Nathan Wallace was born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, a congenital limb disorder, which led to the amputation of his left foot at 8 months old. He was fitted for his first prosthetic at 13 months.  

Georgia Tech researchers warn that this version of AI healthcare imagines a patient who is "affluent, able-bodied, tech-savvy, and always available." Those who don’t fit that mold, they argue, risk becoming invisible in the healthcare system.

The Ideal Future

In their study, published in the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the researchers analyzed 21 AI-driven health tools, ranging from fertility apps and wearable devices to diagnostic platforms and chatbots. They used sociological theory to understand the vision of the future these tools promote — and the patients they leave out.

“These systems envision care that is seamless, automatic, and always on,” said Catherine Wieczorek, a Ph.D. student in human-centered computing in the School of Interactive Computing and lead author of the study. “But they also flatten the messy realities of illness, disability, and socioeconomic complexity.”

Four Futures, One Narrow Lens

During their analysis, the researchers discovered four recurring narratives in AI-powered healthcare:

1. Care that never sleeps. Devices track your heart rate, glucose levels, and fertility signals — all in real time. You are always being watched, because that’s framed as “care.”
2. Efficiency as empathy. AI is faster, more objective, and more accurate. Unlike humans, it doesn’t get tired or biased. This pitch downplays the value of human judgment and connection.
3. Prevention as perfection. A world where illness is avoided through early detection if you have the right sensors, the right app, and the right lifestyle.
4. The optimized body. You’re not just healthy, you’re high-performing. The tech isn’t just treating you; it’s upgrading you.

“It’s like healthcare is becoming a productivity tool,” Wieczorek said. “You’re not just a patient anymore. You’re a project.”

Not Just a Tool, But a Teammate

This study also points to a critical transformation in which AI is no longer just a diagnostic tool; it’s a decision-maker. Described by the researchers as “both an agent and a gatekeeper,” AI now plays an active role in how care is delivered.

In some cases, AI systems are even named and personified, like Chloe, an IVF decision-support tool. “Chloe equips clinicians with the power of AI to work better and faster,” its promotional materials state. By framing AI this way — as a collaborator rather than just software — these systems subtly redefine who, or what, gets to be treated.

“When you give AI names, personalities, or decision-making roles, you’re doing more than programming. You’re shifting accountability and agency. That has consequences,” said Shaowen Bardzell, chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing and co-author of the study.

“It blurs the boundaries,” Wieczorek noted. “When AI takes on these roles, it’s reshaping how decisions are made and who holds authority in care.”

Calculated Care

Many AI tools promise early detection, hyper-efficiency, and optimized outcomes. But the study found that these systems risk sidelining patients with chronic illness, disabilities, or complex medical needs — the very people who rely most on healthcare.

“These technologies are selling worldviews,” Wieczorek explained. “They’re quietly defining who healthcare is for, and who it isn’t.”

By prioritizing predictive algorithms and automation, AI can strip away the context and humanity that real-world care requires. 

“Algorithms don’t see nuance. It’s difficult for a model to understand how a patient might be juggling multiple diagnoses or understand what it means to manage illness, while also navigating other important concerns like financial insecurity or caregiving. They are predetermined inputs and outputs,” Wieczorek said. “While these systems claim to streamline care, they are also encoding assumptions about who matters and how care should work. And when those assumptions go unchallenged, the most vulnerable patients are often the ones left out.” 

AI for ALL

The researchers argue that future AI systems must be developed in collaboration with those who don’t fit in the vision of a “perfect patient.” 

“Innovation without ethics risks reinforcing existing inequalities. It’s about better tech and better outcomes for real people,” Bardzell said. “We’re not anti-innovation. But technological progress isn’t just about what we can do. It’s about what we should do — and for whom.”

Wieczorek and Bardzell aren’t trying to stop AI from entering healthcare. They’re asking AI developers to understand who they’re really serving.

Funding:
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant #2418059). 

In our work as evolutionary biochemists and protein historians, these core questions form the foundation of our research programs. To study life’s history billions of years ago, we often use clues called molecular “fossils” – ancient structures shared by all living organisms.

Recently, we discovered that an important molecular fossil found in an ancient protein family may not be what it seems. The dilemma centers, in part, on a simple question: What does it mean if a simple molecular structure – the fossil – is found in every single organism on Earth? Do molecular fossils point to the seeds that gave rise to modern biological complexity, or are they simply the stubborn pieces that have resisted erosion over time? The answers have far-reaching implications for how scientists understand the origins of biology.

Follow the Phosphorus to Follow Life

Life is made of many different building blocks, one of the most important of which is the chemical element phosphorus. Phosphorus makes up part of your genetic material, powers complex metabolic reactions and acts as a molecular switch to control enzymes.

Phosphorus compounds – specifically a charged form called phosphate – have a number of unique chemical properties that other biological compounds cannot match. In the words of the pioneering organic chemist F.H. Westheimer, they are chemically able to “do almost everything.”

