Meet the faculty: C. Wyatt Shields IV

C. Wyatt听Shields IV

  • Assistant Professor
  • Austin Endowed Faculty Fellow
  • CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
  • BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING PROGRAM
  • MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING PROGRAM
Address

Office: JSCBB D218

Education

PhD, Duke University, Biomedical Engineering (2016)
BS, University of Virginia, Biomedical Engineering (2011)

Awards

  • Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (2025)
  • Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2024)
  • Emerging Investigator,听Nanoscale听(2024)
  • Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (2023)
  • Frontiers of Engineering Participant, National Academy of Engineering (2023)
  • Packard Foundation Fellowship in Science and Engineering (2022)
  • NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) (2022)
  • Pew Biomedical Scholar (2022)
  • ONR Young Investigator Program Award (2022)
  • NSF CAREER Award (2022)
  • Beckman Young Investigator Award Finalist (2021)
  • Best On-Demand Talk from the Controlled Release Society (2020)
  • Dean鈥檚 Award for Excellence in Mentoring, Duke University (2016)
  • Exceptional Student Award, ISAC at CYTO (2015)
  • NSF Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide听(2014)
  • Exceptional Student Award,听ISAC at CYTO (2013)
  • NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2012)

Selected Publications

  • Lee, JG; Jeon, SJ; Duarte, AR; Ticknor, M; Minnis, MB; Hayward, RC; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淪hape-morphing active particles with invertible effective polarizability for configurable locomotion and steering鈥 Nature Communications听2026. 17(1): 51.
  • Raj, RR; Day, NB; Loomis, NE; Cutting, E; Gupta, A; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淭ransport of adoptive cell transfers with magnetic helical microrobots鈥 Small听2025. 21(42): e05946.
  • Kwan, MMC; Day, NB; Konigsberg, IR; Thoresen, E; Busch, CE; Harrell, AG; Davidson, E; Yang, IV; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淧article shape modulates the function of adoptive macrophage transfers鈥 Advanced Healthcare Materials听2025. 14(31): e01348.
  • Day, NB; Orear, CR; Hunter, AN; Kwan, MMC; Hamadani, CM; d鈥橝uvergne, A; Guo, J; Tanner, EEL; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淚onic liquid-mediated delivery of ruxolitinib to skin using an adhesive topical hydrogel system鈥 Advanced Healthcare Materials听2025. 14(27): e01838.
  • Lee, JG; Petraccione, J; Trese, KA; Hughes, AC; Ausec, TR; Salzmann-Sullivan, M; Su, LJ; Kim, MT; Goodwin, AP; Feng, FX; Flaig, TW; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淪oft extrudable dendritic particles with nanostructured tendrils for local adhesion and drug release to bladder cancers鈥 Advanced Materials听2025. 37(38): 2505231.
  • Kreienbrink, KM; Cruse, ZA; Kumari, A; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淧recise surface patches on active particles of arbitrary shape through microstenciling鈥 Nature Communications听2025. 16(1): 6062.
  • Duarte, AR;* Thome, CP;* Hoertdoerfer, WS; Praetzel, CR; Pellicciotti, A; Gupta, A; Bevan, MA; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淒ielectrophoretic polarizability of surface-modified particles for studying induced-charge electroosmotic flows鈥 Advanced Functional Materials听2025. 35(29): 2424557.
  • Thome, CP; Fowle, JP; McDonnell, P; Zultak, J; Jayaram, K; Neumann, AK; L贸pez, GP; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淎coustic pipette and biofunctional elastomeric microparticle system for rapid picomolar-level biomolecule detection in whole blood鈥 Science Advances听2024. 10(42): eado9018.
  • Lee, JG;* Raj, RR;* Day, NB;* Shields IV, CW. 鈥淢icrorobots for biomedicine: Unsolved challenges and opportunities for translation鈥 ACS Nano听2023. 17(15): 14196鈥14204.
  • Lee, JG; Raj, RR; Thome, CP; Day, NB; Martinez, P; Bottenus, N; Gupta, A; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淏ubble-based microrobots with rapid circular motions for epithelial pinning and drug delivery鈥 Small听2023. 19(32): 2300409.
  • Thome, CP; Hoertdoerfer, WS; Bendorf, J; Lee, JG; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淓lectrokinetic active particles for motion-based biomolecule detection鈥 Nano Letters听2023. 23(6): 2379鈥2387.
  • Tanjeem, N; Minnis, MB; Hayward, RC; Shields IV, CW. 鈥淪hape-changing particles: From materials design and mechanisms to implementation鈥 Advanced Materials听2022. 3(34): 2105758.

Research Interests

Drug Delivery, Biosensing,听Active Matter,听Soft Materials, Colloid and Interface Science, Microfluidics

Our group is broadly interested in biosensing and drug delivery. The distinguishing approach we take is through engineering particle systems, especially those that interface with biology and controllably respond to external stimuli.听We work听at the intersection of materials, soft matter physics and bioengineering to rationally design colloidal and supracolloidal particles for a range of applications.听We take inspiration from nature, which efficiently assembles matter across length scales that encode a rich variety of behaviors when stimulated by energy.听We have three guiding objectives, to: 1) understand how particles interact in and out of equilibrium and, in turn, how to control their behaviors by tailoring their nano and microscale properties such as shape, size and composition; 2) apply new insights to create collections of "smart" particles that perform useful tasks such as actuate and release encapsulated payloads; and 3) integrate our pipeline of new materials听to advance biosensing and drug delivery by developing new diagnostic and therapeutic platforms for a variety of indications.听

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