Joel Collier

Theodore Kennedy Professor of Biomedical Engineering

The Collier Lab designs biomaterials for a range of biomedical applications, with a focus on understanding and controlling adaptive immune responses.  Most materials investigated are created from molecular assemblies- proteins, peptides or bioconjugates that self-organize into useful structures such as nanofibers, gels, and particles. 

These biomaterials are being developed as novel treatments for infectious diseases, cancer, wound healing, and chronic inflammation.  Additionally, as these strategies are developed, basic insights into how materials engage the immune system are uncovered.

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Theodore Kennedy Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Associate Dean for Doctoral Education in the Pratt School of Engineering
  • Associate Professor in Integrative Immunobiology

Contact Information

Education

  • Ph.D. Northwestern University, 2003

Research Interests

The design of biomaterials for a range of biomedical applications, with a focus on understanding and controlling adaptive immune responses. Most materials investigated are created from molecular assemblies- proteins, peptides or bioconjugates that self-organize into useful structures such as nanofibers, gels, and particles.

Courses Taught

  • BME 221L: Biomaterials
  • BME 394: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
  • BME 493: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
  • BME 494: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
  • BME 701S: BME Graduate Seminars
  • BME 702S: BME Graduate Seminars
  • BME 728S: Teaching Seminar for New Teaching Assistants
  • BME 729S: Teaching Seminar for Repeat Teaching Assistants
  • BME 789: Internship in Biomedical Engineering
  • BME 790: Advanced Topics for Graduate Students in Biomedical Engineering
  • BME 791: Graduate Independent Study
  • BME 792: Continuation of Graduate Independent Study
  • EGR 391: Projects in Engineering
  • EGR 393: Research Projects in Engineering
  • EGR 790: Special Topics in Engineering
  • ME 391: Undergraduate Projects in Mechanical Engineering

