Nick Housley is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech and a Member of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. He earned a BS in Kinesiology from The University of Georgia, a DPT from Georgia State University where he focused on clinical neuroplasticity, a Ph.D. in Applied Physiology from Georgia Institute of Technology and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Neurobiology.

Nick started his independent career on the faculty of Georgia Institute of Technology in 2025. The Housley Lab studies how the nervous system, cancer, and its treatment interact in mammalian systems through two overarching themes. First, they perform foundational studies on the role the nervous system plays in the initiation and progression of cancer. Second, they perform multi-scale preclinical studies to define the determinants of neurologic consequences of cancer treatment. In parallel, Housley lead clinical efforts to translate basic science findings to clinical practice.

The Housley lab also develops nanostructures for multimodal applications in solid tumor cancers including drug delivery and cancer detection. A major area of focus involves the use of their nanohydrogel platform to precisely delivery therapeutic payloads to primary and metastatic cancer sites and translate their technology from the laboratory into human clinical studies. My colleagues and I also investigate the interactions of nanostructures and biological environments that enable solid tumor targeting.

Greeshma Agasthya (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor in the Nuclear & Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics Program at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. She leads the Computational Medical Physics Laboratory, and her research interests are: (1) developing multiscale digital twins for personalized radiation dosimetry for imaging, therapy, and theranostics, (2) modeling and simulations to assess novel radiation protocols from cancer diagnosis to cancer treatment, and (3) developing AI frameworks to model patient trajectories for early intervention and treatment in oncology.

Previously, she was a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Advanced Computing for Health Sciences section. Agasthya received her doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and completed her postdoctoral training at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute. She has experience in medical imaging research, modeling and simulation for radiation dosimetry, and AI and Machine learning for healthcare. Agasthya has developed and used multi-scale modeling and simulations of the human body for virtual clinical trials, radiation dosimetry, and optimization of medical imaging systems for cancer applications. She has worked on artificial intelligence (AI) for cancer surveillance, predicting disease outcomes, and clinical decision support. She has collaborated with experts in medical physics, radiology, cardiology, computer engineering, and statistics to tackle interdisciplinary challenges in medical physics and biomedical engineering. She has worked on imaging modalities including neutron imaging, x-ray radiography, computed tomography (CT), and tomosynthesis systems for cancer applications.

Alexander Vlahos is an Assistant Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Alexander received his B.S. in Biochemistry from McMaster University and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor Michael Sefton. His Ph.D. work focused on developing an injectable bioartificial pancreas that could be delivered underneath the skin. He then transitioned to mammalian synthetic biology, where he conducted his postdoctoral work as an HFSP long-term fellow at Stanford University with Professor Xiaojing Gao.

His research integrates principles from synthetic biology, protein engineering, and tissue engineering to develop synthetic protein circuits for mammalian cellular engineering. The Vlahos lab synergizes synthetic biology and tissue engineering to create programmable gene and cell therapies for biomedical applications in regenerative medicine, cancer, and autoimmune disease. His lab has three main research themes, including 1) generating protein sensors to sense changes in internal cell states or the external microenvironment, 2) programming engineered cells to model cell-to-cell communication and elucidate the dynamics and expression of key signals that govern fibrosis and immune rejection, and 3) applying synthetic protein circuits to modulate the immune system and improve cell transplantation.

Justin Kim is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He received his A.B. in Chemistry and Physics and an A.M. in Chemistry from Harvard College in 2003 then received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013. After a postdoctoral fellowship as a Miller Institute Fellow at UC Berkeley and at Stanford University, he joined the faculty of the Department of Cancer Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School in 2016 as an Assistant Professor. He later joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2024. He is the recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2018), Thieme Chemistry Journal Award (2021), and the NSF CAREER Award (2023). Professor Kim’s research program is defined by the development of biologically relevant reactions for use in chemistry, biology, and materials science. His primary research interests are in expanding the functional repertoire of bioorthogonal chemistry, specifically exploring new bond-forming and breaking methods that enable platforms for discovering and targeting small molecule-protein and protein-protein interactions as well as for creating functionally dynamic biomaterials.

