Aaron Schwartz-Duval, PHD
Department of Imaging Physics, Division of Diagnostic Imaging
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Instructor, Division of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Instructor, Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Research Interests
My research goals are to use my expertise in nanomedicine and biomaterials to engineer solutions facing man-kind - taking cues from history and nature. I will initially develop this research program from the field of work I am leading as a pioneer - Gold biomineralization in nanomedicine. This newly emergent field brings nano-particle synthesis to the bedside - instead of preparing bench-top nano-formulations, that are then applied, this strategy generates particles on-site, through interactions between precursors and biomaterials. This work takes inspiration from the vast wealth of research related to gold nanoparticles in medicine, the mild side-effect of a century-old anti-rheumetic drug (i.e. chysiasis), as well as the biogeochemical cycling of gold in soil related to gold nugget formation.
The near-term objectives of my researchwill build from my previously published works, with a foundation in basic science. First, uncovering the mechanisms of nanoparticle biomineralization, by linking input materials and cell physiology with nanoparticle products produced by those cells, and then leveraging that knowledge for translatable interventions related to both detection and remediation of disease. Insights from this research theme will enable the identification of specific biomaterials involved in nanoparticle biomineralization and I will leverage these insights to develop tests for the presence of those specific biomaterials within patient biofluid samples; and concurrently, enable the matching and pairing of pathologies with treatments to generate therapeutic particles on-site within said pathology. The completion of this work will lead to the development of adaptable and inherently personalized healthcare interventions that will be formed by the patients’ pathology.
My long-term objective is to develop a research program focused on developing living therapeutics and diagnostics enabled by nanotechnology . As envisioned, this program will initially focus on using biogeochemistry principles to enable the production of theragnostic nanoparticles by cells (cancer, stem, immune, bacteria, and others) or cellular components (exosomes, secreted biomolecules, extracellular matrix components, organelles, whole membrane, and other endogenous biomaterials). Through this program, I will focus dually on research directions of in situnanomedicine, in which theragnostic nanovectors are generated on-site through interactions between parenterally implanted material and living tissue; and cells and tissue as nanoparticle factories, which involves cells and tissue producing extracellular particles after interacting with “pre-nanoparticle” materials. Building towards my long-term goal of establishing this research program, my near-term objective is to use gold biomineralization to overcome treatment challenges presented by the tumor microenvironment of pancreatic cancer . Although I am initially leverage gold biomineralization against pancreatic cancer, I plan to extend this strategy to encompass other biomineralization pathways (calcium bioceramics, iron oxide, noble metal alloys, or other metal particles) and non-mineral nanovectors (exosomes and viruses) and to apply or adapt these principles similarly for use in other cancers (thyroid, breast, brain, bone, liver, etc.) and other diseases. Related to this, I have found gold biomineralization to occur in all cell lines I have investigated thus far, including breast, thyroid, pancreatic, esophageal, fibroblasts and macrophages; and others have reported this in cell lines from other tissues, including bone, brain, kidney, liver, lung, and muscle.
