Bio: Lyle Ungar is a Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he holds secondary appointments in Psychology, Bioengineering, Genomics and Computational Biology, and Operations, Information and Decisions. His group builds chatbots and language analysis tools for psychological and medical research.  They study the drivers of physical and mental well-being and their cultural variation, and develop socially sensitive AI-based tutors and coaches.

For CODA guest access, please contact shatcher8@gatech.eduat least 2 business days prior to the event.

Zoom link: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/91607375625?pwd=ybCsFPzknA8VqYZaSqvenqlWbrvyzx.1

Meeting ID: 916 0737 5625
Passcode: 038828

• Jeff Leaders, President & Co-Founder, Quantasonix Technologies, a deep‑tech startup developing a “Fluid Intelligence Platform” for real‑time, non‑destructive sensing and analytics of industrial fluids  
• Jonathan Rogers, Lockheed Martin Professor of Avionics Integration, School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Tech  
• Matthew McDowell,  Associate Chair for Research, Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair, Professor, and co-director of the Georgia Tech Advanced Battery Center

We eagerly look forward to your positive response and your valuable presence at this event. For more information including registration, please check out the ATL CleanTech Connect webpage.

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Hear directly from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) program leads about research support opportunities for biological and biomedical scientists at every career stage, from undergraduates to faculty. Program leads will answer your questions live. Open to faculty, postdocs, Ph.D. students, and undergrads. 

Panelists:

• Joshua Hall - Lead Senior Director, Scientific Program Officer
• José Faraldo-Gómez - Senior Director, Scientific Program Officer
• Michelle Reniere - Senior Director, Scientific Officer

Following the presentation, three current HHMI scientists representing the Freeman Hrabowski Scholars and Hanna H. Gray Fellows programs will join the discussion to share their experiences and answer audience questions:

• HaoSheng Sun - Freeman Hrabowski Scholar at The University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Christopher Medina - Hanna Gray Faculty Fellow at the Moffitt Cancer Center
• Shan Meltzer - Hanna Gray Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Presenter:
Samantha Yeligar
Associate Professor of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine / Atlanta VA Medical Center

Join Justin Burns, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer and Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Georgia Research Alliance, from noon to 1:00 PM via Zoom. Drawing on tech transfer, venture investing, and running GRA’s commercialization funding, Burns will walk through how funders size technical, market, and regulatory risk, which milestones change a valuation, and what to stop spending on before your next raise or license.

The Bench2Market Talks series is created to provide commercialization guidance to the university research community. For more details on the series, visit our website.

• Attend in-person at the Petit Biotechnology Building (IBB) - Lunch provided, while supplies last
• REGISTER HERE for virtual participation link

BIO 
Melissa Lambeth Kemp received her B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT and her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from University of Washington. Kemp joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2006 after completing postdoctoral training at MIT. Her expertise is in computational modeling of metabolism and signal transduction, as well as developing statistical modeling tools to examine network relationships in high-dimension datasets. One major aspect of her research program linking ROS – the byproducts of aerobic metabolism – to the fundamental way that cells interpret instructions from their environment, their neighbors, and their own genetic blueprint. Specific applications of her diverse work include systems modeling of transient phosphatase oxidation of kinase cascades, patient-specific differences in cytotoxicity to redox-cycled chemotherapeutics and radiation, and the coordination of oxidative metabolism with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Her research program also includes a component of developing high-throughput screening methods for assaying cue-signal-response relationships in cells and analytical tools for single cell gene expression. 

Kemp currently serves as the Research Director of the multi-site NSF Engineering Research Center “Cell Manufacturing Technologies”. In her former role as Associate Director of the NSF Science and Technology Center “Emergent Behavior of Integrated Cellular Systems,” she spearheaded the multi-site center’s computational activities by developing agent-based models of context-dependent cellular decisions to generate new hypotheses of intercellular communication in pluripotent stem cell differentiation and emergent patterning; this work continues currently in quantifying organizational principles and spatial relationships in iPSC-derived tissues from multi-omics data. Kemp’s career honors include a Whitaker Graduate Fellowship, Merck/CSBi postdoctoral fellowship, Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar, NIH New Innovator Award, and the CSB2 Prize for Innovative Measurement Methods from the Council for Systems Biology in Boston.

