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Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS)

Kristin P Bennett

Kristin P Bennett
Sun, 2010-06-13 02:05 — bennek
Name: Kristin P Bennett
Title:Professor
Department Computer Science Lally School of Management and Technology Mathematical Sciences
School Lally School of Management and Technology Engineering Science
Center Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) Data Science Research Center (DSRC) Rensselaer Exploratory Center for Cheminformatics Research (RECCR)
Website:http://homepages.rpi.edu/~bennek/
Bio Dr. Bennett
is an active researcher in the Mathematical Programming, Operations
Research, Machine Learning, Bioinformatics and Data Mining communities. She is
currently a Professor in the departments of Mathematical Sciences and Computer Science at Rensselaer. She founded and directs the NIH funded TB-Track Project which examines the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis. She is co-PI of RPI's NSF Advance project for the advancement of women faculty at RPI and has expertise in gender issues and faculty advancement.
She was Program
Co-chair of the 2005 SIGKDD Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
Conference. She has served as a program committee member of numerous conferences including
SIGKDD Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining Conference, AAAI
Conference, International Conference on Machine Learning, Neural
Information Processing Systems, IEEE Conference on Data Mining,
Computational Learning Theory, and SIAM International Conference on
Data Mining. She is a founding associate editor of ACM Transactions
on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. She has organized multiple
data mining and machine learning clusters at INFORMS meetings. She
is a former associate editor of Naval Research Logistics, Machine
Learning Journal, SIAM Journal of Optimization, and IEEE
Transactions on Neural Networks. She serves on the advisory board of
the Journal of Machine Learning Research. She has experience
developing data mining approaches for chemistry, biology, and public
health related applications. She is PI and director of a project of the NIH
funded project: Discovering Hidden Groups Across Tuberculosis
Patient and Pathogen Genotype Data. She has one patent for
database indexing to support data mining earned while she was a
visiting researcher at Microsoft Research. She received both the
Rensselaer and NSF Early Career Awards, as well as the Boeing
Distinguished Educator Award for Women and Minorities.
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Funding Agency
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Keywords
Education Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1993
Scholarly Works:
  • J. Zaretzki, C. Bergeron, P. Rydberg, T.-W. Huang, K. P. Bennett, and C. Breneman, �RS-Predictor: A new tool for generating and validating models capable of predicting sites of cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism,�, Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, to appear, 2011
  • G. Moore, C. Bergeron, and K. P. Bennett, �Model Selection for Primal SVM�, Machine Learning, to appear, 2011.

B. Wayne Bequette

B. Wayne Bequette
Fri, 2010-08-06 10:37 — bequeb
Name: B. Wayne Bequette
Title:Professor
Department Chemical and Biological Engineering
School Engineering
Center Center for Automation Technologies and Systems (CATS) Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) Center for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research (CFCHR) Center for Future Energy Systems (CFES)
Website:http://homepages.rpi.edu/~bequeb/bwbres.html
Bio Dr. Bequette served as President of the American Automatic Control Council (AACC) in 2008-9, and currently serves as the AIChE CAST Division Programming Chair (2010-2013). He is a Fellow of the AIChE (May, 2008), was inducted into the Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers (April, 2007), received the Rensselaer School of Engineering Research Excellence Award (2008), and was named a Trustee of the CACHE Corporation (2010-2012).