Their unique combination of stability, versatility and adaptability is why many researchers argue that following phosphorus is key to finding life. The presence of phosphorus both close to home – in the ocean or on one of Saturn’s moons – and in the farthest reaches of our galaxy is strong evidence for the potential for life beyond Earth.

Phosphate is part of many essential biological molecules, including the building blocks of DNA. Charles Molnar and Jane Gair, CC BY-SA

If phosphorus is so critical to life, how did early biology predating cells first use it?

Today, biological organisms are able to make use of phosphates through proteins – molecular machines that regulate all aspects of life. By binding to proteins, phosphates regulate metabolism and cellular communication, and they serve as a source of cellular energy.

Further, the process of phosphorylation, or adding a phosphate group to a protein, is ubiquitous in biology and allows proteins to perform functions their individual building blocks cannot. Without proteins, the existence of organisms such as bacteria and humans may not be possible.

Given how essential phosphorus is to life, scientists hypothesize that phosphate binding was among the first biological functions to emerge on Earth. In fact, current evidence suggests that the first phosphate-binding proteins are truly ancient – even older than the last universal common ancestor, the hypothetical mother cell to all life on Earth that existed around 4 billion years ago.

A Mysterious Phosphate-Binding Fossil

One family of phosphate-binding proteins, called P-loop NTPases, regulates everything from the communication between cells to the storage of energy and are found across the tree of life. Because P-loop NTPases are among the most ancient protein families, analyzing their properties can provide key insights into both the emergence of proteins and how primitive life used phosphates.

Although P-loop NTPases are diverse in structure, they share a common motif called a P-loop. This component binds to phosphate by wrapping a nest of amino acids – the building blocks that make up proteins – around the molecule. Every known organism has multiple families of P-loop NTPase, which makes the P-loop an excellent example of a molecular fossil that can provide clues about the evolution of life. Our crude analysis of the human genome estimates that humans have about 5,000 copies of P-loops.

When part of a larger protein structure, the P-loop folds like origami into a shape that is ideal for hugging a phosphate molecule. These nests are extremely similar to each other, even when the surrounding proteins are only distantly related in function. A landmark study in 2012 argued that even if the P-loop nest is extracted from a protein, it can still bind to phosphate. In other words, the ability of a P-loop to form a nest is determined by its interactions with phosphate, not its protein scaffold.

This study provided the first evidence that some forms of the P-loop sequence could have functioned billions of years ago, even before the emergence of large, complex proteins. If true, this implies that P-loop nests may have seeded the emergence and evolution of many of the phosphate-binding proteins seen today.

Interrogating the History of the P-loop

The pioneer of bioinformatics, Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, hypothesized in 1966 that the large collection of big proteins seen today arose from small peptides that were duplicated and fused over long periods of time. Although P-loops may have evolved in a different way, Dayhoff’s realization was the first to clarify how complex forms could have arisen from much simpler ones.

Inspired by Dayhoff’s hypothesis, we sought to interrogate the role that simple P-loops may have played in the evolution of the complex proteins key to life. Our findings challenge what’s currently known about these molecular fossils.

The Dayhoff hypothesis proposed that large, complex proteins arose from the duplication and merging of smaller, simpler peptides over time. Merski et al./Biomolecules, CC BY-SA

Using computer models, we compared a range of P-loops from the P-loop NTPase family to a control group made of the same amino acids but in a different order. While these control loops are also found in proteins, they do not form nests.

Although the P-loops and the control loops are very different in their nest-forming ability, we found that they both are able to form transient nests when embedded in proteins. This meant that, contrary to popular belief, the amino acid sequence of P-loops aren’t special in their ability to form nests – as would be expected if they alone were the seeds for many modern proteins.

A Fossil Eroded Over Time

Our work strongly suggests that while the P-loop is a molecular fossil, the true nature of its form billions of years ago may have been eroded by the sands of time.

For example, when we repeated our simulations in a different solvent – specifically methanol – we found that P-loops situated in their parent proteins were able to regain some of their ability to form nests. This doesn’t mean that being in methanol drove the first proteins with P-loops to form the nests critical for life. But it does emphasize the importance of considering the surrounding environment when studying peptides and proteins.

Just as archaeologists know to be careful in how they interpret physical fossils, historians of protein evolution could take similar care in their interpretation of molecular fossils. Our results complicate the current understanding of early protein evolution and, consequently, some aspects of the origins of life.