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2019 | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, US, Bioengineering, Doctorate of Philosophy |
| 2017 | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, US, Bioengineering, Master of Science |
| 2012 | Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, US, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Bachelor of Science |
Postgraduate Training
| 2019-2025 | Postgraduate Fellow, Cancer Nanomedicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
Experience & Service
Other Appointments/Responsibilities
Research Team leader, Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, 2016 - 2016
Design Consultant for Materials-to-Device Cyber-Infrastructure, Materials characterization expert, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, 2016 - 2018
Graduate Researcher, Materials in Medicine (MatMed) Lab, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, 2014 - 2018
Teaching Assistant, Cell Biology Lab, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, 2014 - 2015
Laboratory Technologist, Molecular and Cellular Imaging Lab, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 2012 - 2014
Laboratory Assistant, Sharkey Lab, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 2011 - 2012
Research Assistant, Cognitive Control Neuroscience Lab, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 2010 - 2011
Institutional Committee Activities
Bioengineering, Engineering Graduate Student Advisory Committee, 2016 - 2018
Honors & Awards
| 2021 | Anne Eastland Spears Fellowship in Pancreatic Cancer Research, University of Texas at MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2019 | Postdoctoral Fellowship, MD Anderson/Rice Cancer Nanotech T32 |
| 2017 | Student Travel Award, World Molecular Imaging Society |
| 2016 | Predoctoral, American Heart Association |
| 2016 | French American Doctoral Exchange: Nanoparticles for Medicine, The Office for Science and Technology (SST) of the French Embassy in the United States |
| 2016 | 2nd place graduate speaker, Fifth Annual MRL Biological Conference |
| 2016 | 3rd place poster award, University of Illinois, Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology |
| 2016 | Leadership Award, University of Illinois, Research Opportunities Program |
| 2016 | Avery Brundage Scholarship, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign |
| 2010 | Member of the month, Michigan State University Science Theatre |
| 2008 | Kalamazoo Promise, Kalamazoo Promise org |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Schwartz-Duval AS, Mackeyev Y, Mahmud I, Lorenzi PL, Gagea M, Krishnan S, Sokolov KV. Intratumoral Biosynthesis of Gold Nanoclusters by Pancreatic Cancer to Overcome Delivery Barriers to Radiosensitization. ACS Nano 18(3):1865-1881, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38206058.
- Misra SK, Ye M, Moitra P, Dighe K, Sharma A, Daza EA, Schwartz-Duval AS, Ostadhossein F, Pan D. Synthesis of an enediyne carbon-allotrope surface for photo-thermal degradation of DNA. Chem Commun (Camb) 59(90):13434-13437, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37847141.
- Schwartz-Duval AS, Wen R, Srivastava I, Moitra P, Pan D. A Simplistic Single-Step Method for Preparing Biomimetic Nanoparticles from Endogenous Biomaterials. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 13(39):46464-46477, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34569780.
- Schwartz-Duval AS, Konopka CJ, Moitra P, Daza EA, Srivastava I, Johnson EV, Kampert TL, Fayn S, Haran A, Dobrucki LW, Pan D. Intratumoral generation of photothermal gold nanoparticles through a vectorized biomineralization of ionic gold. Nat Commun 11(1):4530, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32913195.
- Srivastava I, Misra SK, Bangru S, Boateng KA, Soares JANT, Schwartz-Duval AS, Kalsotra A, Pan D. Complementary Oligonucleotide Conjugated Multicolor Carbon Dots for Intracellular Recognition of Biological Events. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 12(14):16137-16149, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32182420.
- Srivastava I, Sar D, Mukherjee P, Schwartz-Duval AS, Huang Z, Jaramillo C, Civantos A, Tripathi I, Allain JP, Bhargava R, Pan D. Enzyme-catalysed biodegradation of carbon dots follows sequential oxidation in a time dependent manner. Nanoscale 11(17):8226-8236, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30973556.
- Khan MS, Dighe K, Wang Z, Srivastava I, Schwartz-Duval AS, Misra SK, Pan D. Electrochemical-digital immunosensor with enhanced sensitivity for detecting human salivary glucocorticoid hormone. Analyst 144(4):1448-1457, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30608068.
- Misra SK, Dighe K, Schwartz-Duval AS, Shang Z, Labriola LT, Pan D. In situ plasmonic generation in functional ionic-gold-nanogel scaffold for rapid quantitative bio-sensing. Biosens Bioelectron 120:77-84, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30149216.
- Misra SK, Srivastava I, Khamo JS, Krishnamurthy VV, Sar D, Schwartz-Duval AS, Soares JANT, Zhang K, Pan D. Carbon dots with induced surface oxidation permits imaging at single-particle level for intracellular studies. Nanoscale 10(39):18510-18519, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30137087.
