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Neel Joshi

Faculty
  • Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Neel Joshi

Contact Information

Office: Pierce Hall 322A
Email: njoshi [ AT ] seas [ DOT ] harvard [ DOT ] edu
Office Phone: 617/496-5973
Lab Room: 3 Blackfan Circle CLSB 5th Floor
Lab Phone: 617/432-7085

Websites

Education

  1. B.S., Harvey Mudd College
  2. Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley

Research Interests

    • Marriage of Biological & Artificial Systems
    • Cell and Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials
    • Materials & Devices
    • Biophysics and Self-Assembly
    • Materials Science

Primary Teaching Area

Bioengineering

Profile

Neel Joshi works at the interface between synthetic chemistry, biology, and materials science. He plans to use his research background in protein chemistry and polymeric materials synthesis to develop new methods for controlling the spatial and temporal arrangement of self-assembling systems.

His research program is focused in two areas:

  • controlling peptide sequence and connectivity to create fibrous structures whose composition can be precisely programmed at the nanometer-size scale; and
  • evolving self-assembling proteins, such as nanocages, so that their assembly state can be controlled by binding to biomolecular stimuli. The new bionanomaterials that result from these efforts will be applied to tackle problems at the forefront of medical imaging, tissue engineering, and drug delivery.

Joshi, who has authored 11 publications and holds two patents, is also a member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

He completed his postdoctoral research with Prof. Mark Grinstaff at Boston University synthesizing dendrimeric macromolecules for use as scaffolds in cartilage tissue engineering and developing new contrast agents capable of assessing the health of cartilage tissue using computed tomography (CT).

His graduate research in Organic Chemistry was conducted under the guidance of Prof. Matt Francis at UC Berkeley, and focused on developing new tools for site-selective protein modification. While at Berkeley, he developed two innovative chemical transformations that permit the attachment of various functional components to tyrosyl residues on protein surfaces and the N-terminus of proteins.

These new modification techniques represent significant achievements in the fields of bioconjugation and protein-based nanomaterials construction, and have resulted in useful strategies to conjugate proteins to fluorescent tracking probes, polymers, and purification tags.

He received his B.S. from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Ca.

Positions & Employment

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

  • Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Selected Publications

  1. Bansal, PN; Joshi, NJ; Entezari, V.; Malone, BC; Stewart, RC; Snyder BD; Grinstaff, MW “Cationic contrast agents improve quantification of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content by Contrast Enhanced CT imaging of cartilage.” Journal of Orthopedic Research 2010.
  2. Bansal, PN; Joshi, NS; Entezari, V; Grinstaff, MW; Snyder, BD “Contrast Enhanced Computed Tomography can predict the glycosaminoglycan content and biomechanical properties of articular cartilage.” Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 2010, 18(2), 184-191.
  3. Joshi, NS; Bansal, PN; Stewart, RC; Entezari, V; Snyder, BD; Grinstaff, MW “The effect of contrast agent charge on visualization of articular cartilage using Computed Tomography: exploiting electrostatic interactions for improved sensitivity” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2009, 131(37) 13234-13235.
  4. Joshi, NS; Grinstaff, MW “Applications of Dendrimers in Tissue Engineering” Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, 2008, 8(14), 1225-1236.
  5. Degoricija, LV; Bansal, PN; Sontjens, SHM; Joshi, NS; Takahashi, M; Snyder, BD; Grinstaff, MW “Hydrogels for Osteochondral Repair Based on Photocrosslinkable Carbamate Dendrimers.” Biomacromolecules, 2008, 9(10): 2863-2872.
  6. McFarland, JM; Joshi, NS; Francis, MB “Characterization of a Three-Component Coupling Reaction on Proteins by Isotopic Labeling and Nuclear Magnetic Spectroscopy.” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2008, 130(24), 7639-7644.
  7. 

Gilmore, JM; Scheck, RA; Esser-Kahn, AP; Joshi, NS; Francis, MB “N-Terminal Protien Modification Through a Biomimetic Transamination Reaction.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2006, 45(32), 5307-5311.
  8. Nguyen, T; Joshi, NS; Francis, MB “An Affinity-Based Method for the Purification of Fluorescently-Labeled Biomolecules.” Bioconjugate Chemistry 2006, 17(4), 869-872.
  9. 

Joshi, NS; Whitaker, LR; Francis, MB “A Three Component Mannich-Type Reaction for Selective Tyrosine Bioconjugation.” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2004, 126(49), 15942-15943.
  10. Van Ryswyk H; Morre, EE; Joshi, NS; Zeni, RJ; Eberspacher, TA; Collman, JP "Surface-Confined Metalloporphyrin Oligomers." Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2004, 43(43), 5827-5830.

Patents Awarded

  • Neel Joshi has authored 11 publications and holds two patents.