In resetting the field’s broader understanding of how these crucial proteins emerged, scientists are poised to start rewriting our own evolutionary history on this planet.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The timsTOF HT is a next-generation mass spectrometer that combines trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) with high-resolution quadrupole time-of-flight (qTOF) mass analysis to dramatically improve sensitivity, specificity, and throughput. Unlike traditional mass spectrometers, it uses dual TIMS funnels to separate ions by size-to-charge (rather than only mass-to-charge), enabling an added dimension of separation for complex biological samples. The system employs a method called PASEF (Parallel Accumulation–Serial Fragmentation), which synchronizes ion separation, isolation, and fragmentation to dramatically boost speed and depth of proteome coverage. TIMS also distinguishes between isobaric species—such as phosphopeptide positional isomers or structural isomers—that are indistinguishable by standard mass spectrometry alone. Because it stores and organizes ions rather than filtering them destructively, the timsTOF HT is especially well suited for sensitive and high-throughput omics applications, including plasma and tissue proteomics. As a result, it represents a transformative platform for biological discovery across a wide range of research areas.

Funded by the NIH S10 grant, this acquisition empowers the SyMS-C to support a wide range of research initiatives across Georgia Tech and its collaborative partners. The timsTOF HT’s advanced capabilities, including dia-PASEF® and prm-PASEF® acquisition modes, will accelerate discoveries in biomarker identification, single-cell proteomics, and multiomics applications, addressing critical challenges in understanding disease mechanisms and developing novel diagnostics and therapies. 

“We are thrilled to integrate the Bruker timsTOF HT and nanoElute2 into our Systems Mass Spectrometry Core,” said Rakesh Singh, director of the proteomics services at SyMS-C. “This advanced platform will enable our researchers to push the boundaries of proteomics, providing deeper insights into cellular mechanisms and supporting transformative biomedical research. We are deeply grateful to the NIH for their support through the S10 grant, which makes this cutting-edge technology accessible to our scientific community.” 

The installation of the timsTOF HT and nanoElute2 systems enhances the ability of SyMS-C to serve as a hub for interdisciplinary research, offering access to faculty, students, and external collaborators, including those within the Georgia Research Alliance and regional academic and clinical institutions. The core facility will provide technical expertise, consultation, and data analysis support to ensure researchers can fully leverage the system’s capabilities. The SyMS-C anticipates that the new instrumentation will drive high-impact research, contributing to breakthroughs in personalized medicine, cancer research, and neurodegenerative disease studies. For more information about the Systems Mass Spectrometry Core or to inquire about access to the Bruker timsTOF HT and nanoElute2 systems, please contact Rakesh Singh.
 

A recent executive order issued by President Joe Biden seeks to establish "new standards for AI safety and security" while addressing consumer privacy concerns and promoting innovation. Georgia Tech experts have examined the key elements of the order and offer their thoughts on its scope and what comes next.  

A Precautionary Tale 

The order calls for the development of standards, tools, and tests to ensure the safe use of AI. From voice scams and phishing campaigns to larger-scale threats, the technology’s potential dangers have been widely documented. But Margaret Kosal, associate professor in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, says that additional context is often needed to dispel hysteria. 

"No one is going to be hooking up AI to launch nuclear weapons, but AI capabilities may enable targeting, or enable the command and control and the decision-making time to be compressed,” she said.  
 
The order will create an AI Safety and Security Board tasked with addressing critical threats. Companies developing foundation models that "pose a serious risk to national security, national economic security, or national public health and safety” will be required to notify the federal government when training the model and required to share the results of all red-team safety tests — a simulated cyberattack to test a system's defenses.  

Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, a CNBC report details a 1,267% rise in phishing emails. Srijan Kumar, assistant professor in the College of Computing, attributes the increase to the technology's availability and an inability to rein in "bad actors."  

He says these scams will only continue to get more sophisticated and personalized. They “can be created by knowing what you might be willing to fall prey to versus what I might fall prey to,” said Kumar, whose systems have influenced misinformation detection on sites like X (formerly Twitter) and Wikipedia. “AI is not going to autonomously do all of those bad things, but this order can ensure there are consequences for people who misuse it.”  

A Delicate Balance 

Building an AI platform requires large amounts of data regardless of its intended application. Two primary goals of the executive order are protecting privacy and advancing equity.  

To protect personal data, the order tasks Congress with evaluating how agencies collect and use commercially available information and address algorithmic discrimination.  

Acknowledging that everyone should be allowed to have their voice represented in the outputs of AI data sets, Deven Desai, associate professor in the Scheller College of Business, noted, "There are people who don't want to be part of data sets, which is their right, but this means their voices won't be reflected in the outputs.”   

The order also includes sections to address intellectual property concerns among inventors and creators, though legal challenges will likely set new precedents in the years ahead.  

When that time comes, Kosal says that defining “theft” in the context of AI becomes the true challenge and that, ultimately, money will play a significant role. "If you spit out a Harry Potter book and read it yourself, nobody will care. It's when you start selling it to make money, and you don't share proceeds with the original people, then it becomes an issue," she said.   

What Does AI-Generated Mean? 

The order instructs the Department of Commerce to develop guidelines for content authentication and watermarking to label AI-generated content. Desai questions what it means for something to be truly created by AI.  

An important distinction lies between using AI to assist a writer in organizing their thoughts and using the technology to generate content. He likens the trend to the music industry in the 1980s.  

