Rajendra Kumar Kasinath, Ph.D

Rajendra (Raj) grew up in India and then later when he was six his family moved to Singapore. There he completed his basic education and went on to receive his Bachelor’s Degree of Applied Science in Materials Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (1996). He then pursued an Accelerated Masters in Materials Science in the UK at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). There he worked under Prof. G. Lorimer on the aging and characterization of magnesium-rare earth castings for aerospace applications. He received his Master’s Degree in December 1997 and moved back to Singapore where he pursued his, then, dream of working for the aerospace giant, Pratt and Whitney Aerospace Engines designing repair processes for overhauled turbine-stage components. He soon got interested in plasma spray technology as a means of materials processing at very high temperatures. His keen interest and much-valued encouragement from his future advisor (Prof. Philip Cheang) in this field finally made him decide on pursuing a Ph.D on “R.F. plasma spraying of nano-biomaterials” namely hydroxyapatite (HA), a calcium phosphate compound that is the inorganic fraction of bone. During this journey into the “far-side” (to borrow from Larson) he made many new and novel materials and nanocomposites with strange and exciting properties. During his studies he even managed to fall in love and get married to the girl of his dreams. He completed his Ph.D in 2002 from NTU and started his first post doctoral fellowship at the Advanced Materials Research Center, Singapore. It was this work, applying the novel materials made during his graduate work, that finally got him decided on his research path and niche. Even though plasma spraying could create novel materials and very small ones at that, he realized that there was little control that could be exercised on the design at the nano (10-50 nm) or meso (1-10nm) structured level. It was this realization that made him experiment with chemically synthesized nano-HA while subtly controlling its physicochemical properties intrinsically, as well as forming higher order assemblies of the same extrinsically. He left for the US in 2003 after two fellowship terms in NTU and joined Prof. Laurie Gower’s group at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Here he worked with shaping/molding bone mineral (HA) into the tiny nanoscopic groves of collagen fibrils in the hope of trying to recreate the ultra-structure of bone. In UFL his creativity in the field of bio-mineral manipulation using organic molecules took to new heights; many new ideas were formed, several important experiments were carried out and crucial papers were published (not to mention rejected). After spending a year in Florida, he moved to Montana Tech in 2005 and took up an Assistant Professor position in the newly formed Bioengineering Initiative under the auspices of Prof. Kumar Ganesan and the Department of Environmental Engineering. Now he is in the process of developing new courses and labs in biomaterial synthesis, characterization and application. He is actively seeking NSF and NIH funding to carry out independent research, the aims of which when realized, he believes (with a certain amount of bias), would revolutionize orally based therapies for peptide drug delivery as well as result in the synthesis of functional fluorescing-super-paramagnetic bio-probes.

He has two young boys who take up the rest of his time as he continually experiments and hopefully learns how to be a good father as well as a teacher and researcher. Raj thinks Tech is an amazing place to study and teach. He is amazed at the patience of his fellow faculty and kindness and understanding of the staff. He thinks the students at Tech are very “down to earth”, mature and know what they want in life. He expects several research openings for undergraduate and graduate students in his group in the coming years and invites you to consider a challenging and fulfilling time working, in his lab on doped HA nanoparticles, fluorescent and magnetic bio-probes, structured/assembled nanostructures and many more wonderfully exciting stuff at the nanoscale.

Education

Ph.D. in Biomaterials from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – Feb 2002

M.Sc. in Materials Science from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), Manchester, UK – Dec 1997

B.A.Sc. in Materials Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – Jul 1996

Positions Held

Awards

Amourer’s and Braizers medal in Materials Science (UK) – 1997
NTU/NSTB Graduate Research Scholarship Award (1999-2002)
Faculty Seed Grant Award, Montana Tech - 2007
Outstanding Presentation and Paper Award, International conference on biomedical and pharmaceutical engineering – 2007

Courses Taught (to be taught soon)

• Mechanics of Materials – ENGR 3350
• Introduction to Biomaterials (Fall 2007)
• Cell and Tissue Engineering (Fall 2008)
• Nano-technology and Applications (partial lectures for Materials Science)

Research -- Past

1. X-ray synchrotron studies of mineralization of collagen in turkey tendon. (in conjunction with Brookhaven National Lab,  2005-2006).
2. Mineralization of scaffolds using a polymer induced liquid precursor at constant composition. (at University of Florida, 2004-2005).
3. Calcium-phosphate-citrate gels as precursors for biomineralisation and mimicking kidney stone formation. (at University of Florida, 2004-2005).
4. 3D printing of HA and HA/composite powders. (NTU – 2003-2004)
5. X-ray Diffractometry and structure refinement and quantitative phase analysis (QPA) via the Rietveld method for plasma sprayed HA, ZrO2-HA TiO2-HA Al2O3-HA, SiO2-HA and calcium phosphate powders and coatings and modeling amorphous calcium phosphate as a micro/nano-crystalline phase (2000-present)

Research -- Present and Near Future

1. Functionalizing near spherical 20 nm hydroxyapatite particles with amines, thiols and carboxylic acids for environmental and biomedical engineering applications (in submission to NSF, 2007).
2. Colloidal apatite nano-particles with active luminescent and magnetic properties for biotechnology applications (in submission to NSF - ANN, 2007).
3. Self-assembly and meso-structuring of hydroxyapatite nano-particles modulated through biopolymers for biomedical applications (CAREER award proposal in submision to NSF, 2007).
4. Nano-hybrid structures for the oral delivery of macromolecules (Insulin model) (R21 in-submission to NIH, spring 2008).
5. Attachment/stability of inorganic materials to proteins, amino-acids and cellular surfaces.
6. Transforming bacterial cells using surface modified colloidal nano-apatite-plasmid complexes (in collaboration with Dr. Marisa Pedula, biology department)

Highlighted Research

HA-chitosan hybrid nano-materials for tissue engineering and multi-strategic oral drug delivery

A novel hybrid material made up of nano-HA and chitosan was synthesized in my lab originally for tissue engineering applications.

