Philip Santangelo is a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech School of Engineering and Emory University School of Medicine. He is a member of the Cancer Immunology Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute. 

Dr. Santangelo obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California at Davis. He completed his postdoctoral training at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California and at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia. He also holds an MS in Engineering from Purdue University. 

The overarching theme of the Santangelo lab is the spatial biology of RNA viruses and RNA regulation. Spatial biology is the study of biology in three dimensions — and the Santangelo lab develops advanced imaging tools to achieve this goal. The lab focuses their tools on the spatial biology of HIV/SIV and human respiratory synctial virus (leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in babies) and the aberrant regulation of messenger RNA during inflammation, viral infections and cancer pathogenesis. They have developed both single molecule methods and whole body imaging methods in order to work towards our goals.

 In August 2023, Krishnendu Roy joined Vanderbilt University as the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering and a University Distinguished Professor in Biomedical Engineering, and Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, with a secondary appointment in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Previously, Roy served as Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair for the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He is also the former Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), Center for ImmunoEngineering at Georgia Tech, and Marcus Center for Therapeutic Cell Characterization and Manufacturing. 

His overall research interests are in developing novel concepts for stem cell engineering as well as polymer controlled delivery of biological factors, especially for nucleic acid therapeutics (DNA, SiRNA and oligos) and immunoengineering. Currently, his group is involved in the following major areas of research; (a) Developing novel concepts to produce biodegradable surface functionalized micro-and nanoparticles for targeted and sustained delivery of nucleic acids, proteins, peptides and other immune modulators. In particular he is interested in developing multi-agent vaccine delivery systems for cancer and infectious diseases as well as immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases. (b) Creating spatio-temporally patterned polymer scaffolds for directed compartmental differentiation of stem cells into multiple lineages. (c) Engineering an artificial thymic niche for directed differentiation of stem cells into functional, antigen- specific T cells. (e) The development of novel nanoimprinting techniques to generate shape specific, environmentally triggered drug nanocarriers.

Faces of Research - Profile Article

Felipe trained as a biomedical engineer in his native Colombia before obtaining a PhD from the Biomedical Engineering department of Duke University. At Duke, working in the laboratory of Ashutosh Chilkoti, he focused on the engineering of genetically-encoded, self-assembling protein polymers. An important outcome of this PhD work was the elucidation of sequence rules to program the phase separation behavior of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Motivated by a newly acquired ability to engineer the phase behavior of IDPs, for his postdoctoral work he turned to their poorly-understood biology. To pursue skin as an outstanding biological system, Felipe joined the group of Elaine Fuchs at Rockefeller University. Felipe’s postdoctoral research led to the discovery that liquid-liquid phase separation drives the process of skin barrier formation. In 2020, he established the Quiroz Lab in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, where he is currently an Assistant Professor. Felipe is the recipient of multiple research awards, including a Career Award at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

Professor Mark R. Prausnitz is a Regents' Professor and the Love Family Professor in Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering in the School of Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering. He received his B.S. in 1988 from Stanford University and his Ph.D. in 1994 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Prausnitz and his colleagues carry out research on biophysical methods of drug delivery, which employ microneedles, ultrasound, lasers, electric fields, heat, convective forces and other physical means to control the transport of drugs, proteins, genes and vaccines into and within the body. A major area of focus involves the use of microneedle patches to apply vaccines to the skin in a painless, minimally invasive manner. In collaboration with Emory University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other organizations, Professor Prausnitz's group is advancing microneedles from device design and fabrication through pharmaceutical formulation and pre-clinical animal studies through studies in human subjects. In addition to developing a self-administered influenza vaccine using microneedles, Professor Prausnitz is translating microneedle technology especially to make vaccination in developing countries more effective. The Prausnitz group has also developed hollow microneedles for injection into the skin and into the eye in collaboration with Emory University. In the skin, research focuses on insulin administration to human diabetic patients to increase onset of action by targeting insulin delivery to the skin. In the eye, hollow microneedles enable precise targeting of injection to the suprachoroidal space and other intraocular tissues for minimally invasive delivery to treat macular degeneration and other retinal diseases. Professor Prausnitz and colleagues also study novel mechanisms to deliver proteins, DNA and other molecules into cells. Cavitation bubble activity generated by ultrasound and by laser-excitation of carbon nanoparticles breaks open a small section of the cell membrane and thereby enables entry of molecules, which is useful for gene-based therapies and targeted drug delivery. In addition to research activities, Professor Prausnitz teaches an introductory course on engineering calculations, as well as two advanced courses on pharmaceuticals and technical communication, both of which he developed. He also serves the broader scientific and business communities as a frequent consultant, advisory board member and expert witness.