"Synthesizers really changed people's ability to generate music and, for a while, people thought that was horrible. They can just program the music. They're not. I am still the human responsible for that music, or that article in this case, so what is the point of the label?" he asks. 

As AI assistance becomes commonplace in content creation, trusting the source of information is increasingly important. Recently, articles published on Sports Illustrated's website featured AI-generated content provided by a third-party company that had used a machine to write the content and create fake bylines. Sports Illustrated, which may not have known of the problem, ran the material without disclosure to readers. CEO Ross Levinsohn was ousted shortly after the story broke.  

“Perhaps if the third party had disclosed its use of AI software, SI would have been able to assess how much AI was used and then chosen not to run the material, or to run it with a disclaimer that AI helped write the material,” Desai said. "Of course, even if they label the content as AI-generated, a reader still won't know exactly how much of the content came from AI or a human.” 

AI and the Workforce 

As AI systems and models become more sophisticated, workers may become more concerned about being replaced. To counteract these concerns, the order calls for a study to examine AI’s potential impact on labor markets and investments in workforce training efforts.  

Kumar compares the rise of AI to similar technological innovations throughout history and sees it as an opportunity for workers and industries to adapt. "It's less a matter of AI replacing workers and more of reskilling people to use the new technology. It's no different from when assembly lines in the auto industry were created."  

Promoting Innovation and Competition 

The power to harness the full potential of AI has initiated a race to the top. Desai believes that part of the executive order providing resources to smaller developers can help level the playing field.   

"There is a possibility here for markets to open up. Current players using models that weren't built with transparency in mind might struggle, but maybe that's OK." 

The issue of reliability and transparency comes into focus for Desai, especially as it relates to government usage of AI. The order calls on agencies to "acquire specified AI products and services faster, more cheaply, and more effectively through more rapid and efficient contracting."  

When taxpayer dollars are at stake, government can’t afford to trust a technology it doesn’t fully understand — a topic Desai has explored elsewhere. "You can’t just say, ‘We don’t know how it works, but we trust it.’ That’s not going to work. So that’s where there may be a slowdown in the government’s ability to use private sector software if they can’t explain how the thing works and to show that it doesn’t have discriminatory issues.” 

What's Next 

Promoting and policing the safe use of AI cannot be done independently. Georgia Tech experts agree that participation on a global scale is necessary. To that end, the European Union will unveil its comprehensive EU AI Act, which includes a similar framework to the president's executive order.  

Due to the evolving nature of AI, the executive order or the EU's actions will not be all-encompassing. Law often lags behind technology, but Kosal points out that it's crucial to think beyond what currently exists when crafting policy.  

Experts also agree that AI cannot be regulated or governed through a single document and that this order is likely the first in a series of policymaking moves. Kosal sees tremendous opportunity with the innovation surrounding AI but hopes the growing fear of its rise does not usher in another AI winter, in which interest and research funding fade. 

“Over the years, I’ve gotten calls from non-scientist friends and others who have been diagnosed with cancer, and they call me to get more details on what’s going on, and what options are available,” said McDonald, also a former chief scientific officer with the Atlanta-based Ovarian Cancer Institute. 

That’s the primary motivation why McDonald wrote A Patient's Guide to Cancer: Understanding the Causes and Treatments of a Complex Disease, which was published by Raven Press LLC (Atlanta) and is now available at Amazon or Barnes and Noble in paperback and ebook editions. The book describes in non-technical language the processes that cause cancer, and details on how recent advances and experimental treatments are offering hope for patients and their families.

A book for the proactive patient 

McDonald said he couldn’t go into detail for every type of cancer, but provides a generally applicable background for the disease. For those who want more information, he provides links to other resources, including videos, that provide more detail on specific types of cancer. “There’s not much out there in one place for patients who want to understand the underlying causes of cancer, and the spectrum of therapies currently available,” he said. 

McDonald, who was honored in January by the Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education (CORE) as one of “Today’s Innovators,” also didn’t want A Patient’s Guide to Cancer to be a lengthy book, and it checks in at only 86 pages. 

McDonald believes that when patients talk to their physicians about cancer treatments,  they should ideally have a basic understanding of the underlying cause of their cancer, as well as a general awareness of the range of therapies currently available, and what may be coming down the road in the future. 

“My book is specifically designed to provide newly diagnosed cancer patients who are not scientists with this kind of background information, empowering them to play a more informed role in the selection of appropriate treatments for their disease”.

The current experimental treatment landscape; McDonald’s 2023 research goals

McDonald’s own cancer research has led to two related startup companies, co-founded with School of Biological Sciences colleagues. 

McDonald is working with postdoctoral researcher Nick Housley on using nanoparticles to deliver powerful drugs to cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue. The other company, founded in collaboration with Jeffrey Skolnick, Regents' Professor, Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair & Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Computational Systems Biology, uses machine learning to create personalized diagnostic tools for ovarian cancer.