The Spatial Omics and Data Analytics (SODA) Center meets monthly for networking, information transfer, and active partnership formation. These seminars will feature internal faculty spotlights, external leaders, and dedicated time slots for “Synergy Sessions” where faculty pitch data challenges or analytical solutions, directly seeding joint grant applications and cross-departmental Ph.D. mentorship.

Register HERE to participate virtually

ABSTRACT
Focused ultrasound (FUS) and nanomedicine offer promising opportunities to improve cancer treatment through targeted drug delivery, localized tumor ablation, and modulation of antitumor immunity. However, translating these technologies into clinical practice remains challenging, partly because conventional preclinical models do not fully capture the biological complexity of naturally occurring cancers. Our research integrates focused ultrasound, nanomedicine, and comparative oncology within a One-Medicine framework to accelerate therapeutic development for both human and veterinary patients. We are investigating multiple ultrasound modalities, including hyperthermia, thermal ablation, and histotripsy, and their potential to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy, radiation, and immunomodulatory nanomedicines. These approaches are designed not only to improve local tumor control but also to stimulate systemic antitumor immune responses and address metastatic disease. Building on mechanistic studies in preclinical models, we are translating these technologies into clinical trials involving companion animals with naturally occurring cancers through the Veterinary Research and Oncology Clinic (VROC) at UT Southwestern. This presentation will highlight our progress in developing ultrasound-based combination therapies, the challenges of clinical translation, and the opportunities offered by comparative oncology to accelerate therapeutic innovations across species.

BIO
Ashish Ranjan is an Endowed Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology. He also serves as Vice Chair for Comparative Oncology and Research Innovation and Director of the Veterinary Research and Oncology Clinic. He earned his B.V.Sc. degree (DVM equivalent) from Madras Veterinary College, in Chennai, India, followed by a Ph.D. in biomedical and veterinary sciences from Virginia Tech. Ranjan was then a visiting fellow at the Center for Interventional Oncology, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Ranjan's research interests are in the application of device-directed nanoparticles for solid tumor chemo-immunotherapy. His lab is actively engaged in preclinical and bench-to-bedside veterinary clinical trials and has received funding from several federal, state, and private sources. Ranjan has received several distinguished awards, including the NIH Merit Award. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Focused Ultrasound Foundation, UK's Humanimal Trust, and NIH panels.

Faculty host: Yue Chen

 

Bio: Jeremy D. Brown is the John C. Malone Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is also a member of the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) and the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare. Prior to joining Hopkins, Jeremy was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in the Haptics Research Group, which is part of Penn’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He also holds B.S. degrees in Applied Physics and Mechanical Engineering from Morehouse College and the University of Michigan, respectively, as a graduate of the Atlanta University Center’s Dual Degree Engineering Program. Jeremy directs the Haptics and Medical Robotics (HAMR) Laboratory, whose research focuses on human-robot interaction and haptic feedback, with applications in upper-limb prosthetics, robot-assisted surgery, and rehabilitation. By integrating human perception, motor control, and biomechanics, his work advances the design of intuitive and effective human-machine interfaces. He has been honored to receive several awards, including the NIH R21 Trailblazer Award, the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Haptics Early CAREER Award, the NSF CRII Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Sloan Foundation Fellowship. He was also named a scholar to the NIH funded Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Engineering Career Development Program (IREK-12). He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Robotics and Automation Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Brown’s work has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals and news outlets, including Nature Scientific Reports, the Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation, IEEE Transactions on Haptics, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, the IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, Forbes, and The New York Times.

The Bench2Market Talks series is created to provide commercialization guidance to the university research community. For more details on the series, visit our website.

