FACULTY

Dr. Renjith P. Johnson

Assistant Professor
  • PhD, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea
  • MSc: Chemistry
  • renjithjohnson@yenepoya.edu.in

Profile

After obtaining M.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Bharathidasan University, Renjith received his Ph.D in polymer science and engineering from Pusan National University, Republic of Korea under the guidance of Professor Il Kim with thesis titled “Biocompatible stimuli-responsive synthetic polymer-block-polypeptide hybrid materials for the intracellular delivery of gene and anticancer agents”-(2009-2014). Dr. Renjith did his postdoctoral researches in Pusan National University and University of South Carolina, United states prior to joining as Assistant Professor at Yenepoya Research Centre, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), Mangaluru.

PostDoc/Experience

  • Assistant Professor (2016-till date) – Yenepoya Research Centre, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), Mangaluru, India
  • Postdoctoral Fellow (Apr 2015 – Feb 2016) – University of South Carolina, USA
  • Postdoctoral Fellow (Jan 2014 – Mar 2015) – Pusan National University, Republic of Korea

Research

 

Research Interest

Organic Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Biomaterials science, Nanoscience

Research

Our Major interest is the synthesis of novel polymers with well-defined compositions, architectures, and functionalities through controlled/living radical polymerization (CLRP) methods,which has great interest in academiaand industry. Our effort is to develop novel block copolymers through the modern CLRP techniques like ATRP, RAFT, and ROP with click chemistry strategies for diverse applications in material science and biomedicine. Especially, stimuli-responsive polymeric nanocarriers (Micelles, polymersomes, nanospheres, etc.) emerging as targeted drug delivery vehicles for the therapy of various diseases. An ideal drug carrier should be capable of releasing the encapsulated or conjugated drug in a targeted and sustained manner in response to internal or external stimuli-triggers (pH, bioreduction, temperature etc.) of the pathological sites. Targeted drug release can minimize the probability of drug resistance and severe systemic side effects. Herein, our effort is to fabricate various stimuli-responsive polymeric prodrugs based on novel block copolymers for targeted drug delivery.

Bio-polymeric hydrogels/nanogelsalso have great interest as potential biomaterials due to its tunable physical and chemical properties for both creating bioactive cellular micro-environment and also for the sustained delivery of therapeutic agents. These materials are proposed in clinical applications as soft contact lenses, wound dressing materials, as biological adhesives in surgical procedures etc. We also focus to develop novel, multi stimuli-responsive hydrogel/nanogels based on natural polymers and biocompatible synthetic polymers biomedical applications.In addition, polymer scaffoldbiomaterial is an important component in tissue engineering, which serving as a 3-D structure for cell interactions and extracellular matrix production. Importantly, a biocompatible scaffold should have the ability to perform as a substrate that will support the appropriate cellular activity, including the facilitation of molecular and mechanical signaling systems, in order to optimise tissue regeneration, without eliciting any undesirable local or systemic responses in the eventual host. Importantly, a variety of engineered scaffolds can be created for tissue engineering by using biopolymers, biopolymer hydrogels or electrospun polymer nanofibers. Herein, our effort is develop new biocompatible and degradable polymericgel based scaffold biomaterials for tissue engineering applications.

Publication                                                                                                                                                  All List :