He and his lab team are also preparing to submit a research paper that builds off their 2021 study on gene network interactions that could provide new chemotherapy targets for breast cancer. That paper focuses on the three major subtypes of breast cancer. McDonald and his colleagues will also soon submit another study detailing genetic changes that happen with the onset and progression of ovarian cancer.

When it comes to current experimental treatments, McDonald says he’s especially excited about  the potential of cancer immunotherapy, which uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells. But he writes in A Patient’s Guide to Cancer that because these drugs are also delivered systemically, healthy tissues can also be affected, potentially leading to autoimmunity or the self-destruction of our normal cells. 

“In the future, I believe many of the negative side-effects currently associated with the system-wide delivery of cancer drugs will be averted by the use of nanoparticles designed to target therapies specifically to tumors”.

The series features international experts from fields such as genetics, bioethics, international security, and microbiology and is part of SIPRI’s efforts to develop a bio-risk assessment toolkit for academics and researchers in the life sciences.  

Kosal, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, focuses her research on reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction and understanding the role of emerging technologies for security. She was the only expert chosen from the Western hemisphere. 

In her interview, Kosal discusses the key security challenges related to biosecurity and the importance of addressing them. 

“We need to start thinking about groups of technologies, about how these things converge, and so that, I would say, is one of the biggest challenges,” she said. 

Kosal’s involvement in the workshop and series illustrates the commitment of the Nunn School and Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts to impactful global engagement and interdisciplinary work bridging the social sciences and technology.  

Kosal emphasized the value of collaborative efforts such as SIPRI’s workshop in establishing global norms and reducing the risks surrounding emerging technologies.   

“It’s the culmination of these different efforts that build up as we go back, some of us go back to teaching, some go back to positions in governments or if they have chances to influence political actors. There’s a great value in this kind of work.” 

Ten finalists (pictured left) were selected to receive a stipend to travel to a domestic or international conference or workshop to present their research work.

“The Krish Roy Travel award allowed me to participate in my first conference of my graduate school career." said Parisa Keshavarz-Joud. "I had the opportunity to present a poster on my research at the Physical Virology Gordon Research Conference in January 2023 and interact with experts in the field. This experience broadened my knowledge of the field and helped me in developing new ideas about the next steps of my project.”

Elijah Holland used his award in January to attend the Fibronectin Gordon Research Conference in Ventura, California. In expressing gratitude for the award, Holland shared that he was able to meet leaders in the cell adhesion field and gave his first oral research presentation, titled "Mechanotransduction at Focal Adhesions: Interplay among Force, FAs, and YAP."

Fourth-year ChemE PhD student Hyun Jee Lee plans to use the award to her support her first experience at an international seminar and conference, where she will present her research and connect with other researchers around the world. Lee's research focus is developing microfluidic tools to study cellular and molecular mechanisms in small organisms. "I'm particularly interested in investigating brain activity changes associated with learning in C. elegans." Lee explained. "I'm very grateful to have received the award." 

Awardees (pictured from top left to right):

John Cox, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Yarelis Gonzalez-Vargas, Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering

Travis Rotterman, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Biological Sciences

Wenting Shi, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Kamisha Hill, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Paris Keshavarz-Joud, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Elijah Holland, Graduate Research Assistant, Mechanical Engineering

Hun Jee Lee, Graduate Student, Chemical Engineering 

Maeve Janecka, Undergraduate Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering 

Sunny (Chao-yi) Lu, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

The Goldwater reviewers faced the difficult task of selecting scholarship recipients from a pool of 1,267 outstanding undergraduates nominated by 427 institutions. When added to the 70 sophomores from the 2022 competition, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation will support a total of 483 scholars this year. 

Among the recipients are five outstanding undergraduate students from Georgia Tech: Jim James, Maeve Janecka, Velin "Venny" Kojouharov, Dawei Liu, and Nadia Qutob. These students were selected based on their exceptional achievements and potential for future success in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). 

Jim James, a computer science Major who also won an Astronaut Scholarship last year, is focusing his research on a combination of applications of deep learning in materials science and inverse reinforcement learning. James credits mentor Ben Blaiszik for being instrumental in developing his interest in a research career, while Ashwin Pananjady and Vidya Muthukumar helped him connect the math he studied in his coursework to cutting-edge research. "From the start of my undergraduate education, Prestigious Fellowships Advising helped me understand what steps I needed to take to make myself competitive for the Goldwater Scholarship," said James. "When it came time to apply for the award, Karen Mura gave me advice on my application essays and helped me revise them several times until they were well-refined."  

Maeve Janecka, a chemical and biomolecular engineering major, focused her research on her undergraduate thesis project, which studies the drug deliveries of a novel orthopedic implant material. "I have been fortunate to have had two incredible mentors since my first year at Georgia Tech," said Janecka. "Champion is my research advisor, and she has been an invaluable guide as I continue to develop my technical skillset. Chrissy Spencer has been a wonderful academic resource and helped me grow as a leader. I also want to thank my graduate advisor, Thomas Pho, for his support throughout our research process and for the time he has taken to mentor me as a future Ph.D. student." In the future, she wants to research diagnostic tools for the early detection of endometriosis.  

