Sharan Kumar Reddy Bobbala

Assistant Professor

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Pharmacy

Department:

Pharmaceutical Sciences

Classification:

Faculty

• PhD, University of Otago, New Zealand
• MPharm, Kakatiya University, India
• BPharm, Kakatiya University, India

1. B. Misra, K. A. Hughes, W. H.Pentz, P. Samart, W. Geldenhuys, S. Bobbala*, Flash nanoprecipitation assisted self-assembly of ionizable lipid nanoparticles for nucleic acid delivery. Nanoscale. 16 (2024). 6939-6948.

2. K. A. Hughes, B. Misra, M. Maghareh, P. Samart, E. Nguyen, S. Hussain, W. Geldenhuys,

S. Bobbala*, Flash nanoprecipitation allows easy fabrication of pH-responsive acetalated dextran nanoparticles for intracellular release of payloads. Discover Nano. 19 (2024).

3. K. A. Hughes, B. Misra, M. Maghareh, S. Bobbala*, Use of stimulatory responsive soft nanoparticles for intracellular drug delivery. Nano Research. 16 (2023) 6974-6990.

4. J. Burke, X. Zhang, S. Bobbala, M. Frey, Y.G. Liu, S. Allen, G. Ameer, E.A. Scott, Subcutaneous nanotherapy repurposes the immunosuppressive mechanism of rapamycin to enhance allogenic islet graft viability. Nature Nanotechnology. 17 (2022) 319-330.

5. S. Bobbala, M. Vincent, E.A. Scott, Just add water: hydratable, morphologically diverse nanocarrier powders for targeted delivery. Nanoscale, 13 (2021) 11349 -11359.

6. M. Vincent, S. Bobbala, N. Karabin, Y.G. Liu, M. Frey, E.A. Scott, Surface chemistry-mediated modulation of adsorbed albumin folding state specifies nanocarrier clearance by distinct macrophage subsets. Nature Communications, 12 (2021) 1-18.

7. S. Bobbala, S. Allen, S. Yi, N. Karabin, E.A. Scott, Employing bicontinuous to micellar transitions in nanostructure morphology for on-demand photo-oxidation responsive cytosolic delivery and off-on cytotoxicity. Nanoscale, 12 (2020) 5332-5340.

8. I. Roy, S. Bobbala, S. Allen, E.A. Scott, F. Stoddart*, A supramolecular approach for modulated photoprotection, lysosomal delivery and photodynamic activity of a photosensitizer. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 141 (2019) 12296-12304. *Fraser Stoddart is a 2016 Noble laureate in Chemistry.

9. S. Bobbala, S. Allen, E.A. Scott, Flash nanoprecipitation permits versatile assembly and loading of polymeric bicontinuous cubic nanospheres. Nanoscale, 10 (2018) 5078-5088. * Journal Front Cover Article.

10. S. Bobbala, B. Gibson, A. McDowell, A. Gamble, S. Hook, Polaxamer 407-chitosan grafted thermoresponsive hydrogels achieve synchronous and sustained release of antigen and adjuvant from single-shot vaccines. Immunology and Cell biology, 96 (2018) 656-665.

Dr. Bobbala was awarded the Prestigious University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship in 2012, Northwestern Postdoctoral Professional Development Awards (2018 and 2019) and The H Foundation Postdoctoral Award in 2020.

Sharan Bobbala grew up in India and is a pharmacist by training. As an undergraduate student, he was always fascinated by drug discovery and delivery concepts, which motivated him to actively pursue a career as a scientist. He obtained his master’s in pharmacy degree with a specialization in drug delivery. He then moved to a beautiful island country, New Zealand to finish his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences where he investigated advanced delivery strategies for vaccines. After earning his PhD, he relocated to the U.S. to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship in immunoengineering specifically to study the development of nanotechnology tools for immunotherapies. The fun part of his job is spending time in the laboratory. He enjoys interacting with students, which he considers the best part of academic life. When he is not doing science or teaching, you will see him exploring scenic walking trails or cooking spicy Indian food.

The overarching goal of Bobbala’s research laboratory is to design and develop novel delivery platforms that can efficiently target and deliver drugs and vaccines to the body for prophylactic and therapeutic implementations. His lab aims to achieve controlled release of drugs and vaccines in both intracellular and extracellular environments using the rational design of nanoparticles and hydrogels, and diverse pharmaceutical formulation approaches. These efforts are centered on addressing fundamental problems in the areas of drug delivery, vaccination, bioavailability and diagnostics.

“With an increasing pipeline of newly discovered drugs and vaccines, there is an urgent need to find suitable ways to administer and deliver them to specific sites of the body to reach their therapeutic/prophylactic potential to the fullest”.  Dr. Sharan Bobbala

Dr. Sharan Bobbala is an assistant professor in the School’s Pharmaceutical Sciences Department. Dr. Bobbala obtained his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and his BSPharm and MPharm (Industrial Pharmacy) from Kakatiya University, India. Dr. Bobbala was a postdoctoral fellow in the Nano-Immunoengineering lab at Northwestern University before joining WVU in August 2021. Dr. Bobbala’s research interests are nanobiomaterials, novel drug delivery systems, theranostics and single-shot vaccine systems. Dr. Bobbala established successful national and international collaborations with interdisciplinary scientists, including 2016 Noble laureate in Chemistry Sir Fraser Stoddart at Northwestern University. Dr. Bobbala was awarded the Prestigious University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship in 2012, Northwestern Postdoctoral Professional Development Awards (2018 and 2019), and The H Foundation Postdoctoral Award in 2020.