  1. Renjith P. Johnson, Saji Uthaman, Rimesh Augustine, Yu Zhang, Hwa Jin, Chang In Choi, In-Kyu Park, Il Kim, “Glutathione and endosomal pH-responsive hybrid vesicles fabricated by zwitterionic polymer block poly(L-aspartic acid) as a smart anticancer delivery platform” Reactive and Functional Polymers, (2017), 119, 47–56.
  2. Renjith P Johnson, Saji Uthaman, Johnson V. John, HyeRi Lee, Sang Joon Lee, Huiju Park, In-Kyu Park, Hongsuk Suh, and Il Kim, “Poly(PEGA)-b-poly(L-Lysine)-b-poly(L-histidine) Hybrid Vesicles for Tumoral pH-triggered Intracellular Delivery of Doxorubicin Hydrochloride.” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, (2015) 7, 21770−21779.
  3. Renjith P. Johnson, Young-Il Jeong, Johnson V. John, Chung-Wook Chung, SeonHee Choi, Song I Song, Dae Hwan Kang, 
    Hongsuk Suh, and Il Kim, “Lipo-Poly(L-histidine) Hybrid Materials with pH-Sensitivity, Efficient Intracellular Delivery, and Intrinsic Targetability to Cancer Cells.” Macromolecular Rapid Communication (2014) 35(9), 888-894.
  4. Renjith P. Johnson, Young-Il Jeong, Johnson V. John, Chung-Wook Chung, Dae Hwan Kang, ManickamSelvaraj, Hongsuk Suh, Il Kim, “Dual stimuli-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-b-poly(L-histidine) chimeric materials for the controlled delivery of doxorubicin into liver carcinoma,” Biomacromolecules (2013), 14, 1434–1443.
  5. Renjith P. Johnson, Young-Il Jeong, Eunji Choi, Chung-Wook Chung, Dae Hwan Kang, Sae-Ock Oh, Hongsuk Suh, Il Kim, “Biocompatible poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-b-poly(L-histidine) Hybrid materials for pH-Sensitive intracellular anticancer drug delivery,” Advanced Functional Materials (2012), 22, 1058–1068.

Books/Book Chapters

  1. Renjith P. Johnson, Namitha K. Preman, Responsive block copolymers for drug delivery applications. Part 1: Endogenous stimuli-responsive drug- release systems, Stimuli Responsive Polymeric Nanocarriers for Drug Delivery Applications, Volume 1- Types and Triggers-Woodhead Publishing Series in Biomaterials, 2018, 171-220.
  2. Renjith P. Johnson, Namitha K. Preman, Responsive block copolymers for drug delivery applications. Part 2: Exogenous stimuli-responsive drug- release systems, Stimuli Responsive Polymeric Nanocarriers for Drug Delivery Applications, Volume 1- Types and Triggers- Woodhead Publishing Series in Biomaterials, 2018, 221-246.
  3. Renjith P. Johnson, Namitha K. Preman, Dual and multistimuli-responsive block copolymers for drug delivery applications, Stimuli Responsive Polymeric Nanocarriers for Drug Delivery Applications, Volume 2, Advanced nanocarriers for therapeutics-Types and Triggers-Woodhead Publishing Series in Biomaterials, 2018, 249-265.
  4. Renjith P. Johnson, Johnson V. John, MiRi Kim, Kang Ryul Kim, Seong Hwan Yun, Il Kim “Polypeptide based hybrid polymeric nano carriers for stimuli-responsive intracellular delivery of therapeutic agents and nucleic acids” American Scientific Publisher’s, Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 25-Volume Set 2015, (http://www.aspbs.com/enn.html).

 

Patents

 

 

 

  1. Renjith P. Johnson, Namitha K. Preman and Supriya Jain, “Nanogel-based Sustained Drug Delivary System” Indian patent, provisional specification, 2020, No-202041008226.
  2. Renjith P. Johnson, Rajesh P. Shastry, Namitha K. Preman and Nikitha A., “Anti-dermatophytic Hydrogel for Topical Applications” Indian patent, provisional specification, 2019, No-2019410477486.
  3. Renjith P. Johnson, Namitha K. Preman, “Polymeric Hydrogel” Indian patent, provisional specification, 2018, No-201841037809.
  4. Kim Il, Renjith P. Johnson, Copolymer gene carrier, Korean Patent, 2015, No-10-1486989.

 

 

 

Projects

PI

DST-SERB Grant: Development of thermoresponsive polymer nanogels for sustained release of Bevacizumab towards efficient treatment of diabetic macular edema (Cost: 38.725 Lakhs)

Co-PI

DBT-Bioengineering Grant: Design and Fabrication of dual mode paper analytical device for point-of-care diagnostics (Cost: 29.6 Lakhs)