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Wu, Yaoying, Hanning Wen, Zachary J. Bernstein, Kelly M. Hainline, Tykia S. Blakney, Kendra L. Congdon, David J. Snyder, John H. Sampson, Luis Sanchez-Perez, and Joel H. Collier. “Multiepitope supramolecular peptide nanofibers eliciting coordinated humoral and cellular antitumor immune responses.” Sci Adv 8, no. 29 (July 22, 2022): eabm7833. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm7833.
  • Fries, Chelsea N., Jui-Lin Chen, Maria L. Dennis, Nicole L. Votaw, Joshua Eudailey, Brian E. Watts, Kelly M. Hainline, et al. “HIV envelope antigen valency on peptide nanofibers modulates antibody magnitude and binding breadth.” Scientific Reports 11, no. 1 (July 2021): 14494. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93702-x.
  • Votaw, Nicole L., Lauren Collier, Elizabeth J. Curvino, Yaoying Wu, Chelsea N. Fries, Madison T. Ojeda, and Joel H. Collier. “Randomized peptide assemblies for enhancing immune responses to nanomaterials.” Biomaterials 273 (June 2021): 120825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.120825.
  • Fries, Chelsea N., Elizabeth J. Curvino, Jui-Lin Chen, Sallie R. Permar, Genevieve G. Fouda, and Joel H. Collier. “Advances in nanomaterial vaccine strategies to address infectious diseases impacting global health.” Nat Nanotechnol 16, no. 4 (April 2021): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-0739-9.
  • Hainline, Kelly M., Lucas S. Shores, Nicole L. Votaw, Zachary J. Bernstein, Sean H. Kelly, Chelsea N. Fries, Marisha S. Madhira, Caslin A. Gilroy, Ashutosh Chilkoti, and Joel H. Collier. “Modular complement assemblies for mitigating inflammatory conditions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118, no. 15 (April 2021): e2018627118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2018627118.
  • Kelly, Sean H., Emmanuel E. Opolot, Yaoying Wu, Benjamin Cossette, Ajay K. Varadhan, and Joel H. Collier. “Tabletized Supramolecular Assemblies for Sublingual Peptide Immunization.” Advanced Healthcare Materials 10, no. 6 (March 2021): e2001614. https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202001614.
  • Fries, Chelsea N., Yaoying Wu, Sean H. Kelly, Michelle Wolf, Nicole L. Votaw, Stefan Zauscher, and Joel H. Collier. “Controlled Lengthwise Assembly of Helical Peptide Nanofibers to Modulate CD8+ T-Cell Responses.” Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) 32, no. 39 (October 2020): e2003310. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202003310.
  • Wu, Yaoying, Sean H. Kelly, Luis Sanchez-Perez, John H. Sampson, and Joel H. Collier. “Comparative study of α-helical and β-sheet self-assembled peptide nanofiber vaccine platforms: influence of integrated T-cell epitopes.” Biomater Sci 8, no. 12 (June 21, 2020): 3522–35. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0bm00521e.
  • Kelly, Sean H., Yaoying Wu, Ajay K. Varadhan, Elizabeth J. Curvino, Anita S. Chong, and Joel H. Collier. “Enabling sublingual peptide immunization with molecular self-assemblies.” Biomaterials 241 (May 2020): 119903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2020.119903.
  • Shores, Lucas S., Sean H. Kelly, Kelly M. Hainline, Jutamas Suwanpradid, Amanda S. MacLeod, and Joel H. Collier. “Multifactorial Design of a Supramolecular Peptide Anti-IL-17 Vaccine Toward the Treatment of Psoriasis.” Front Immunol 11 (2020): 1855. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.01855.
  • Nelson, Christopher, Yaoying Wu, Matthew Gemberling, Matthew Oliver, Joel D. Bohning, Jacqueline N. Robinson-Hamm, Karen Bulaklak, et al. “Long-Term Evaluation of AAV-CRISPR Genome Editing for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.” In MOLECULAR THERAPY, 27:46–47. CELL PRESS, 2019.
  • Si, Youhui, Yi Wen, Sean H. Kelly, Anita S. Chong, and Joel H. Collier. “Intranasal delivery of adjuvant-free peptide nanofibers elicits resident CD8+ T cell responses.” Journal of Controlled Release : Official Journal of the Controlled Release Society 282 (July 2018): 120–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2018.04.031.
  • Hainline, Kelly M., Chelsea N. Fries, and Joel H. Collier. “Progress Toward the Clinical Translation of Bioinspired Peptide and Protein Assemblies.” Advanced Healthcare Materials 7, no. 5 (March 2018). https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.201700930.
  • Si, Youhui, Yi Wen, Jianjun Chen, Rebecca R. Pompano, Huifang Han, Joel Collier, and Anita S. Chong. “MyD88 in antigen-presenting cells is not required for CD4+ T-cell responses during peptide nanofiber vaccination.” MedChemComm 9, no. 1 (January 2018): 138–48. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7md00367f.
  • Solano, Carolina Mora, Yi Wen, Huifang Han, and Joel H. Collier. “Practical Considerations in the Design and Use of Immunologically Active Fibrillar Peptide Assemblies.” Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.) 1777 (January 2018): 233–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7811-3_14.