Dr. Bequette is the author of Process Control: Modeling, Design and Simulation (2003) and Process Dynamics: Modeling, Analysis and Simulation (1998), both published by Prentice Hall. He served as the Guest Editor of Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics (February, 2005), and also edited special issues on Process Control for the IEEE Control Systems Magazine (August and December, 2006). He is a founding member of the editorial board of the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, and has co-edited a number of special issues on algorithms for sensors and a closed-loop artificial pancreas.
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Education 1980 B.S. Ch.E. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville 1985 M.S.E. University of Texas, Austin 1986 Ph.D. University of Texas, Austin
Scholarly Works:
  • Cameron, F., B.W. Bequette, D.M. Wilson, B.A. Buckingham, H. Lee and G. Niemeyer “A Closed-Loop Artificial Pancreas Based on Risk Management,” J. Diabetes Sci. Technol., 5(2), 368-379 (2011).
  • Kuure-Kinsey, M. and B.W. Bequette “A Multiple Model Predictive Control Strategy for Disturbance Rejection,” Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 49(17), 7983-7989 (2010).
  • Dassau, E., F. Cameron, H. Lee, B.W. Bequette, H. Zisser, L. Jovanovic, H.P. Chase, D.M. Wilson, B.A. Buckingham and F.J. Doyle III. “Real-time Hypoglycemia Prediction Suite Using Continuous Glucose Monitoring: A safety net for the artificial pancreas,” Diabetes Care, 33(6), 1249-1254 (2010).
  • Buckingham, B, H.P. Chase, E. Dassau, E. Cobry, P. Clinton, V. Gage, K. Caswell, J. Wilkinson, F. Cameron, H. Lee, B.W. Bequette, F.J. Doyle III “Prevention of Nocturnal Hypoglycemia Using Predictive Alarm Algorithms and Insulin Pump Suspension,” Diabetes Care, 33(5), 1013-1018 (2010).
  • Bequette, B.W. Continuous Glucose Monitoring: Real-Time Algorithms for Calibration, Filtering and Alarms. J. Diabetes Science and Technology, 4(2), 404-418 (2010).
  • Bequette, B.W. Process Control: Modeling, Design and Simulation, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ (2003).
  • Bequette, B.W. Process Dynamics: Modeling, Analysis and Simulation, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ (1998).
Recognitions:
  • AIChE Fellow (May, 2008)
  • Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers (April, 2007)
  • Trustee of the CACHE Corporation (2010-2012)
  • Rensselaer School of Engineering Research Excellence Award (2008)

Chris Bjornsson

Chris Bjornsson
Mon, 2011-10-03 11:33 — bjornc
Name: Chris Bjornsson
Title:Research Assistant Professor
Department Biology
School Science
Center Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS)
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Cynthia H Collins

Cynthia H Collins
Tue, 2010-05-18 02:00 — collic3
Name: Cynthia H Collins
Title:Assistant Professor
Department Chemical and Biological Engineering
School Engineering
Center Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS)
Website:http://homepages.rpi.edu/~collic3/
Bio Cynthia Collins joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at RPI in March 2008 as an assistant professor. Cynthia grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She obtained her Honours B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Toronto in 2000, and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Caltech in 2006. She subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Michael Surette’s lab at the University of Calgary, where she was the recipient of a prestigious Alberta Ingenuity Post-Doctoral Fellowship.

Communities of microorganisms are ubiquitous in nature and play important roles in processes that directly impact human life, from environmental remediation, wastewater treatment and assistance in food digestion to biofouling, biofilm-related corrosion and hospital-acquired infections. The Collins Lab focuses on fundamental and applied aspects of microbial consortia and combines multiscale modeling of biological networks (from gene to protein to organism to community), metabolic and biochemical engineering, synthetic biology and engineered cell-cell communication with the complexities of coexisting communities of bacteria. Applications range from engineering biosensors, to bioprocessing, bioremediation and bio-energy production, and may also include the development of therapeutics that specifically target the balance between good and bad bacteria in the human body.
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Education B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (University of Toronto, 2000) Ph.D. Chemistry and Biochemistry (California Institute of Technology, 2006) Postdoctoral: 2006-2008, University of Calgary
Scholarly Works:
  • A synthetic Escherichia coli predator-prey ecosystem (2008)
  • Dual selection enhances the signaling specificity of a variant of the quorum-sensing transcriptional regulator LuxR (2006)
  • A synthetic multicellular system for programmed pattern formation (2006)
  • Directed evolution of Vibrio fischeri LuxR for increased sensitivity to a broad spectrum of acyl-homoserine lactones (2005)
  • Evolutionary design of genetic circuits and cell-cell communications (2003)
  • Adenosine to inosine editing by ADAR2 requires formation of a ternary complex on the GluR-B R/G site (2002)
  • Engineering proteins that bind, move, make and break DNA (2003)