Velin "Venny" Kojouharov is a mechanical engineering major whose research is inspired by animals and the way they move. "These bioinspired robots help advance the field of robotics by expanding our ability to move in natural environments," said Kojouharov. His mentor, Daniel Goldman, has been his research mentor since his first year at Georgia Tech. "He has given me the resources, motivation, and passion for the research that I do and has inspired me to continue doing it," said Kojouharov. "My graduate student mentor, Ph.D. student Tianyu Wang, has also been crucial to my success and is the person responsible for teaching me almost everything that I know about robotics, physics, and biology." Kojouharov also thanks Karen Mura for her support in the application process. "Through our numerous meetings, she has helped me figure out my story and made me believe in myself enough to apply for fellowships and scholarships." 

Dawei Liu, a biomedical engineering major, centered his research around the use of immune cells, specifically those equipped with engineered chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), to target and eliminate tumors. Liu is grateful to have the support of his family, friends, and mentors as he conducted his research. "I want to thank my graduate student mentor Miguel Armenta Ochoa and Krish Roy for their guidance, and faculty mentors Pinaki Banerjee, Hind Rafei, and Katy Rezvani for letting me contribute to their work," said Liu. "I know for certain that without their help, I wouldn't have had any of these amazing opportunities. I hope that receiving this award is one way I can give back." Liu worked extensively with Pre-Graduate & Pre-Professional (PGPP) Advising to craft his application materials and met with Karen Mura several times to revise his essays for approval from his research mentors.  

Nadia Qutob is a physics major whose research focuses on gravitational wave data analysis with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), specifically parameter estimation optimization for the high signal-to-noise ratio regime. Qutob's mentors, Laura Cadonati and Meg Millhouse, were instrumental during her time at LIGO. "Their guidance and patience have cultivated an environment where I can thrive and reach my full research potential. I wouldn't be where I am today without them," she said. She also took advantage of Prestigious Fellowships Advising for support through the application process. "Karen Mura and Shannon Dobranski were instrumental in the success of my Goldwater application," Qutob said. "They were available to proofread my application materials, answer questions, and offer suggestions at every stage of the application process." In the future, Qutob wants to pursue a Ph.D. in astrophysics and conduct research on dark matter's influence on the formation of galaxies.  

Karen Mura, prestigious fellowships advisor, said, “I am so proud of the accomplishments and successes of these students. They worked diligently on their Goldwater applications, which required several short answer essays and a three-page research essay. In addition, this marks the first time that Georgia Tech has had five recipients – the largest number of recipients allowed by Goldwater. Each institution is allowed to nominate four applicants and a fifth applicant if they are a transfer student for the national competition per year."

The Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate. Its goal is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and intend to pursue careers in these fields. 

“This new technology will make it much faster and more cost-effective to diagnose these infections,” said Mike Farrell, a Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) principal research scientist who is leading the project. “You would obtain a sample, put it into a device, diagnose the underlying pathogen, and be able to provide a treatment. This could be a huge leap forward in rapidly diagnosing these diseases where sophisticated laboratory testing isn’t available.”

Funded by DARPA’s Detect It with Gene Editing Technologies (DIGET) program, the project – known as Tactical Rapid Pathogen Identification and Diagnostic Ensemble (TRIAgE) – also includes researchers from Emory University and two private sector companies. The goal will be to detect 10 different pathogens with each device.

Detection Reaction Begins with CRISPR Cas13a Enzyme

Detection of a pathogen will begin with exposure of a patient sample to the CRISPR Cas13a enzyme with guide proteins containing RNA genetic sequences from the targeted pathogens. If a genetic sequence in the device matches a sequence in the patient sample, the enzyme will begin breaking down the targeted RNA.

Development of the CRISPR Cas13a component of the project will be led by Phil Santangelo, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and one of the team’s collaborators. CRISPR Cas13a differs from Cas9 technology, which has become known for its ability to edit DNA, which Cas13A will not do.

Once the Cas13a enzyme breaks down the pathogen RNA, that will trigger additional reactions to amplify the signal and create a visible blue line in the device within 15 minutes.

Synthetic Biology Workflow Signals Pathogen Presence

“We will be assembling a synthetic biology workflow that takes an initial signal created by CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection and amplifies it using the same cell-free synthetic biology approaches we have used to create sensors for detecting small molecules and metals: turning on genes that create a visual readout so that expensive instruments, and even electricity, are unnecessary,” explained Mark Styczynski, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and another team collaborator.

“As part of the DIGET project, we will be leveraging my group’s expertise in minimal-equipment diagnostics,” he added. “The biological ‘parts’ we develop can be reused to transduce signals for the detection of essentially any nucleic acid sequence.”

