My research involves the development and characterization of biomaterials-based platform technologies focused in two areas relevant to oral & maxillofacial surgery: cancer immunotherapy and craniofacial tissue regeneration. With respect to the treatment of head and neck cancer, our lab has been working on injectable cancer vaccine systems which act as sites for in situ dendritic cell programming. By leveraging a knowledge of bioengineering technologies for cell recruitment and differentiation, we have been able to translate these fundamental strategies to the cancer immunotherapy setting. The goal is to examine the efficacy of these vaccine systems in the context of oral squamous cell carcinoma, and explore any synergies that may arise from the use of cancer vaccines and other forms of immunotherapy. The concept of in situ cell programming is also utilized in several tissue regeneration projects which plan to explore the use of various hydrogels and layer-by-layer polymer coating technologies to promote nerve and bone regeneration in challenging preclinical models. Outside of the biomaterials realm, we are also working with collaborators at MD Anderson Cancer Center to develop novel MRI techniques to predict the risk of mandibular osteoradionecrosis following radiation therapy. More details can be found on our laboratory website here: https://go.uth.edu/Young_Lab