Emily Day

Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering University of Delaware

  • Newark DE

Prof. Day engineers drug & biomolecule nanocarriers for targeted treatment of cancers, blood disorders, and reproductive health conditions.

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2 min

Armed with a new NIH grant, UD's Day Lab targets difficult-to-treat diseases with breakthrough therapies

The University of Delaware's Day Lab, led by associate professor Emily Day, is conducting innovative research on high-precision therapies using unique nanoparticles. With a recent R35 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the lab aims to advance the design and use of nanoparticles for managing various diseases, including cancers, blood disorders, and reproductive health conditions. The lab specializes in developing nanomaterials with properties that allow them to target specific cells, evade immune detection and deliver therapeutic cargo effectively. The focus is on understanding the interaction of these nanoparticles with cells and tissues to improve the study, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. What sets Day's group apart is its ability to bridge the gap between fundamental research and practical applications in nanomedicine. The lab received an NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) to support their research for five years, providing stability and flexibility to pursue breakthroughs in overcoming biological barriers to nanoparticle delivery. Key research questions include understanding protein corona-mediated immune clearance and how nanoparticles cross blood vessel walls, addressing challenges in particle distribution and targeting. Overcoming these barriers could significantly enhance the clinical impact of nanomedicine and improve the treatment of various diseases. While the lab's research is fundamental, its implications extend broadly across the field of nanomedicine. The discoveries made, particularly in membrane-wrapping research, may have applications in enhancing the effectiveness of treatments, such as mRNA COVID vaccines, by preventing clearance from the body. Researchers are hopeful that their work will contribute to advancements in targeted therapies, making them more widely available for various diseases. To arrange an interview with Day, visit her profile and click the "contact" button.

Emily Day

1 min

From Sci-Fi to Reality: Nanoscale Materials Pave the Way for High Precision Disease Treatment

Imagine being able to create something smaller than the size of a single strand of hair that can help treat cancer at the cellular level. Sounds like something out of a science fiction novel or movie, right? Wrong.  Emily Day, with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware is doing just that.  Her lab innovates nanomaterials (materials with single units measuring  between 1 and 100 nanometers) that enable more high precision treatment of cancer, blood disorders and other diseases. She also studies how these nanoparticle interact with with our bodies on both the subcellular-level and whole-organism level. Day has been recognized with an NSF CAREER Award along with dozens of other awards and grant honors. She is available to talk about her research and can be contacted by clicking her profile. 

Emily Day

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Biography

Dr. Day was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and obtained her B.S. in Physics with a Minor in Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma in 2006, graduating summa cum laude. Dr. Day received the Carl Albert Award, which is granted to the top senior in the College of Arts and Sciences based on academics, moral force of character, and promise of future service to the state and nation. In 2011, she earned her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Rice University, where she worked under the guidance of Dr. Jennifer West to develop nanoparticles for photothermal cancer therapy. While at Rice, Dr. Day received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Rice President’s Graduate Fellowship, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Med-Into-Grad Fellowship. Next, Dr. Day joined the laboratory of Dr. Chad Mirkin in the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University, where she developed RNA-gold nanoparticle conjugates to treat brain tumors through gene regulation. Dr. Day received an International Institute for Nanotechnology postdoctoral fellowship and a National Institutes of Health F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellowship during her time at Northwestern University.

Dr. Day joined the faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware (UD) in 2013, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2020. In 2022, she was named Associate Director of the Institute for Engineering Driven Health at UD. Her research engineers nanoparticles for high precision therapy of diseases including aggressive cancers, blood disorders, and reproductive health conditions. She has received several notable honors for her research, including the 2018 Rita Schaffer Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society, an NSF CAREER Award, Young Innovator/Emerging Investigator awards from four journals (Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Journal, Nano Research Journal, Journal of Materials Chemistry B, and Biomaterials Science), the 2018 Gerard J. Mangone Young Scholar Award from the Francis Alison Society, NIH R35 and R01 grants, and a W.M. Keck Foundation Science and Engineering Grant. Additionally, she was an invited participant in the 2019 National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. In 2022, Dr. Day was named a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and she also received the Mid-Career Faculty Excellence in Scholarship Award from UD that year.