James A. Cooper

James A. Cooper
Tue, 2010-05-18 02:00 — coopej5
Name: James A. Cooper
Title:Assistant Professor
Department Biomedical Engineering
School Engineering
Center Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS)
Bio Dr. Cooper received his Ph.D. degree from Drexel University and was a National Research Council (NRC) Post-Doctoral Associate at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST). At NIST, he specialized in the area of tissue engineering that included investigations with bioreactors, bioimaging and 3-D scaffold fabrication. In 2007, he became an inaugural 2006 Hartwell Foundation Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Tissue Microfabrication Laboratory (TML) in the Department of Bioengineering. At the TML, he specialized in studies investigating the interaction between cells and their microenvironments. He used novel microfabrication tools to monitor the interactions of mesenchymal stem cells in order to better understand how the cells function under static conditions as they commit to chondrogenic and osteogenic lineages in the same cellular mass for the development of an osteochondral implant.

Dr. Cooper reviews for several journals including the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Acta Biomaterialia and Journal of Polymer Research.

Dr. Cooper’s interests and the general areas of research of his laboratory include the multidisciplinary areas of Biomaterials, Cell and Tissue Engineering, Orthopedics, Stem Cell Biology, Materials Fabrication, Bioimaging, Bioreactors and Biosensors.
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Education Ph.D. Biomedical Science (Drexel University, 2002) M.S. Materials (Pennsylvania State University, 1993) B.A. Chemistry (Lincoln University, 1989)
Scholarly Works:
  • Engineering controllable anisotropy in electrospun biodegradable nanofibrous scaffolds for musculoskeletal tissue engineering (2007)
  • Osteogenic differentiation of dura mater stem cells cultured in vitro on three-dimensional porous scaffolds of poly(
  • Perfusion Flow Bioreactor for 3-D In Situ Imaging: Investigating Cell-Biomaterial Interactions (2007)
  • Systematic Investigation of Porogen Size and Content on Scaffold Morphometric Parameters and Properties (2007)
  • A Systematic Study on Fabrication and Characterization of Electrospun Poly(alpha-hydroxy ester) based Nanofibrous Scaffolds (2006)
  • Biomimetic Tissue-Engineered Anterior Cruciate Ligament Replacement (2007)
  • Tissue Engineering of Bone and Ligament A 15-year Perspective (2006)
  • Encapsulated Chondrocyte Response to Pulsatile Flow Bioreactor (2007)
  • Tissue Engineering Scaffolds Based on Photocured Dimethacrylate Polymers for In Vitro Optical Imaging (2006)

David T. Corr

David T. Corr
Tue, 2010-05-18 02:00 — corrd
Name: David T. Corr
Department Biomedical Engineering
School Engineering
Center Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS)
Bio David T. Corr received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Engineering Mechanics & Astronautics, University of Wisconsin. After working as a consultant at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, under the funding of the Universities Space Research Association, Dr. Corr returned to the University of Wisconsin to earn his M.S. degree from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and his Ph.D. from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Following a one-year Postdoctoral Research Associateship in the Medical School at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Corr spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow in muscle physiology and modeling at the Human Performance Laboratory of the University of Calgary, and two years as the Ernst & Young Fellow in Joint Injury and Arthritis Research, at the McCaig Centre, University of Calgary.

Dr. Corr's research addresses the experimental evaluation and theoretical modeling of biological soft tissues, such as skeletal muscle, skin, and ligament, and their healing response following injury.

He is a member of numerous professional societies including the Orthopaedic Research Society and the Wound Healing Society, and has held memberships in the American College of Sports Medicine, American Society of Biomechanics, and the Canadian Society for Biomechanics. Dr. Corr serves as a reviewer for several journals in the areas of biomedical engineering, biomechanics, and soft tissue mechanics.

