Biomedical Engineering Faculty David M. Johnson, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry Educational Background: B.Sc., The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Ph.D., The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Postdoctoral, The University of Texas at Austin Areas of Research Interest: Engineering functional surfaces Dendrimer synthesis through advanced methods Study of fundamental copolymerization processes Design of new nanotechnological materials My research activities center on the coupling of drugs or other therapeutic agents to titanium and other metal surfaces, for potential use in implants. Specifically, self-assembly methods are employed to create reproducible surfaces with custom properties. Principle variations include type of drug to be attached to the surface, design of drug triggers with specific release kinetics, design of residual surface to inhibit or encourager protein adsorption, use of orthogonal coupling chemistries for multiple therapeutic agents and use of dendritic amplification for larger drug doses. A parallel path of research involves the creation of nanoporous titanium surfaces which may bear higher doses of drugs. This higher surface area can then be combined with the self-assembly methods to create very large doses of drug delivered locally to the therapy site. This work is done in collaboration with Drs. Agrawal, Ayon, Feldman and Patel. Selected Publications: Ayon, A.A., Cantu, M., Chava, K.; Agrawal, C.M.; Feldman, M.D.; Johnson, D; Patel, D.; Marton, D.; Shi, E.: Drug loading of nanoporous TiO2 films. Biomedical Materials, 2006, 1, L11-L15. Mahapatro, A.; Johnson, D.M.; Patel, D.N.; Feldman, M.D.; Ayon, A.A; Agrawal, C.M.: The use of alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on 316L stainless steel for coronary artery stent nanomedicine applications: An oxidative and in vitro stability study. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine, 2006, 2, 182-190. Mahapatro, A.; Johnson, D.M.; Patel, D.N.; Feldman, M.D.; Ayon, A.A.; Agrawal, C.M. Surface Modification of Functional Self-Assembled Monolayers on 316L Stainless Steel via Lipase Catalysis, Langmuir, 2006, 22(3), 901-905. Gruber, J.B.; Sardar, D.K.; Johnson, D.M.; Yow, R.M.; Coeckelenbergh, C.H.; Nijjar, A.S. Ligand-field splitting of the energy levels of Nd3+(4f 3) in 2-hydroxethyl methacrylate polymer (HEMA) Polymer International, 2005, submitted for publication. Kowalczyk, T. and Johnson, D.M.: Reactivity rations for the copolymerization of 2-Vinyl-4,5-dicyanoimidazole and its derivatives with acrylic monomers monitored by in-situ 1H NMR spectroscopy, Macromolecules, 2005, submitted for publication. Johnson D.M.; Amy L. Johnson. A.L.; Simulation Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC) or Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) in the Classroom. Journal of Chemical Education, 2005, submitted for publication. Johnson, D.M.; Reybuck, S.E.; Lawton, R.G.; Rasmussen, P.G., The Condensation of DAMN with Conjugated Aldehydes and Polymerizations of the Corresponding Imines, Macromolecules, 2005, 38, 3615-3621. Meiring, J.E.; Schmid, M.J.; Grayson, S.M.; Rathsack, B.M.; Johnson, D.M.; Kirby, R.; Kannappan, R.; Manthiram, K.; Hsia, B.; Hogan, Z. L.; Ellington, A. D.; Pishko, M. V.; Willson, C. G. Hydrogel Biosensor Array Platform Indexed by Shape. Chemistry of Materials 2004, 16, 5574-5580. Johnson, D.M.; Clarke, N.A.; Rasmussen, P.g. The Copolymerization of 1-Alkylvinazenes with Styrene. Journal of Macromolecular Science: Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2001, A38(8), 773-783. Johnson D.M.; Rasmussen, P.G. An Improved Synthesis of the Monomer 2-Vinyl-4, 5-dicyanoimidazole and the Synthesis and Characterization of its Polymers. Macromolecules, 2000, 33, 8597-8603. Contact Information: College of Sciences, Room BSE 1.104N Department of Chemistry University of Texas at San Antonio Phone: 210-458-5444 Fax: 210-458-7428 Dave.Johnson@utsa.edu Return to faculty page   Return to top of page