Industry Expertise

Nanotechnology

Areas of Expertise

Precision Medicine
Drug Delivery
Translational Research
Gene Regulation
Phototherapy
Biomimicry
Targeted Therapy
Nanomedicine

Media Appearances

Four engineering professors honored | UDaily

University of Delaware  online

2022-03-22

Gore Professor of Chemical Engineering Wilfred Chen, Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Emily Day, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Chair and Professor Darrin Pochan and Mechanical Engineering Professor Liyun Wang join 149 other fellows recognized this year by the AIMBE for “distinguished and continuing achievements in medical and biological engineering.”

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Bone marrow research | UDaily

University of Delaware  online

2020-01-15

University of Delaware biomedical engineer Emily Day is working on technology that may one day replace bone marrow transplants.

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New Weapon Against Breast Cancer

University of Delaware  

2019-03-11

Now UD researchers Emily Day, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Joel Rosenthal, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and their labs have shown that a combination of two minimally invasive therapies could give doctors a more powerful weapon against this cancer as well as others.

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Articles

Megakaryocyte membrane‐wrapped nanoparticles for targeted cargo delivery to hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells

Bioengineering & Translational Medicine

2023

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) are desirable targets for gene therapy but are notoriously difficult to target and transfect. Existing viral vector‐based delivery methods are not effective in HSPCs due to their cytotoxicity, limited HSPC uptake and lack of target specificity (tropism). Poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs) are attractive, nontoxic carriers that can encapsulate various cargo and enable its controlled release. To engineer PLGA NP tropism for HSPCs, megakaryocyte (Mk) membranes, which possess HSPC‐targeting moieties, were extracted and wrapped around PLGA NPs, producing MkNPs. In vitro, fluorophore‐labeled MkNPs are internalized by HSPCs within 24 h and were selectively taken up by HSPCs versus other physiologically related cell types.

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E-Selectin Targeted Gold Nanoshells to Inhibit Breast Cancer Cell Binding to Lung Endothelial Cells

ACS Applied Nano Materials

2023

Extravasation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from the vasculature is a key step in cancer metastasis. CTCs bind to cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) expressed by endothelial cells (ECs) for flow arrest prior to extravasation. While a number of EC-expressed CAMs have been implicated in facilitating CTC binding, this work investigated the efficacy of inhibiting cancer cell binding to human lung microvascular ECs via antibody blocking of E-selectin using antibody-functionalized gold nanoshells (NS). The antibody-functionalized gold NS were synthesized using both directional and non-directional antibody conjugation techniques with variations in synthesis parameters (linker length, amount of passivating agents, and ratio of antibodies to NS) to gain a better understanding of these properties on the resultant hydrodynamic diameter, zeta potential, and antibody loading density.

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Membrane-wrapped nanoparticles for photothermal cancer therapy

Nano Convergence

2022

Cancer is a global health problem that needs effective treatment strategies. Conventional treatments for solid-tumor cancers are unsatisfactory because they cause unintended harm to healthy tissues and are susceptible to cancer cell resistance. Nanoparticle-mediated photothermal therapy is a minimally invasive treatment for solid-tumor cancers that has immense promise as a standalone therapy or adjuvant to other treatments like chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or radiotherapy. To maximize the success of photothermal therapy, light-responsive nanoparticles can be camouflaged with cell membranes to endow them with unique biointerfacing capabilities that reduce opsonization, prolong systemic circulation, and improve tumor delivery through enhanced passive accumulation or homotypic targeting.

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Accomplishments

Fellow, American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering,

2022

Mid-Career Faculty Excellent in Scholarship Award, University of Delaware

2022

Emerging Investigator, Biomaterials Science journal

2022

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Education

Rice University

PhD

Bioengineering

2011

University of Oklahoma

BS

Physics

2006

Languages

  • English
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