Joshua Doloff, PhD

Professional Titles

Director, Immunoengineering and Regenerative Medicine Lab
co-Executive Director, IRACDA ASPIRE Postdoctoral Mentoring Program
Chair, Immunoengineering Special Interest Group, Society for Biomaterials

Primary Academic Title

Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Background

Dr. Joshua C. Doloff received his B.S.E. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry from Boston University. His early doctoral work on genetic engineering of cancer-targeted viral vectors won technology development and University Provost awards, and in the latter half of his Ph.D., he focused on chemotherapeutic modulation that elicited potent anti-tumor immune response. Collectively, his work was recognized by his peers as best doctoral dissertation in his graduating class when Joshua was presented with the Frank A. Belamarich Award.

During his postdoctoral studies, Joshua earned a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Fellowship in the labs of Robert Langer and Daniel G. Anderson in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and the David H. Koch Institute at MIT. There, his work on deciphering immune-mediated biomaterial and biomedical device implant rejection contributed to numerous top publications, patents, a lab startup, and awards—including top presentation selections, Immunoengineering prizes, co-chair honors, and a Rising Star Alumni Award.

In September 2018, Joshua was presented with a Distinguished Alumni Rising Star Award from his former Doctoral Department at Boston University, and just this November Joshua became a new Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, and Oncology (Division of Cancer Immunology) at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Most recently, Josh was elected the new Chair of SFB’s Immunoengineering SIG (after a tenure as Vice-Chair), and has received multiple awards, including a Controlled Release Society Young Investigator Award for Immuno Delivery, a Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Young Innovator (2021), NIH Trailblazer, Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance Early Career Investigator, as well as additional support through Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF), FDA, Maryland Stem Cell Research Foundation (MSCRF), and DARPA.

Centers and Institutes

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-c-doloff/

X Profile

https://twitter.com/dolofflab?lang=en

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

Engineering the Future of Diabetes Treatment, Hopkins Whiting Engineering News (2025)
Three from Hopkins BME earn JHU Catalyst Award Hopkins BME News (2024)
Early Career Investigator Award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) (2024) JHU BME News
Early Career Investigator Award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) (2024) OCRA
Early Career Investigator Award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) (2024)ORCA Hope
Artificial lymph node used to treat cancer in mice, Hopkins Med News (2024)
New Humanized Mouse Model for studying Implant rejection, JHU BME News (2023)
New Humanized Mouse Model for studying Implant rejection, Medical Design News (2023)
Researchers offer ‘Hope’ for treating diabetes, minus the painful jabs, JNS (2023)
Tissue Engineering: The Future is Here, Hopkins BME News (2022)
How the surfaces of silicone breast implants affect the immune system, MIT News (2021)
How the surfaces of silicone breast implants affect the immune system, Hopkins News
Passion and mentoring are key to the success of the Doloff Lab, JHU News (2020)
Spinal cord injury Ultrasound implant funded by DARPA, Johns Hopkins University/SOM News (2020)
$13.48M Awarded to Johns Hopkins Scientists to Develop Implantable Ultrasound Devices for Patients with Spinal Cord Injury, Johns Hopkins (2020)
Drug crystals to limit biomaterial implant rejection, Research Highlight, Nature Materials News & Views (2019)
Bedazzled biomaterials: Crystallized drugs prevent implant fibrosis, Science Translational Medicine Editor’s Choice
Oxgen-tracking method could improve diabetes treatment, MIT News (2019)
Study points a way to better implants, MIT (2017)
Scientists have figured out how to stop our bodies from fighting electronic implants, PopSci (March 21, 2017)
No more insulin injections?, MIT (January 25, 2016)
Designing better medical implants, MIT (May 18, 2015)

Additional Academic Titles

Assistant Professor of Oncology

Research Interests

Immunoengineering and Regenerative Medicine

Lab Website

Doloff Lab - Lab Website

Our mission is to explore the intersection between therapeutics, whether biologic or synthetic in origin, and living systems to better understand what happens when deliverables are introduced into the body, as well as how the host immune system perceives and behaves towards them.

Research Summary

Dr. Doloff's Lab in Immunoengineering and Regenerative Medicine is interested in utilizing systems and synthetic biology approaches to understand complex tissue dynamics and generate improved therapeutic platforms for multiple applications including autoimmunity and transplantation medicine (e.g., type 1 diabetes), ophthalmology, and cancer.