- Khan MS, Misra SK, Dighe K, Wang Z, Schwartz-Duval AS, Sar D, Pan D. Electrically-receptive and thermally-responsive paper-based sensor chip for rapid detection of bacterial cells. Biosens Bioelectron 110:132-140, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29605712.
- Daza EA, Schwartz-Duval AS, Volkman K, Pan D. Facile Chemical Strategy to Hydrophobically Modify Solid Nanoparticles Using Inverted Micelle-Based Multicapsule for Efficient Intracellular Delivery. ACS Biomater Sci Eng 4(4):1357-1367, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 33418666.
- Srivastava I, Misra SK, Tripathi I, Schwartz‐Duval A, Pan D. In situ time‐dependent and progressive oxidation of reduced state functionalities at the nanoscale of carbon nanoparticles for polarity‐driven multiscale near‐infrared imaging. Advanced Biosystems 2(3):1800009, 2018. e-Pub 2018.
- Khan MS, Dighe K, Wang Z, Srivastava I, Daza E, Schwartz-Dual AS, Ghannam J, Misra SK, Pan D. Detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in human saliva using an ultra-sensitive nanocomposite of graphene nanoplatelets with diblock-co-polymers and Au electrodes. Analyst 143(5):1094-1103, 2018. e-Pub 2018.
- Konopka CJ, Wozniak M, Hedhli J, Ploska A, Schwartz-Duval A, Siekierzycka A, Pan D, Munirathinam G, Dobrucki IT, Kalinowski L, Dobrucki LW. Multimodal imaging of the receptor for advanced glycation end-products with molecularly targeted nanoparticles. Theranostics 8(18):5012-5024, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30429883.
- Misra SK, Schwartz-Duval AS, Pan D. Genomic DNA Interactions Mechanize Peptidotoxin-Mediated Anticancer Nanotherapy. Mol Pharm 14(7):2254-2261, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28544846.
- Misra SK, Schwartz-Duval AS, Ostadhossein F, Daza EA, Saldivar ZM, Sharma BK, Pan D. alpha-Amino Acid Rich Photophytonic Nanoparticles of Algal Origin Serendipitously Reveal Antimigratory Property against Cancer. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 9(25):21147-21154, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28581711.
- Ostadhossein F, Misra SK, Schwartz-Duval AS, Sharma BK, Pan D. Nanosalina: A Tale of Saline-Loving Algae from the Lake's Agony to Cancer Therapy. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 9(13):11528-11536, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28291324.
- Khan MS, Misra SK, Schwartz-Duval AS, Daza E, Ostadhossein F, Bowman M, Jain A, Taylor G, McDonagh D, Labriola LT, Pan D. Real-Time Monitoring of Post-Surgical and Post-Traumatic Eye Injuries Using Multilayered Electrical Biosensor Chip. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 9(10):8609-8622, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28207238.
- Khan MS, Misra SK, Wang Z, Daza E, Schwartz-Duval AS, Kus JM, Pan D, Pan D. Paper-Based Analytical Biosensor Chip Designed from Graphene-Nanoplatelet-Amphiphilic-diblock-co-Polymer Composite for Cortisol Detection in Human Saliva. Anal Chem 89(3):2107-2115, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28050904.
- Daza EA, Misra SK, Schwartz-Duval AS, Ohoka A, Miller C, Pan D. Nano-Cesium for Anti-Cancer Properties: An Investigation into Cesium Induced Metabolic Interference. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 8(40):26600-26612, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27662498.
- Vulugundam G, Misra SK, Ostadhossein F, Schwartz-Duval AS, Daza EA, Pan D. (-)/(+)-Sparteine induced chirally-active carbon nanoparticles for enantioselective separation of racemic mixtures. Chem Commun (Camb) 52(47):7513-6, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27214647.
