Andrew Simonson

Andrew successfully passed his doctoral defense in December 2020. His dissertation was headlined by his work on the rational design of a novel antimicrobial peptide to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, which was recently published in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Throughout his PhD candidacy in the Medina Group, Andrew has focused on developing peptide-based delivery modalities to modify the human microbiome. His initial work resulted in the development of a versatile carrier vehicle capable of encapsulating a broad range of bioactive cargo. This work was published in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine. He is currently finalizing work on the development of new ‘Trojan Horse’ microparticles for the combinatorial treatment of bacterial infectious diseases, synergistically employing his peptide and clinically relevant small molecule antibiotics to overcome the growing threat of drug resistant superbugs. In parallel, Andrew has been part of our team working to develop an inhalable vaccine platform for viral respiratory infections, such as COVID-19. Andrew also contributed to work published in Acta Biomaterialia, in which the group formulated a liposomal method to deliver therapeutic peptides with enhanced specificity to cancer cells, and Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, where antimicrobial peptides were translated into oncolytic agents to augment the bioactivity of chemotherapeutics. Andrew’s work has led to several side projects, such as using biomaterials to address gastrointestinal bacterial dysbiosis, which are currently spearheaded by independent undergraduate researchers under his supervision and guidance.

Andrew received his BS in Biomedical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in May 2016. During his undergraduate studies, he did research on DNA aptamer functionalized hydrogels and cell encapsulation within microparticles under Dr. Yong Wang. After finishing his degree, Andrew completed a summer internship as a Medical Device Technician at Windtree Therapeutics. He entered the Medina lab for graduate school as a University Graduate Fellow, a prestigious award granted across Penn State’s Graduate School.

Outside of lab, Andrew likes to play golf and ballroom dance. He is the president of the Competitive Ballroom and Latin Dance club that competes across the mid-Atlantic and hosts intercollegiate competitions each year.