His research focuses on the study and development of soft materials, microfluidic devices, and flexible electronics, all with an emphasis on bio-integrated technologies. His aim is to develop and explore chemistries and processing techniques of soft materials (such as smart polymers, elastomers, hydrogels, and composites), unconventional microfabrication techniques, and heterogenous microsystem integration schemes for soft wearable and implantable systems.

Smart Biomaterials: We explore materials and processing schemes for next-generation medical implants with enhanced mechanical, chemical, thermal and electronic properties. We combine basic materials chemistry studies with advanced engineering integration efforts to yield bio-integrated systems which are soft, 3D, shape-changing, and/or bioresorbable. Examples include physiologically responsive polymers, soft 3D micro/mesoscale structures, and bioresorbable elastomers. These materials systems also support integration with advanced thin-film and planar technologies (e.g. electronics, microfluidics).

Selected publications:

• J.T. Reeder, T. Kang, S. Rains, W. Voit, 3D, Reconfigurable, Multimodal Electronic Whiskers via Directed Air Assembly. Adv. Mater. 30, 1706733 (2018).

Bio-integrated Microfluidics: We develop integration schemes for wearable and implantable microfluidic systems. In this project, we are inventing new tools for collecting, analyzing, and modulating the flow of biofluids. An example is wearable soft microfluidics for collection and analysis of sweat directly on the surface of the skin.

Selected publications:

J.T. Reeder, Y. Xue, D. Franklin, Y. Deng, J. Choi, O. Prado, R. Kim, C. Liu, J. Hanson, J. Ciraldo, A. J. Bandodkar, S. Krishnan, A. Johnson, E. Patnaude, R. Avila, Y. Huang, J. A. Rogers, Resettable skin interfaced microfluidic sweat collection devices with chemesthetic hydration feedback. Nat. Commun. 10, 5513 (2019).

J.T. Reeder, J. Choi, Y. Xue, P. Gutruf, J. Hanson, M. Liu, T. Ray, A. J. Bandodkar, R. Avila, W. Xia, S. Krishnan, S. Xu, K. Barnes, M. Pahnke, R. Ghaffari, Y. Huang, J. A. Rogers, Waterproof, Electronics-Enabled, Epidermal Microfluidic Devices for Sweat Collection, Biomarker Analysis, and Thermography in Aquatic Settings. Science Advances. 5, eaau6356 (2019).

S. Kim*, B. Lee*, J.T. Reeder*, S.H. Seo , S.U. Lee , A. Hourlier-Fargette, J. Shin, Y. Sekine, H. Jeong, Y.S. Oh, A.J. Aranyosi, S.P. Lee, J.B. Model, G. Lee, M.H. Seo, S.S. Kwak, S. Jo, G. Park, S. Han, I. Park, H.I. Jung, R. Ghaffari, J. Koo, P.V. Braun, J.A. Rogers. Soft, skin-interfaced microfluidic systems with integrated immunoassays, fluorometric sensors and impedance measurement capabilities. PNAS. (In Press)

Soft Neural Interfaces: We develop biocompatible neurotechnologies for recording and modulating neural activity. In this project, we pursue soft neural interface microsystems for applications in biomedical research and clinical medicine. An example is soft microfluidic devices for precision cooling of mm-scale volumes of tissue for peripheral nerve modulation.