Anesthesiology Research

Dr. Kohane’s areas of investigation are biomaterials and drug delivery. In those multi-disciplinary fields, the focus is on the development of an approach or set of approaches rather than a specific application or disease state. He applies engineering principles, biology, and knowledge of biomaterials to achieve a given goal. While addressing specific disease states is important, the thrust of research is to create methods by which drugs can be delivered to a range of sites in a variety of circumstances. Findings in one area of research often spin off independent but related projects. For example, the observation that some of our particles were engulfed by macrophages led to the development of a pH-triggered non-viral vaccine delivery system. Similarly, our finding that chemical permeation enhancers prolonged nerve blockade led to the development of novel sensory-selective local anesthetics.

Dr. Kohane has made significant contributions in prolonged duration local anesthesia, sensory selective local anesthetics, triggerable drug delivery devices, drug-eluting contact lenses, methods of preventing peritoneal adhesions, biocompatibility, nanomedicine, tissue engineering, and many other topics. This has been reflected in a high rate of publication in a wide variety of high impact journals including Nat Nanotechnol, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, Nano Letters, Adv Mater, Ann Surg, Am J Respir Crit Care Med, J Immunol, Nat Biotechnol, and Biomaterials – as well as in top journals in my clinical field such as Pain and Anesthesiology. A recent (2010) survey out of Johns Hopkins found that Dr. Kohane was one of the top 100 published authors (by number of 1st/last author manuscripts) among all faculty from every US academic anesthesiology/critical care medicine department in the years 2006-8. His work has also attracted considerable interest in the scientific and lay press.  His lab has substantial extramural funding (NIH, NSF, industry, and foundations). In consequence, it has grown to include approximately 30 full-time members (as of September 2011), including 3 junior faculty.

Dr. Kohane’s  projects have covered a wide range of polymeric, non-polymeric, and inorganic particles spanning the macro- micro- and nano-scale ranges, many different hydrogels, chemical permeation enhancers, hybrids, etc., applied in diverse contexts.