Dr. Corr was most recently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary's McCaig Centre for Joint Injury & Arthritis Research, where he specialized in orthopedic soft tissue biomechanics; investigating the development of osteoarthritis, as well as wound healing in skin, ligament and skeletal muscle. An outstanding young researcher with broad-based knowledge and interests, Dr. Corr brings to the department a strong background in theoretical and applied mechanics, coupled with research at the whole tissue level.
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Education Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering (University of Wisconsin, 2001)
M.S. Biomedical Engineering, M.S. Engineering Mechanics & Astronautics (University of Wisconsin, 1994)
B.S. Engineering Mechanics & Astronautics (University of Wisconsin, 1992)

Guohao Dai

Guohao Dai
Mon, 2011-03-14 14:46 — daig
Name: Guohao Dai
Title:Assistant Professor
Department Biomedical Engineering
Center Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS)
Bio Professional Background:
Dr. Dai graduated from Beijing University, China with B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Biomechanics, where he performed research on cardiovascular system modeling and the dynamic coupling of left ventricle and systemic arteries. After that, he came to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and subsequently joined the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science’s Medical Engineering and Medical Physics program. During his Ph.D. studies, he did research in Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at MIT and Vascular Surgery Research Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. There, he developed a biomechanical model to analyze venous blood flow and tissue mechanics in the lower leg, and optimized the design of external pneumatic compression (EPC) device for better deep vein thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis. Then, he completed Post-doctoral training in Dr. Michael Gimbrone’s laboratory (Center for Excellence in Vascular Biology) at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the influence of biomechanical force on endothelial phenotypic modulation and its role on pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. He has developed an in vitro system to recreate arterial shear stress waveforms acquired from atherosclerosis-susceptible and -resistant regions of human vasculature, and studied endothelial functions under these conditions. Using this system, combined with genome-wide transcriptional profiling strategies, his work has revealed distinct global gene expression patterns and some of the underlying molecular mechanisms that are responsible for the disease-prone and –protected phenotypes of vascular endothelium.

Dr. Dai’s education and research experiences concentrate in the field of cardiovascular biomechanics and vascular biology. He is a member of Biomedical Engineering Society and North American Vascular Biology Society. Dr. Dai serves as a reviewer for Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, American Journal of Physiology and Journal of Vascular Surgery.

Research Activities:
Vascular endothelium plays an increasingly important role in many physiological and pathological processes in cardiovascular system. The functional phenotypes of the vascular endothelium are constantly modulated by its surrounding environments, including interactions with blood components, smooth muscle cells, extracellular matrix and biomechanical forces. Dysfunctional endothelium can contribute to the pathogenesis of many vascular diseases such as inflammation, thrombosis, atherosclerosis and failure of vascular graft. The mission of Vascular Bioengineering Laboratory is to integrate bioengineering approaches with vascular biology to understand how endothelial cell interacting with its environment and its role in the blood vessel regeneration and vascular disease processes, and to generate better designs in tissue engineering of vascular graft and microvasculature for organ regeneration.

Currently, the research programs in the laboratory focus on three goals: (1) To understand how biomechanical forces regulate vascular functions, and to identify targets associated with specific cellular phenotype in diseased blood vessels and develop technologies for targeted drug delivery and molecular imaging of those vasculatures; (2) To develop 3-D cell printing technology for vascular tissue engineering applications, such as engineering tissue structures with adequate vascular perfusion and designing optimal conditions for blood vessel regeneration; (3) To develop technology to differentiate stem cells toward vascular lineage in particular arterial and venous endothelial cells, and to apply them in tissue engineering of vascular graft. To accomplish these research programs, we will use multidisciplinary approaches combining various methods including engineering design, experimental and computational fluid mechanics, micro-fabrication, cellular and molecular techniques. There are excellent opportunities for collaboration with our BME faculty in the field of tissue engineering, biomaterials, cell mechanics as well as our colleagues at Albany Medical College.