Abstract:

The development of controlled polymerization methods has broadly expanded the chemical space accessible for polymerization and enabled the production of well-defined synthetic materials targeting numerous applications, including polyolefin thermoplastics and styrenebutadiene- styrene (SBS) rubber. These achievements represent decades of advancements in polymer technology; however, our ability to prepare materials with backbones comprised of functional groups beyond alkyl or ester chains remains limited. Well-defined materials featuring unique molecular structures, and by extension exhibiting unique properties, will be required to meet the demand for high-performance materials that address contemporary challenges. This presentation will discuss our recent eForts in post-polymerization modification, monomer design, and methods development towards achieving this goal.

Bio: 

Aaron earned a B.S. degree in Chemistry in 2012 from the University of Nevada, Reno prior to attending the University of Texas at Austin, where he completed a PhD in Chemistry in 2016. His dissertation work with Prof. Christopher Bielawski focused on the design and development of photoswitchable N-heterocyclic carbenes for enhanced control over organocatalyzed and transition metal catalyzed transformations. Aaron subsequently joined the lab of Prof. Frank Leibfarth at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a postdoctoral fellow. His work at UNC focused on the development of new stereoselective ionic polymerizations and subsequent exploration of the resulting polar thermoplastics. Aaron joined the faculty at the University of Kansas as an Assistant Professor in 2021, where his group is focused on the design and synthesis of new, functional synthetic macromolecules.

Bio: Enric Boix-Adsera is an assistant professor of statistics and data science. His parents are originally from Barcelona, and he grew up mostly in Princeton, New Jersey. Before coming to Wharton, he earned a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.

Boix-Adsera studies the learning processes of artificial intelligence models, such as ChatGPT, with the goal of improving their efficiency and reliability.

 For CODA guest access, please contact shatcher8@gatech.edu at least 2 business days prior to the event.

C. Shawn Burke
University of Central Florida

Establishing and maintaining a productive research team is a difficult challenge across all stages of an academic’s career. The science of good teamwork applies across an academic career: from incorporating graduate students and post-docs to your first research team to crossing-boundaries in the creation and maintenance of an interdisciplinary expert team. In conjunction with Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance, we are offering a skill series to develop the skills necessary to build and maintain your research team by leveraging existing teams research. This workshop will focus on leadership within your team. Graduate students, post-docs, and all levels of academic faculty are all welcome to attend this workshop.

Team consult opportunity:

Our Team Science Skills presenters have graciously opened their schedules to provide a limited amount of attendees with direct feedback and guidance on their personal team issues. During a one-hour consulting session, attendees will be able to directly ask our experts questions and get personalized advice on how to effectively move their team forward. Requesters must attend the full session and complete the post-evaluation survey to be eligible. 

Register HERE to participate virtually

Bianxiao Cui is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor of Chemistry and a fellow of the Wu Tsai Stanford Neuroscience Institute at Stanford University. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and a BS degree from the University of Science and Technology of China. Cui develops new tools to study the nano-bio interface, membrane curvature, electrophysiology, and signal transduction in cells at normal and disease conditions. As a scientist and a teacher, she enjoys working with young scholars to explore the natural world with scientific innovations. Research in her group spans the disciplines of biophysics, cell biology, chemistry, material science, nanotechnology, and neurobiology. Her awards and distinctions include Ono Pharma Breakthrough Science Initiative award, Barany Award from the Biophysical Society, NIH New Innovator Award, NSF CAREER award, NSF Inspire award, Packard Fellowships in Science and Engineering, Hellman Scholar, Searle Scholar Award and Dreyfus New Faculty Award.

Faculty host: Cheng Zhu

 

Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.

Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.

Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.

Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.

He is Professor of Bioengineering and Materials Science at UC Berkeley and Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Materials Research Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to his research, he mentors and teaches students in the fields of biomaterials design, materials science, polymer science, and nanomedicine.

Faculty host: Felipe Quiroz