Another Georgia Tech researcher, I. King Jordan, professor and director of the Bioinformatics Graduate Program in the School of Biological Sciences, will mine the genomes of the targeted pathogens for optimal Cas13a target sequences as well as the corresponding Cas13a RNA guide sequences.

Devices Must be Both Sensitive and Specific

Beyond specifically identifying the pathogen or pathogens causing an infection, the diagnostic devices being developed must also be very sensitive – able to detect as few as 10 copies of the target pathogen in a sample. “A major technological challenge is achieving the level of signal amplification within the device’s synthetic biology circuit to reach the needed level of sensitivity,” Farrell said.

The ability to detect 10 different pathogens with a single lateral-flow assay is an ambitious goal for a device that depends on a synthetic biology circuit and is designed for use in the field, he added. Lateral-flow assays commonly used in home or point-of-care medical tests operate by applying a liquid sample to a pad containing reactive molecules. The molecules may create visible positive or negative reactions, depending on the design.

“You just put the sample on the device and it does its thing,” Farrell said. “If the target pathogen is present, a line turns blue and you can see it with your eye.”

Early Diagnosis Can be Life-Saving

Sepsis is an infection of the bloodstream by any of a number of different bacteria. These bacteria can originate from a lower respiratory infection, kidney or bladder infection, digestive system breakdown, catheter site, wound, or burn. Sepsis results in a severe and persistent inflammatory response that can lead to disrupted blood flow, tissue damage, organ failure, and death.

“It’s important to identify the specific bacteria causing the sepsis because that informs the type of antimicrobial therapy that’s needed,” said Farrell. “The sooner you can identify the underlying pathogen, the faster you can provide the proper medical care, and the more likely it is that the patient will survive. Current laboratory-based diagnostic methods can take between 24 and 72 hours, and that is just too long.”

Improving diagnostics for sepsis and respiratory diseases will have applications to both the military and civilian worlds, particularly in locations without easy access to laboratory testing.

“Wounded soldiers in the field are very susceptible to sepsis blood infections, and common respiratory diseases can affect troop readiness, so from a military standpoint, having this rapid diagnostic test would be very significant,” Farrell said. “In low-resource environments, being able to diagnose these diseases with a single test would be huge as well. Being able to identify the underlying bacteria behind sepsis more quickly could save a lot of lives.”

Beyond the university researchers, the project includes Global Access Diagnostics, a manufacturer of lateral-flow devices, and Ginkgo Bioworks, which manufactures proteins essential to the diagnostics.

The five-phase project is expected to last for four years and will conclude with field validation and a transition to manufacturing. The devices will need to win FDA approval before they can be used, so there is a significant regulatory review aspect to the project, Farrell said.

Approved for Public Release, Distribution Unlimited

Writer: John Toon
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Hsu, a microsurgeon in Taiwan, was trying to figure out how to help her patients with lymphedema — an uncomfortable and life-limiting swelling in limbs that results from lymph nodes failing to drain fluid from an arm or leg.

Hsu had what she thought was a basic question: exactly how much fluid each small lymphatic vessel could drain. And as she dug into the clinical research, she saw Dixon’s name over and over.

Spoiler alert: There’s no good answer to Hsu’s question. At least not yet. But the search has brought her to Atlanta to pursue a biomedical engineering Ph.D. in Dixon’s lab.

Together, they’re embarking on a new project with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that could one day help Hsu’s patients by making a lymph node transplant a viable option for many more people who suffer from lymphedema.

Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.

Made from beautifully fabricated steel and eight mobile arms, medusai can play percussion and strings with human musicians, dance with human dancers, and move in time to multiple human observers.

It uses AI-driven computer vision to know what human observers are doing and responds accordingly through snake gestures, music, and light. Gil Weinberg, the director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, knows it’s unsettling. Wienberg is also a faculty member of the Institute for People and Technology.

Read the full story at Georgia Tech's Center for Music Technology.

Herron worked as an entrepreneur and veterinarian with a passion for scientific and medical research. He spent the final 16 years of his career with the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), where he served as the senior vice president and university startup advisor until the spring of 2024. The initiative Herron oversaw in his final role helped drive more university inventions to benefit Georgia farmers and food producers and strengthened the relationships between Georgia’s universities and the state’s agriculture sector.

Herron’s impact and influence were felt by many members of the Georgia Tech community. Ajit Yoganathan, Regents' Professor Emeritus and Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair in Biomedical Engineering, recalled their time working together.

“I met Lee for the first time around 2002, when he came to meet with me in the BME Department to discuss the fledgling Coulter Translational Program. Over the next decade, we worked together closely on establishing and enhancing the Coulter Program, and he advised me on how best to translate my inventions and patents from ‘Bench to Bedside.’ To this day, I clearly remember him sitting in my office in the Whitaker Building saying, ‘Ajit, the more shots you take on goal, the higher the percentage of being successful with your ideas and affecting patient lives.’ That mantra has been true for me, and I credit Lee for his advice and friendship over the past 20 years. Since my retirement four years ago, we served on the Coulter review panel for translational research, most recently in March. I will miss his intellect and insights into assessing projects that have the opportunity to help patients.”