Details
Keywords
Education Ph.D., Harvard Medical School - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Biomedical Engineering
M.S., Beijing University Biomechanics
B.S., Beijing University Mechanical Engineering

Jonathan S. Dordick

Jonathan S. Dordick
Tue, 2010-05-18 02:00 — dordick
Name: Jonathan S. Dordick
Title:Howard P. Isermann Professor and Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
Department Biomedical Engineering Chemical and Biological Engineering Materials Science and Engineering
School Engineering
Center Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS)
Website:http://enzymes.che.rpi.edu/
Bio Dordick joined the Rensselaer faculty as the chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1998 and is also the Howard P. Isermann Professor. He spent nine years at the University of Iowa. He joined their staff in 1987 as a member of the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and was promoted to associate professor in 1991 and to full professor in 1994. He served as department chair from 1995 to 1998. He also served as associate director of the Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing at the University of Iowa and held a joint position in the university's Department of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy. Dordick is the associate editor for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (1996 to present), and is a member of the editorial boards for several publications, including Enzyme and Microbial Technology (1993 to present); the Journal of Industrial Microbiology (1996 to 2000); the Journal of Environmental Polymer Degradation (1996 to present); Metabolic Engineering (
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Education Ph.D. Biochemical Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1983), M.S. Biochemical Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1983), B.A. Biochemistry and Chemistry (Brandeis University, 1980)
Scholarly Works:
  • Structural diversity of peroxidase-catalyzed oxidation products of o-Methoxyphenols (2004)
  • Silica Nanoparticules Size Influences the Structure and Enzymatic Activity o Adsorbed Lysozyme (2004)
  • Periplasmic expression as a basis for whole cell kinetic screening of unnatural enzyme reactivities (2004)
  • Hydration of Enzyme in nonaqueous media is consistent with solvent dependence of its activity (2004)
  • Combinatorial Formulation of Biocatalyst Preparations for Increased Activity in Organic Solvents: Salt Activation of Penicillin Amidase (2004)
  • Biocompatibility of chemoenzymatically derived dextran-acrylate hydrogels (2004)
  • Solid-phase peptide synthesis by ion-paired alpha-chymotrypsin in nonaqueous media (2003)
  • Si-Nanocolumns as Unique Nanostructured Supports for Enzyme Immobilization (2003)
  • Self-assembled lipid nanotube materials from synthetic glycolipids (2003)
  • Multienzyme Catalysis in Microfluidic Biochips (2003)
  • Microfluidic Peroxidase Biochip for Polyphenol Synthesis (2003)
  • Influence of Different S

Daniel Gall

Daniel Gall
Tue, 2010-05-18 02:00 — galld
Name: Daniel Gall
Title:Professor
Department Materials Science and Engineering
School Engineering
Center Center for Advanced Interconnect Systems Technologies (CAIST) Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) Center for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research (CFCHR) Center for Future Energy Systems (CFES) Center for Integrated Electronics (CIE) Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center (RNC) The Focus Center New York Rensselaer: Interconnections for Gigascale Integration
Website:http://www.rpi.edu/~galld
Bio

Professor Gall is member of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received his Diploma from the University of Basel, Switzerland, in 1994, and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000. Prof. Gall has been a Visiting Scientist at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, Illinois, and a Visiting Professor at the Ecole Polytechnic Federal Lausanne. He has served as Assistant Editor and Editorial Board Member for Thin Solid Films, as Associate Editor for the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, as chair for the AVS Advanced Surface Engineering Division, as proceedings editor, session, symposium, and program chair for the AVS International Symposium and the International Conference for Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films.
Prof. Gall’s research focuses on the development of an atomistic understanding for thin film growth, with particular interest in transition-metal nitride coatings, ion-surface interactions, and glancing angle deposition. He has pioneered a multiple length-scale approach to explain texture evolution in hard-coatings, has shown how low-energy ion-irradiation can be employed to control surface diffusion processes and resulting microstructures, and has developed a variety of uniquely shaped nanostructure architectures by exploiting atomic shadowing effects during physical vapor deposition. His research on novel transition-metal nitrides was identified as one of “the 100 most important scientific discoveries during the past two and a half decades, supported by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science”. He also won the 2006 Alfred H. Geisler Memorial Award for “Outstanding Contributions in Education and Thin Film Growth Research,” the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation, the 2007 Outstanding Research Award from the Rensselaer School of Engineering, the 2008 Early Career Award for “Excellence in Education and Outstanding Research in the Field of Thin Film and Nanostructure Growth,” and the 2008 IBM Faculty Award for research on “Post-CMOS Nanoelectronics.” Professor Gall holds one US patent, has authored 3 book chapters and over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has presented his research results in over 40 invited lectures in North America and Europe. His students won numerous poster competitions, best paper awards, and best microscopy awards. Prof. Gall’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Defense, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, the ACS Petroleum Research Fund, IBM, and the State of New York.
http://www.rpi.edu/~galld

