Rachel Aguillard
Rachel joined the Peppas lab in Spring 2025 as a Biomedical Engineering PhD Student. Her current research interests include creating stimuli responsive biomaterials that provide novel, effective solutions to combating inflammatory diseases. Her current project focuses on the development of a multi-responsive, multi-scale system for oral delivery of therapeutics to the brain for reducing inflammation and restoring neural tissue. Originally from Louisiana, she earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University where she researched the development of designer hydrogels for oral delivery of vasodilators for the treatment of cardiovascular and chronic inflammatory diseases. Then, she was a R&D engineer at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab where she worked on a portfolio of projects focused on biomaterial technology for defense, healthcare, emerging threats, sensing, climate resilience, and operational biology. In her free time, Rachel enjoys running, reading, traveling, crafting and gardening.
Ishaan Duggal
Ishaan joined the Peppas Lab in 2023 as a Molecular pharmaceutics and drug delivery PhD student. His research project is focused on improving the intestinal permeability of high molecular weight proteins. Ishaan did his bachelor’s in pharmacy at Panjab university, India. Subsequently, Ishaan pursued master’s in pharmaceutics at University of Minnesota. While at UMN his research focused on shape memory polymers synthesis and oral absorption enhancement. Outside the lab, Ishaan likes to travel, garden, hike and try food from different cultures.
Miranda Holst
Miranda joined the Peppas lab in May 2026 as a Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery Ph.D. Student. Her research focuses on developing nanomaterial-based drug delivery systems for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, with a particular emphasis on multiple sclerosis. Her current project centers on the design of oral nanoparticle systems for RNA-based therapeutic delivery to the CNS alongside molecularly imprinted polymers for biomarker detection and capture in the CNS. Miranda graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Texas A&M University where she conducted undergraduate research synthesizing HBO-BF2 fluorescence dyes for PET imaging. Prior to her doctoral studies, she spent four years as a secondary educator in mathematics and chemistry. Outside the lab, Miranda enjoys traveling with her family, specifically to escape the Texas heat in search of fresh snow and good skiing.