The research has however yielded new knowledge into synthesizing self-assembled nano-HA particles with a host of functional modifications. This work has also led to the discovery of naturally graded nano-HA-chitosan hybrid films which seem very promising for a host of applications from gene and drug delivery to organic-inorganic interfaces for hard and soft tissue implants.

Selected Publications

1. M.J. Olszta, X. Cheng, S.S. Jee, R. Kumar, Y-Y. Kim, M.J Kaufman, E.P. Douglas and L. Gower, Bone structure and formation: A new perspective, Materials Science and Engineering R - Reports, 2007, In Press.
2. R. Kumar, C. Ten, K.H. Prakash, K.A. Khor and P. Cheang, The use of nanostructured hybrid materials for oral drug delivery, Proceedings of the International Conference in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Engineering 2006, 11-13th Dec, 2006. (Outstanding Paper Award)
3. M. J. Olszta, X.G. Cheng, S.S. Jee, R. Kumar, Y.Y. Kim, M. Sivakumar, L. Gower, E.P. Douglas, Organic-inorganic composites mimicking the nanostructured architecture of bone, Abstract of papers of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 231:70 PMSE, 2006.
4. K. H. Prakash, R. Kumar, C. P. Ooi, T. Sritharan, P. Cheang and K. A. Khor, Wet-chemical synthesis and magnetic property studies of Fe(III) ion substituted hydroxyapatite, MCB Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics, Vol. 3(4), p177-178, 2006.
5. K. H. Prakash, R. Kumar, C. P. Ooi, P. Cheang and K. A. Khor, Apparent solubility of hydroxyapatite in aqueous media and its influence on the morphology of nano-crystallites with precipitation temperature, LANGMUIR, 2006, Vol.22 (26), p11002-11008.
6. K. H. Prakash, R. Kumar, C. P. Ooi, P. Cheang and K. A. Khor, Conductometric study of precursor compound formation during wet-chemical synthesis of nano-crystalline hydroxyapatite, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2006, Vol.110 (48), p24457 - 24462.
7. A. Kishen, S. George, R. Kumar, Enterococcus faecalis-mediated biomineralized biofilm formation on root canal dentine in vitro, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research A, Vol. 77(2), 2006, p406-415.
8. K.H. Prakash, R. Kumar, S.C. Yu, P. Cheang and K.A. Khor, On the kinetics of apatite layer formation from simulated body fluid, LANGMUIR, Vol. 22, 2006, p269-276.
9. R. Kumar, K.H. Prakash, P. Cheang and K.A. Khor, Microstructure and mechanical properties of spark plasma sintered zirconia-hydroxyapatite nano-composite powders, Acta Materilia, Vol. 53, 2005, p2327-2335. (TOP 25 most downloaded list)
10. S.C. Yu ; K.H. Prakash, R. Kumar, P. Cheang and K.A. Khor, In-vitro apatite formation and its growth kinetics on hydroxyapatite/polyetheretherketone biocomposites, Biomaterials, Vol. 26(15), 2005, p2343-2352.
11. R. Kumar, M. Chew, Y. Lim, H. K., Ng, J. Kueh, P. Cheang, K.A. Khor and H. K. Man, Nano bio-ceramic vectors for non-viral transfection, Cancer Gene Therapy, Vol. 11(12), 2004, p853.
12. R. Kumar, P. Cheang and K.A Khor, Temperature driven morphological changes of chemically precipitated hydroxyapatite nanoparticles, LANGMUIR, Vol. 20, 2004, p5196-5200.
13. R.Kumar, P.Cheang & K.A. Khor, Phase Composition and Heat of Crystallization for Amorphous Calcium Phosphate in RF suspension plasma sprayed hydroxyapatite powders, Acta Materilia Vol. 52(5), 2004, p1171-1181.
14. R. Kumar, P. Cheang & K.A. Khor, RF Suspension Plasma Sprayed Ultra-fine Hydroxyapatite/Zirconia nano-composite powders, Biomaterials, Vol. 24(15), 2003, p2611-2621.
15. Xu Jinling, R. Kumar, K.A. Khor and P. Cheang, Amorphous calcium phosphate nano-powders made from radio-frequency plasma spraying, Materials Research Society Proceedings Vol. 777, 2003, p171-6.
16. R. Kumar, P. Cheang and K.A.Khor, RF plasma processing of ultra-fine hydroxyaptite powders, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, Vol. 113, 2001, p456-462.

Invited Presentations

1. R. Kumar and L. Gower, Nanostructured and mesostructured biohybrids, France – U.S. (NASA/NSF) workshop on Nanobiotechnology, Washington D.C., March 2-3 2006.
2. R. Kumar, K.H. Prakash, P. Cheang, K. A. Khor, L. B. Gower, Chitosan mediated crystallization and assembly of nano-hydroxyapatite The Sixteenth American Conference on Crystal Growth & Epitaxy (American Conference on Crystal Growth and Epitaxy-16), July 10-15, 2005, Big Sky, Montana.
3. R. Kumar, RF plasma spraying - Overview and Examples, Thermal Spray Singapore IV, 14th May 2004.
4. R. Kumar, K.A. Khor and P.Cheang, Process-phase-properties Relationship in Radio Frequency (RF) Plasma Synthesized Hydroxyapatite, International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films, 2003, San Diego, California.

Patents

Spherical Nano-Powders and the Method of Preparation, US20060135340, 2006.

Environmental Engineering Questions or Comments:
Shelley Reed • 406-496-4115 • Faculty Contact Information