Faces of Research - Profile Article

The Panitch lab research has focused on the extracellular matrix (ECM) and how matrix signals affect tissue regeneration, including nerve regeneration, wound healing and angiogenesis, cartilage and vascular. More recently, the lab has focused on the proteoglycan component of the ECM. Proteoglycans are critical components of tissue function. They influence matrix organization, the viscoelastic properties of the matrix, access of enzymes to the matrix and serve as a protective barrier as in the case of the glycocalyx. Proteoglycans are difficult to synthesize because of the complex post translational modifications and the complexity of carbohydrate chemistry. The Panitch laboratory has demonstrated that proteoglycan function can largely be recapitulated by conjugating short, bioactive peptide sequences to GAGs. The peptide sequences direct the GAG to its target and ensure that it is held in place, similarly to how native proteoglycans function. The lab has used proteoglycan mimetic strategies to develop therapeutics to treat osteoarthritis, improve wound healing, and treat diseased blood vessels.

Dr. Adegboyega “Yomi” Oyelere has received PhD from Brown University in 1998. Currently, he works as an associate professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Throughout my career, my laboratory has studied sphingolipids, a category of lipids that are important in cell structure, signal transduction and cell-cell communication. For more information about what we found, please refer to the Google Scholar or PubMed links below. 

As an Emeritus Professor, I am working on a project that has interested me for a long time--the fact that the active agent in the venom of the brown recluse spider is a sphingomyelinase D that produces a novel product, ceramide 1,3-cyclic phosphate. This activity has also been found in other spiders, bacteria and fungi. With the help of collaborators, I hope to learn more about the organisms that produce and degrade this novel sphingolipid, and possibly find ways to reduce the injury caused by the enzyme when humans encounter it in the environment.

In the McCarty lab, we focus on the molecular physiology of ion channels and receptors, with emphasis on epithelial chloride channels. Our specific focus is the pathophysiology of Cystic Fibrosis, including the structure/function of CFTR and its many roles in the airway. We pioneered the use of peptide toxins as probes of chloride channels. We also have projects that study the functional consequences of heterodimerization among GPCRs, the role of CFTR in regulation of sweat composition, and the molecular ecology of predator-prey interactions in the marine environment. Our translational research in CF targets: (a) the mechanism by which the expression of mutant CFTR in airway epithelial cells impacts the development of CF-related diabetes; and (b) identification of biomarkers of acute pulmonary exacerbations in CF along with development of a novel device for their detection in the home. 

The goal of the Center for Cystic Fibrosis Research is to engage Atlanta researchers in basic and translational research that will lead to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease and/or generate new devices and treatments to increase the length and quality of life for CF patients. The novel theme for these research activities is 'The Systems Biology of the CF Lung'.

I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), Georgia Institute of Technology since January 2022. I received my PhD from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Prof. Jian Peng. Prior to that, I received my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Yao Class at Tsinghua University in 2016.

I am broadly interested in computational biology and machine learning, with a focus on developing AI and data science methods to reveals core scientific insights into biology and medicine. Recent interests include deep learning, transfer learning, sequence and graph representation learning, network and system biology, functional genomics, cancer genomics, drug repositioning and discovery, and AI-guided biological design and discovery.