- Schwartz-Duval AS, Misra SK, Mukherjee P, Johnson E, Acerbo AS, Pan D. An anisotropic propagation technique for synthesizing hyperbranched polyvillic gold nanoparticles. Nanoscale 9:2889-2903, 2016. e-Pub 2016.
- Misra SK, Mukherjee P, Ohoka A, Schwartz-Duval AS, Tiwari S, Bhargava R, Pan D. Vibrational spectroscopy and imaging for concurrent cellular trafficking of co-localized doxorubicin and deuterated phospholipid vesicles. Nanoscale 8(5):2826-31, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 26763407.
- Gartia MR, Misra SK, Ye M, Schwartz-Duval A, Plucinski L, Zhou X, Kellner D, Labriola LT, Pan D. Point-of-service, quantitative analysis of ascorbic acid in aqueous humor for evaluating anterior globe integrity. Sci Rep 5:16011, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26525715.
- Swy ER, Schwartz-Duval AS, Shuboni DD, Latourette MT, Mallet CL, Parys M, Cormode DP, Shapiro EM. Dual-modality, fluorescent, PLGA encapsulated bismuth nanoparticles for molecular and cellular fluorescence imaging and computed tomography. Nanoscale 6(21):13104-12, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25248645.
- Schwartz-Duval AS, Shapiro EM. Physico-Chemical and Financial Comparisons of One-Step Iron Oxide Nanocrystal Syntheses for Nanoparticle Fabrication. Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Letters 6(7):618-623, 2014.
Other Articles
- Schwartz-Duval AS, Sokolov KV Prospecting Cellular Gold Nanoparticle Biomineralization as a Viable Alternative to Prefabricated Gold Nanoparticles. Adv Sci (Weinh) 9(20):e2105957, 2022. PMID: 35508715.
- Nguyen P, Konstsanty S, Nicholson T, O'Brien T, Schwartz-Duval A, Spila T, Campbell RH, Gupta I, Chan M, McHenry K, Paquin N, Nahrstedt K 4CeeD: Real-Time Data Acquisition and Analysis Framework for Material-related Cyber-Physical Environments. IEEE, 2017.
- Gartia MR, Misra SK, Ye M, Schwartz-Duval A, Plucinski L, Zhou X, Kellner D, Labriola LT, Pan D Corrigendum: Point-of-service, quantitative analysis of ascorbic acid in aqueous humor for evaluating anterior globe integrity. Sci Rep 6:20452, 2016. PMID: 26869369.
Book Chapters
- Ostadhossein F, Daza EA, Frankowski D, Goatz D, Imgruet M, Kus J, Lake R, Modak M, Olsen N, Schwartz-Duval A, Zimmer A, Kolmodin N, Pan D. Nano-enabled delivery of intracellular therapeutics. In: Personalized Medicine with a Nanochemistry Twist: Nanomedicine. Springer, 105-119, 2015.
Selected Presentations & Talks
Local Presentations
- 2017. Image Guided Drug Delivery (IGDD) Integrating Multi-Scale Imaging (MSI) and Personalized Nanomedicine (‘Omics’ Approach). Invited. Omics Nanotechnology for Cancer Precision Medicine. Champaign, IL, US.
- 2016. Towards a Cell-level Personalization of Nanomedicine: Pathology Dependent In SituReduction of Gold Nanoparticles by Mammalian Cells. Conference. MRL Bioconference. Champaign, IL, US.
- 2016. Towards a Cell-level Personalization of Nanomedicine: Pathology Dependent In Situ Reduction of Gold Nanoparticles by Action of Mammalian Cells. Poster. MRL Bioconference. Champaign, IL, US.
- 2016. Towards a Cell-level Personalization of Nanomedicine: Pathology Dependent In Situ Reduction of Gold Nanoparticles by Action of Mammalian Cells. Poster. 14th Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology Workshop. Champaign, IL, US.
- 2016. Next Generation Nanomedicine Encompassing In Silico Drug Design, Synthesis and Image Guided Delivery In Vivo. Invited. BIOE day Seminar. Champaign, IL, US.