Lab research page

Google Scholar - Publications

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mxcQwW0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

PubMed - Publications

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=doloff

Selected Publications

Doloff JC, Veiseh O, Vegas AJ, Tam HH, Farah S, Ma M, Li J, Bader A, Chiu A, Sadraei A, Aresta-Dasilva S, Griffin M, Jhunjhunwala S, Webber M, Siebert S, Tang K, Chen M, Langan E, Dholokia, Thakrar R, Qi M, Oberholzer J, Greiner DL, Langer R, and Anderson DG. 2017. Colony Stimulating Factor-1 Receptor is a central component of the foreign body response to biomaterial implants in rodents and non-human primates. Nature Materials. 2017 Mar 20. doi: 10.1038/nmat4866.
Farah S*, Doloff JC*, Mueller P, Sadraei A, Han HJ, Olafson K, Tyas K, Tam HH, Hollister-Locke J, Griffin M, Meng A, McGarrigle J, Greiner DL, Weir G, Oberholzer J, Langer R, and Anderson DG. 2019. Long-Term Implant Fibrosis Prevention in Rodents and Non-Human Primates Using Crystallized Drug Formulations. Nature Materials. 2019 Aug; 18(8): 892-904. doi: 10.1038/s41563-019-0377-5. *Co-first author.
Doloff JC*, Veiseh O*#, Mezerville Rd, Sforza M, Perry TA, Haupt J, Jamiel M, Chambers C, Nash A, Aghlara-Fotovat S, Stelzel JL, Bauer SJ, Neshat SY, Hancock J, Romero NA, Hidalgo YE, Leiva IM, Munhoz AM, Bayat A, Kinney BM, Hodges HC, Miranda RN, Clemens MW, and Langer R#. 2021. The Surface Topography of Silicone Breast Implants Mediates the Foreign Body Response in Mice, Rabbits, and Humans. Nature Biomedical Engineering. Jun 21. doi: 10.1038/s41551-021-00739-4. *Co-first author; #Co-corresponding author.
Lai V*, Neshat SY*, Rakoski A, Pitingolo J, and Doloff JC. 2021. Drug delivery strategies in maximizing anti-angiogenesis and anti-tumor immunity. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews (ADDR) (Issue: Emerging Tools and Targets for Immune Engineering and Modulation). Aug 10; doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2021.113920.
Doloff JC, Ma M, Sadraei A, Tam HH, Farah S, Hollister-Locke J, Quiroz VM, Rakoski A, Vegas AJ, Veiseh O, Aresta-Dasilva S, Bader AR, Griffin M, Weir GC, Brehm MA, Shultz LD, Langer R, Greiner DL#, and Anderson DG#. 2023. Identification of a humanized mouse model for functional testing of immune-mediated biomaterial foreign body response. Science Advances. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ade9488. #Co-corresponding author.

Courses & Syllabi

BME Immunoengineering: Principles and Applications (EN.580.453) (Fall)
Ethical Challenges in BME (EN.580.711), part of PhD Ethics Seminar Series
Guest lecturer, Graduate/Master’s level, EN580.752 Adv Topics Regenerative Medicine & ImmunoEngineering

Patents

~10 patents filed/pending.

Honors

Johns Hopkins University Catalyst & Grant Accelerator Research Awards, 2024
Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA), Early Career Investigator Award, 2024
Experimental Biology and Medicine (EBM) Outstanding Reviewer Award, 2022
Controlled Release Society (CRS), Young Investigator Award, Immuno Delivery, 2022
BMES Cell & Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) Young Innovator, 2021
NIH NIBIB Trailblazer Award, 2019
Boston University MCBB Distinguished Young Alumni Rising Star Award, 9/15/18
BMES Session Co-Chair, Implantable Devices/Sensors, 10/15/17
Society for Biomaterials, 1st Place Prize, Immune Engineering SIG, 4/15/17
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Postdoctoral Fellowship, 6/1/15
US-Japan Drug Delivery Symposium, Top poster, Selected speaker, 12/15/13
Koch Institute Joseph C. Jefferds, Jr. Research Travel Fellowship, 12/1/13
Frank A. Belamarich Award, Boston University, 5/15/11
New England Membrane Enzyme Group Wetterhahn Award, Top Graduate Student presenter, 5/15/09
Boston University Provost Award, 4/15/09
Boston University Office of Technology Development Award, 4/15/07
Presidential Fellow, Boston University, 9/1/04
University of Pennsylvania, University Scholars, Research grant, 6/1/01
New Jersey (Junior) Academy of Sciences Independent Research Grant, 3/15/98

Memberships

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
American Association of Immunologists (AAI)
Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
Controlled Release Society (CRS)
Society for Biomaterials (SFB)

Additional Training

Sr. Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Children’s Hospital Boston, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Cambridge, MA (2018)