Dr. Jacob Berchuck is a Medical Oncologist at the Winship Cancer Institute and Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Emory, Dr. Berchuck was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Medical Oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In addition to caring for patients, Dr. Berchuck leads a translational research lab focused on utilizing "liquid biopsy" tools that enable multi-omic profiling of tumor-derived cell-free DNA circulating in the bloodstream to pioneer advances that transform how we manage and treat individuals living with cancer. The core research objectives of the Berchuck Lab include include developing biomarkers to guide treatment decisions, working towards a future where a simple blood draw can enable real-time insights to choose the right treatment for the right patient at the right time, and studying mechanisms of therapeutic resistance. Dr. Berchuck’s research has been published in several high-impact journals, including Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Annals of Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, and others.

Dr. Rahnev received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University in 2012. After completing a 3-year post-doctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley, he joined Georgia Tech in 2015 where he is currently Blanchard Early Career professor. His research focuses on perceptual decision making – the process of internally representing the available sensory information and making decisions on it. Dr. Rahnev uses a wide variety of methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), psychophysics, computational modeling, and deep neural networks (DNNs). Dr. Rahnev’s work appears in high-impact journals such as Behavioral and Brain Sciences, PNAS, Nature Communications, and Nature Human Behavior. He has received over $3.5M in funding, including PI grants from NIH, NSF, and the Office of Naval Research.

Anna (Anya) Ivanova is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology. She got her Ph.D. from MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Science and carried out her postdoctoral training at MIT Quest for Intelligence. In her research, Anya is examining the language-thought relationship in humans and in large language models using a synergistic combination of human brain imaging, behavioral studies, and computational modeling.

Prof. Matthew Flavin is an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he leads the Flavin Neuromachines Lab. Before joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 2017 and 2021 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and he received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2015 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He received the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional National Research Service Award (T32) and the Draper Laboratory Fellowship. The vision for his independent research program is to develop powerful peripheral neural interfaces and mechatronic wearables that leverage advanced sensors and intelligent systems to address important and unresolved challenges in patient care.

Munmun De Choudhury is an Associate Professor at the School of Interactive Computing in Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. De Choudhury is renowned for her groundbreaking contributions to the fields of computational social science, human-computer interaction, and digital mental health. Through fostering interdisciplinary collaborations across academia, industry, and public health sectors, Dr. De Choudhury and her collaborators have contributed significantly to advancing the development of computational techniques for early detection and intervention in mental health, as well as in unpacking how social media use benefits or harms mental well-being. De Choudhury's contributions have been recognized worldwide, with significant scholarly impact evidenced by numerous awards like induction into the SIGCHI Academy and the 2023 SIGCHI Societal Impact Award. Beyond her academic achievements, Dr. De Choudhury is a proactive community leader, a persistent contributor to policy-framing and advocacy initiatives, and is frequently sought for expert advice to governments, and national and international media.

Our interests lie in the adhesion and signaling molecules of the immune system as well as those involved in platelet adhesion and aggregation. We are primarily focused on early cell surface interaction kinetics and their primary signaling responses, as these are critical in determining how a cell will ultimately respond upon contact with another cell. The majority of our work ranges from single molecule interaction studies using atomic force microscopy, molecular dynamics simulations, or biomembrane force probe assays to single cell studies using micropipette adhesions assays, fluorescence imaging techniques, or real-time confocal microscopy. These assays focus on the mechanics and kinetics of receptor-ligand binding and their downstream signaling effects within cells. T cell receptors, selectins, integrins, and their respective ligands are some of the cell surface molecules currently under investigation in our lab. Understanding the initial interaction between molecules such as these and their subsequent early signaling processes is crucial to elucidating the response mechanisms of these physiological systems. Ultimately, our research strives to help better understand the mechanisms within these systems for possible medical applications in autoimmunity, allergy, transplant rejection, and thrombotic disorders.