  • Wu, Yaoying, Pamela K. Norberg, Elizabeth A. Reap, Kendra L. Congdon, Chelsea N. Fries, Sean H. Kelly, John H. Sampson, Vincent P. Conticello, and Joel H. Collier. “A Supramolecular Vaccine Platform Based on α-Helical Peptide Nanofibers.” ACS Biomater Sci Eng 3, no. 12 (December 11, 2017): 3128–32. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.7b00561.
  • Mora-Solano, Carolina, Yi Wen, Huifang Han, Jianjun Chen, Anita S. Chong, Michelle L. Miller, Rebecca R. Pompano, and Joel H. Collier. “Active immunotherapy for TNF-mediated inflammation using self-assembled peptide nanofibers.” Biomaterials 149 (December 2017): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2017.09.031.
  • Kelly, Sean H., Lucas S. Shores, Nicole L. Votaw, and Joel H. Collier. “Biomaterial strategies for generating therapeutic immune responses.” Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 114 (May 2017): 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2017.04.009.
  • Wu, Yaoying, and Joel H. Collier. “α-Helical coiled-coil peptide materials for biomedical applications.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology 9, no. 2 (March 2017). https://doi.org/10.1002/wnan.1424.
  • Wen, Yi, Amelia Waltman, Huifang Han, and Joel H. Collier. “Switching the Immunogenicity of Peptide Assemblies Using Surface Properties.” ACS Nano 10, no. 10 (October 2016): 9274–86. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.6b03409.
  • Vigneswaran, Yalini, Huifang Han, Roberto De Loera, Yi Wen, Xing Zhang, Tao Sun, Carolina Mora-Solano, and Joel H. Collier. “This paper is the winner of an SFB Award in the Hospital Intern, Residency category: Peptide biomaterials raising adaptive immune responses in wound healing contexts.” Journal of Biomedical Materials Research. Part A 104, no. 8 (August 2016): 1853–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.a.35767.
  • Sun, Tao, Huifang Han, Gregory A. Hudalla, Yi Wen, Rebecca R. Pompano, and Joel H. Collier. “Thermal stability of self-assembled peptide vaccine materials.” Acta Biomaterialia 30 (January 2016): 62–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2015.11.019.
  • Wen, Yi, and Joel H. Collier. “Supramolecular peptide vaccines: tuning adaptive immunity.” Current Opinion in Immunology 35 (August 2015): 73–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coi.2015.06.007.
  • Pompano, Rebecca R., Jianjun Chen, Emily A. Verbus, Huifang Han, Arthur Fridman, Tessie McNeely, Joel H. Collier, and Anita S. Chong. “Titrating T-cell epitopes within self-assembled vaccines optimizes CD4+ helper T cell and antibody outputs.” Advanced Healthcare Materials 3, no. 11 (November 2014): 1898–1908. https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.201400137.
  • Hudalla, Gregory A., Tao Sun, Joshua Z. Gasiorowski, Huifang Han, Ye F. Tian, Anita S. Chong, and Joel H. Collier. “Gradated assembly of multiple proteins into supramolecular nanomaterials.” Nature Materials 13, no. 8 (August 2014): 829–36. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3998.
  • Mora-Solano, Carolina, and Joel H. Collier. “Engaging adaptive immunity with biomaterials.” Journal of Materials Chemistry. B 2, no. 17 (May 2014): 2409–21. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3tb21549k.
  • Chen, Jianjun, Rebecca R. Pompano, Felix W. Santiago, Lea Maillat, Roger Sciammas, Tao Sun, Huifang Han, David J. Topham, Anita S. Chong, and Joel H. Collier. “The use of self-adjuvanting nanofiber vaccines to elicit high-affinity B cell responses to peptide antigens without inflammation.” Biomaterials 34, no. 34 (November 2013): 8776–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.07.063.
  • Tian, Ye F., Gregory A. Hudalla, Huifang Han, and Joel H. Collier. “Controllably degradable β-sheet nanofibers and gels from self-assembling depsipeptides.” Biomaterials Science 1, no. 10 (October 2013). https://doi.org/10.1039/c3bm60161g.
  • Hudalla, Gregory A., Justin A. Modica, Ye F. Tian, Jai S. Rudra, Anita S. Chong, Tao Sun, Milan Mrksich, and Joel H. Collier. “A self-adjuvanting supramolecular vaccine carrying a folded protein antigen.” Advanced Healthcare Materials 2, no. 8 (August 2013): 1114–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.201200435.
  • Jung, Jangwook P., José V. Moyano, and Joel H. Collier. “Multifactorial optimization of endothelial cell growth using modular synthetic extracellular matrices.” Integrative Biology : Quantitative Biosciences from Nano to Macro 3, no. 3 (March 2011): 185–96. https://doi.org/10.1039/c0ib00112k.
  • Rudra, Jai S., Ye F. Tian, Jangwook P. Jung, and Joel H. Collier. “A self-assembling peptide acting as an immune adjuvant.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, no. 2 (January 2010): 622–27. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0912124107.