Graduate Research Assistant
Colorado School of Mines
Zachary Sparks is a PhD student at the Colorado School of Mines in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He completed his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of Florida. His research focuses on formulation development of vaccine delivery systems, specifically designing particle formulations that encapsulate antigen and agonists which provide controlled release based on polymeric properties. In using vaccine particles with defined release characteristics, immune response can be further studied to understand the kinetics of immune development and to determine a single dose vaccination system that provides optimal release pattern. Another focus of Zachary’s research is fabrication and development of hydrogels for ophthalmic drug delivery. Contact lenses have been shown to serve as effective sustained drug delivery devices to the eye for small molecule drugs. Now that biological therapeutics have become increasingly used, a goal is to utilize contact lenses for their sustained delivery. Zachary investigates formulations of polyHEMA hydrogel, a common contact lens material, along with polymerization processing to develop hydrogels that can load proteins and provide a range in release characteristics. The common theme of his work is to develop a range of formulations and characterize them based on drug loading and release characteristics. Ultimately, the goal of his research is to bring tunable and practical drug delivery systems to the clinic to improve patient needs.