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.

Khalid Salaita is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry, and Director for Graduate Studies in the Chemistry Department at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Khalid grew up in Jordan and moved to the US in 1997 to pursue his undergraduate studies at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia (USA). He worked under the mentorship of Prof. Nancy Xu studying the spectroscopic properties of plasmonic nanoparticles. He then obtained his Ph.D. with Prof. Chad Mirkin at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) in 2006. 

During that time, he studied the electrochemical properties of organic adsorbates patterned onto gold films and developed massively parallel scanning probe lithography approaches. From 2006-2009, Khalid was a postdoctoral scholar with Prof. Jay T. Groves at the University of California at Berkeley (USA) where he investigated the role of receptor clustering in modulating cell signaling. In 2009, Khalid started his own lab at Emory University, where he is currently investigating the use of nucleic acids as molecular force sensors, smart drugs, and synthetic motors. 

In recognition of his independent work, Khalid has received a number of awards, most notably: the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the Camille-Dreyfus Teacher Scholar award, the National Science Foundation Early CAREER award, the Kavli Fellowship, and Merck Future Insight Prize. Khalid is currently the director of the Center on Probes for Molecular Mechanotechnology, and an Associate Editor of SmartMat. Khalid’s program has been supported by NSF, NIH, and DARPA.

 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

Dr. Francisco Robles is currently an adjunct assistant professor in the School of ECE and an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. He runs the Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy (OIS) Lab which focuses on advancing optical technologies to help improve the understanding of biological processes and the ability to identify and stage disease. The team develops and applies novel label-free linear and nonlinear spectroscopic methods, along with advanced signal processing methods, to gain access to novel forms of functional and molecular contrast for a variety of applications, including cancer detection, tumor margin assessment, and hematology. 

Dr. Robles completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Chemistry at Duke University (2016), earned his Ph.D. in Medical Physics at Duke University (2011), and earned a B.S. in Physics and in Nuclear Engineering from North Carolina State University (2007).

Metalloproteins constitute one of the largest classes of proteins in the proteome and are involved in virtually every metabolic and signaling pathway of consequence to human health and disease. Broadly speaking, the Reddi laboratory is interested in determining the cellular, molecular, and chemical mechanisms by which metalloproteins are activated by cells, and once activated, how they communicate with other biomolecules to promote normal metabolism and physiology, placing an emphasis on systems relevant to cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and infectious diseases. Current projects in the lab are focused on elucidating heme trafficking pathways and the role of Cu/Zn Superoxide Dismutase (SOD1) in redox signaling. Prospective students will get broad training in disciplines that span modern biochemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, biophysics, chemical biology, molecular genetics, and cell biology.      

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 goal of Christopher Porter's lab is to develop novel therapeutic strategies for leukemia through better understanding of molecular mechanisms of leukemogenesis and treatment resistance. We employ a wide variety of techniques, in vitro and in vivo, for discovery and validation of molecular vulnerabilities in cancer cells. For example, using a genome-scale shRNA screen, we identified WEE1 as a chemosensitizing target in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. Subsequent studies funded by the NCI have validated this finding and supported the development of a clinical trials a WEE1 inhibitor in subjects with AML. More recently, we have discovered a novel function for the transcription factor ETV6 in regulating normal hematopoiesis and are testing whether and how Etv6 mutation promotes leukemogenesis using a new mouse model with a point mutation in Etv6. Another project in the lab is directed at understanding mechanisms of immune evasion during leukemogenesis, as well as enhancing immune cells’ response to leukemia cells.

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.

The Shoichiro's lab primary research interest is the mechanisms that regulate dynamic rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton during various cellular events including development, cell movement, cytokinesis, and human diseases. We have been studying this problem using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system. C. elegans has been used to study many aspects of development, because of its relative simplicity in the body patterning, and application of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell biology. We are especially interested in the functions of the actin depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin family of actin-binding proteins, which are required for enhancement of actin filament dynamics. We found that two ADF/cofilin proteins that are generated from the unc-60 gene have different actin-regulating activities. Mutation and expression analyses demonstrated that one of the two ADF/cofilin isoforms (UNC-60B) was specifically required for organized assembly of actin filaments in muscle. ADF/cofilin promotes depolymerization and severing of actin filaments, but tropomyosin inhibits this effect by stabilizing filaments. The other ADF/cofilin isoform (UNC-60A) is highly expressed in early embryos and regulates cytokinesis and embryonic patterning. In addition, we found that actin-interacting protein 1 (AIP1) is a new regulator of muscle actin filaments. AIP1 (UNC-78) specifically interacts with ADF/cofilin-bound actin filaments and enhances filament depolymerization. We also found that the gene product of sup-12 (an RBM24 homolog) regulates alternative splicing of the unc-60 gene and is required for generation of the unc-60B mRNA. We are currently studying functions of these proteins and other regulators of actin dynamics in several developmental aspects in C. elegans.

Dr. Nie received her B.S. degree in Biology from Peking University in China in 2002. In 2007, she received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she worked on elucidating signaling pathways in vertebrate gastrulation movements. Thereafter, she conducted postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Marianne Bronner at California Institute of Technology. She joined Georgia Tech in Fall 2014.