- 2016. polyvillic nanostructures for biomedical applications: a snowflake inspired design. Poster. 6th Annual Postdoctoral Research Symposium. Champaign, IL, US.
- 2015. polyvillic nanostructures for biomedical applications: a snowflake inspired design. Poster. UIC Cancer Research Forum. Chicago, IL, US.
- 2015. superior polyvillic nanostructures for biomedical applications: a snowflake inspired design. Conference. Graduate Student Seminar Series. Champaign, IL, US.
- 2015. Anisotropic Gold Nanostructures. Poster. 13th Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology Workshop. Champaign, IL, US.
- 2015. Facile Size Controlled Synthesis of Carbon Nanoparticles. Poster. 5th Annual Postdoctoral Research Symposium. Champaign, IL, US.
Regional Presentations
- 2016. Towards a Cell-level Personalization of Nanomedicine: Pathology Dependent In Situ Reduction of Gold Nanoparticles by Action of Mammalian Cells. Conference. AVS Prairie Symposium. Chicago, IL, US.
National Presentations
- 2024. In situ cancer cell specific biomineralization to overcome nanoparticle delivery barriers and sensitize pancreatic cancer to radiotherapy. Poster. Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. Rockville, MD, US.
- 2023. Radiosensitization of Pancreatic Cancer through Intracellular Gold Nanocluster Biomineralization. Poster. Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. Rockville, MD, US.
- 2022. Prospecting Intratumoral Gold Nanoparticle Biomineralization for Cancer Therapy. Poster. Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting. San Antonio, TX, US.
- 2019. Intratumoral Generation of Photothermal Gold Nanoparticles through a Vectorized Application of Ionic Gold. Poster. Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. Rockville, MD, US.
- 2016. Polyvillic Nanostructures for Biomedical Applications. Poster. Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting. Minneapolis, MN, US.
- 2016. superior polyvillic nanostructures for biomedical applications: a snowflake inspired design. Poster. Nanoengineering for Medicine and Biology Conference. houston, TX, US.
International Presentations
- 2023. Therapeutic disruption of the pancreatic cancer niche through in situ biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles. Poster. Imaging, Editing and Immunomodulating the Tumor Microenvironment. Waterville, US.
- 2023. Radiosensitization of Pancreatic Cancer through Intracellular Gold Nanocluster Biomineralization. Poster. The Bio-Nano Interface: From Fundamentals to Potential Clinical Applications for Cancer. Waterville, US.
- 2022. Radiosensitization of Pancreatic Cancer through Intracellular Gold Nanocluster Biomineralization. Conference. Engineering Nanoscale Light-Matter Interactions for Energy, Communication and Biomedical Applications. Newry, US.
- 2022. Radiosensitization of Pancreatic Cancer through Intracellular Gold Nanocluster Biomineralization. Poster. Nanoscale Light-Matter Interactions for Sustainability. Newry, US.
- 2017. Towards a Cell-level Personalization of Nanomedicine: Pathology Dependent In Vitro Reduction of Gold Nanoparticles by Action of Mammalian Cells. Poster. International Nanomedicine & Drug Delivery Symposium. Ann Arbor, US.
- 2017. An ‘Omics’ Approach Towards a Cell-level Personalization of Nanomedicine: In VitroReduction of Gold Nanoparticles by Mammalian Cells. Conference. World Molecular Imaging Congress. Philadelphia, US.
- 2016. superior polyvillic nanostructures for biomedical applications: a snowflake inspired design. Conference. French American Doctoral Exchange Program: Nanoparticles in Medicine. Grenoble, FR.
- 2013. Optimization of magnetite production for use as MRI contrast agents. Poster. World Molecular Imaging Congress. Savannah, US.
- 2013. Optimization of magnetite production for use as MRI contrast agents. Poster. 1st Annual Cell Tracking Symposium. London, CA.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified March 19, 2025