmaceutics, 2008, 350, 312-319.

H. J. Sung, K. M. Sakala Labazzo, D. Bolikal, M. J. Weiner, R. Zimnisky and J. Kohn, "Angiogenic competency of biodegradable hydrogels fabricated from poly(ethylene glycol)-crosslinked tyrosine-derived polycarbonates", Europ. Cells Mater., 2008, 15, 77-87.

Y. Yang, D. Bolikal, M. L. Becker, J. Kohn and C. G. Simon, "Combinatorial polymer scaffold libraries for screening cell-biomaterial interactions in 3D", Adv. Mater., 2008, 20, 2037-2043.

A. V. Gubskaya, V. Kholodovych, D. Knight, J. Kohn and W. J. Welsh, "Prediction of fibrinogen adsorption for biodegradable polymers: Integration of molecular dynamics and surrogate modeling", Polymer, 2007, 48, 5788-5801.

J. Kohn, W. J. Welsh and D. Knight, "A new approach to the rationale discovery of polymeric biomaterials", Biomaterials, 2007, 28, 4171-4177.

E. Liu, M. D. Treiser, P. A. Johnson, P. Patel, A. Rege, J. Kohn and P. V. Moghe, "Quantitative biorelevant profiling of material microstructure within 3D porous scaffolds via multiphoton fluorescence microscopy", J. Biomed. Mater. Res. Part B: Appl. Biomater., 2007, 82B(2), 284-297.

M. D. Treiser, E. Liu, R. A. Dubin, H.-J. Sung, J. Kohn and P. V. Moghe, "Profiling cell-biomaterial interactions via cell-based fluororeporter imaging", BioTechniques, 2007, 43(3), 361-368.

D. T. Auguste, S. P. Armes, K. R. Brzezinska, T. J. Deming, J. Kohn and R. K. Prud’homme, "pH triggered release of protective poly(ethylene glycol)-b-polycation copolymers from liposomes", Biomaterials, 2006, 27, 2599-2608.

A. Sousa, J. Schut, J. Kohn and M. Libera, "Nanoscale morphological changes during hydrolytic degradation and erosion of a bioresorbable polymer", Macromolecules, 2006, 39(21), 7306-7312.

N. Weber, A. Pesnell, D. Bolikal, J. Zeltinger and J. Kohn, "Viscoelastic properties of fibrinogen adsorbed to the surface of biomaterials used in blood-contacting medical devices", Langmuir, 2006, 23(6), 3298-3304.

S. D. Abramson, G. Alexe, P. L. Hammer and J. Kohn, "A computational approach to predicting cell growth on polymeric biomaterials", J. Biomed. Mat. Res, 2005, 73A(1), 116-124.

J. Kohn and J. Zeltinger, "Degradable, drug-eluting stents: A new frontier for the treatment of coronary artery disease", Future Drugs: Expert Review of Medical Devices, 2005, 2(6), 667-671.

J. R. Smith, A. Seyda, N. Weber, D. Knight, S. Abramson and J. Kohn, "Integration of combinatorial synthesis, rapid screening, and computational modeling in biomaterials development", Macromol. Rapid Commun., 2004, 25, 127–140.

D. M. Schachter and J. Kohn, "A synthetic polymer matrix for the delayed or pulsatile release of water-soluble peptides", J. Control. Rel., 2002, 78, 143-153.