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Funding Agency
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Education Ph.D. Physics (University of Illinois, 2000), M.S. Physics (University of Basel, Switzerland, 1994), B.S. Physics (University of Basel, Switzerland)
Scholarly Works:
  • J. S. Chawla and D. Gall, “Effective Electron Mean Free Path in TiN(001),” J. Appl. Phys. submitted (2012)
  • S. Mukherjee and D. Gall, “Structure Zone Model for Extreme Shadowing Conditions,” Thin Solid Films, 525, (2012)
  • C.P. Mulligan, P.A. Papi, and D. Gall, “Ag transport in CrN-Ag nanocomposite coatings,” Thin Solid Films 520, 6774 (2012)
  • R.P. Deng, P. Muralt, and D. Gall, “Bi-axial texture development in AlN layers during off-axis sputter deposition,” J. Vac. Sci. Tech. A, 30, 051501 (2012)
  • For a complete list of Dr Galls publications please click here http://www.rpi.edu/~galld/publications/publications.htm
Recognitions:
  • 2008 IBM Faculty Award for research on “Post-CMOS Nanoelectronics.”
  • 2006 ASM International Young Researcher Award

Ryan Gilbert

Ryan Gilbert
Thu, 2010-09-30 10:43 — ROOTJ2
Name: Ryan Gilbert
Title:Assistant Professor
Department Biomedical Engineering
School Engineering
Center Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS)
Website:http://www.rjgilbertlab.com/people/
Bio While an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, Dr. Gilbert received a National Science Foundation (NSF) research experience for undergraduates (REU) summer fellowship to study hybridoma cell viability at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Dr. Gregory Stephanopoulos. This experience fueled his desire to pursue research as a career. During his Ph.D. studies in the laboratory of Dr. Ravi Bellamkonda, he determined how sulfation patterns of glycosaminoglycans within chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans varied after central nervous system injury. Then, he fabricated novel biomaterial scaffolds that consisted of various types of sulfated and unsulfated glycosaminoglycans. Neurons were placed within these models to determine which glycosaminoglycan(s) most inhibited axonal extension from dorsal root ganglia.

After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Gilbert accepted an Assistant Professor position at Michigan Technological University. While there, his research focus shifted towards the development of novel biomaterial constructs for tissue repair. Various constructs have been employed within experimental models of bone and lymph injury. However, the main focus of his research is in the development of biomaterials for the treatment of acute and chronic phase spinal cord injury. Dr. Gilbert’s current research is supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and past research support was funded by NIH, the Department of Energy (DOE), and commercialization initiatives from the State of Michigan. Work from Dr. Gilbert’s laboratory is featured on two recent journal covers, and a 2009 Journal of Neural Engineering article from his laboratory was selected for the journal’s “Highlights” of 2009. Dr. Gilbert is an ad hoc reviewer for several biomaterial, biomedical engineering, and neuroscience journals, as well as an ad hoc grant reviewer for funding agencies (NSF, Department of Veterans Affairs). Dr. Gilbert is a member of the Society for Biomaterials (SFB), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), and the Society for Neuroscience (SFN). In addition to his research efforts, Dr. Gilbert is active in the development of undergraduate curricula and research experiences for undergraduates. Undergraduates from his laboratory have won prestigious undergraduate awards (Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, NSF Graduate Student Fellowship), been first authors on scientific journal articles, successfully gained employment at biomedical companies (Boston Scientific, Epic, Plexus), and gained entry into graduate, medical, or law schools. For his teaching efforts, Dr. Gilbert was named a finalist for the Michigan Technological University distinguished teaching award and is active in improving classroom experiences for students.
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Education Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University Biomedical Engineering B.S.E., University of Michigan – Ann Arbor Chemical Engineering