Abstract : Advanced biomanufacturing of therapeutic cells and engineering of the immune system in health and diseases are two emerging and intersecting areas in biomedical engineering. In this talk, I will provide a broad overview of this field, especially from a perspective of a biomaterials scientist working in the nano/microtechnology domains. I will highlight our lab’s work on modulation of the immune system for vaccines and immunotherapies as well as our work on biomanufacturing of therapeutic immune cells. Specifically, we will focus on how new nano/micro technologies and nano/microscale properties play a key role in modulating immune cell responses to vaccine adjuvants and how materials and bioengineering concepts can be used to manufacture therapeutic T and B cells. In addition, I will discuss Georgia Tech’s effort on team science in both of these areas – especially focusing on a new NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT).

Bio: Dr. Krishnendu (Krish) Roy received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology followed by his MS from Boston University and his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. After 2 years at Zycos Inc., a start-up biotechnology company, Dr. Roy joined the Biomedical Engineering Faculty at The University of Texas at Austin.  In 2013 he moved to Georgia Tech. where he is the Robert A. Milton Chaired Professor in Biomedical Engineering. At Georgia Tech, he also serves as the Director of the newly established NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) and The Marcus Center for Cell-Therapy Characterization and Manufacturing (MC3M) - as well as the Director of the Center for ImmunoEngineering. He is also the Technical Lead of the NIST/AMTech National Cell Manufacturing Consortium (NCMC), a national public-private partnership, focused on addressing the challenges and solutions for large scale manufacturing of therapeutic cells. Dr. Roy’s research interests are in the areas of scalable cell manufacturing, Immuno-engineering, stem-cell engineering and controlled drug and vaccine delivery technologies, with particular focus in biomedical materials. Dr. Roy has been elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), in addition to numerous awards and honors including Young Investigator Awards from both the Controlled Release Society (CRS) and The Society for Biomaterials (SFB), NSF CAREER award, Global Indus Technovator Award from MIT, and the CRS Cygnus Award. He is also the recipient of the best advisor award given by bioengineering students at Georgia Tech. He serves as a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Controlled Release, the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, and the Journal of Immunology and Regenerative Medicine. He is a member of the Forum on Regenerative Medicine of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) and a Board Member of the newly established Standards Coordinating Body (SCB) for Cell and Regenerative Therapies.