“Lee Herron was an extremely patient and dedicated mentor to me and many colleagues as we navigated entrepreneurship,” said Michelle LaPlaca, associate chair for faculty development and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia  Tech and Emory University. “He was sincere and had a unique insight into the challenges facing faculty. He not only taught us about the entrepreneurial process, but coached us on how to think like entrepreneurs, how to interact with board members and investors, and how to pivot our ideas. While secretly a Bulldog, he was an enthusiastic member of the Georgia Tech community before moving to the Georgia Research Alliance and will certainly have a lasting impact on people across Georgia and the entire biotechnology business sector.”

Herron joined the GRA in 2008 and directed its award-winning venture development program for 15 years. In that time, the GRA successfully launched more than 200 university-based companies that attracted $2 billion in equity investment. Before the GRA, he managed the biosciences division of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and founded four biosciences companies: SeaLite Sciences Inc., Biopool International Inc., CytRx Corporation, and Theragenics Corporation.

"I am greatly saddened to hear about the passing of Lee Herron. I have known Lee for over 10 years,” said Cynthia Sundell, senior director of life sciences and VentureLab principal at Georgia Tech. “During that time, he was a mentor to me and a wonderful colleague at GRA. Lee was knowledgeable about what it takes to commercialize life science technologies and provided useful feedback to countless entrepreneurs. He was a brave warrior in his fight against cancer and I will always remember his indomitable spirit.”

Herron received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Georgia and completed an internship at Cornell University. He also studied experimental pathology at Emory University. He served as a director on multiple boards and was known for his love of family and youth sports. He is survived by his wife, Rita, three children, and eight grandchildren. 

Amirali Aghazadeh and Raquel Lieberman were selected for funding for their proposal, "Harnessing Generative AI to Identify Mutations Causing Early-Onset Glaucoma.”

Aghazadeh is an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and also program faculty of the Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, and Bioengineering Ph.D. programs. He has affiliations with the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEAS) and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. His research focuses on developing machine learning and deep learning solutions for protein and small molecular design and engineering.

Lieberman is the Sepcic-Pfeil Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Her research focuses on the biophysical and structural characterization of proteins and the impact of disease-associated mutations on function or dysfunction (e.g., aggregation).

“This project will combine our expertise to harness the power of generative artificial intelligence, large language models, and protein sequences to comprehend genetic mutations that cause a severe form of glaucoma that primarily affects children,” said Aghazedeh.

Ankur Singh and M.G. Finn were also selected for funding for their proposal, "Modeling Human Immune Responses to α-Galactosyl Immunogen in Hydrogel-Based Organoids.”

Singh is Carl Ring Family Professor with a joint appointment in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He is also the director of the Center of Immunoengineering at Georgia Tech. His laboratory develops immune organoids and enabling technologies to understand healthy and diseased immune cells and translate therapeutics.

Finn is a professor and school chair in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the chief scientific officer of the Georgia Tech Pediatric Innovation Network. His lab develops chemical and biological tools for research in a wide range of fields, such as chemistry, biology, immunology, and evolution with viruses.

“There is an increasing need to find stronger immunogens that can be used to create more effective vaccines. One promising candidate is α-galactosyl immunogens, which have shown great potential in animals, but we don't know much about if and how they would work in humans,” said Singh. “We are excited that the IBB seed grant will allow us to combine the Singh lab’s expertise in creating human immune tissues in the lab with the Finn lab’s unique skills in designing these immunogens. This collaboration will help us better understand how these potential vaccine ingredients perform in human-like systems.”

The projects will each receive an award of $40,000 to be spent by June 30, 2025.

“Invention is only the beginning. What sets Georgia Tech apart is our ability to move our ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace, where they can make a tangible impact on human life and contribute to our economy,” said Ángel Cabrera, president of Georgia Tech. “This year’s record results show that our researchers aren’t just pushing the boundaries of knowledge — they’re creating marketable solutions with the power to improve everyday lives.”

For fiscal year 2025, Georgia Tech reported:

• More than 460 new invention disclosures — a 30% increase over the previous year and the highest ever recorded by the Institute.
  • 70 invention disclosures for the Georgia Tech Research Institute, marking a 70% increase year over year.
• A 210% increase in technologies licensed, and 140% in total licenses executed, reflecting unprecedented industry interest, with 65 licenses in total.  
• 124 U.S. patents were issued, representing a 20% increase compared to the prior year.
  • According to the most recent rankings from the National Academy of Inventors, Georgia Tech is in the top 15 public universities for U.S. utility patents filed.

This momentum strengthens Atlanta’s position as one of the nation’s fastest-growing innovation economies. Georgia Tech plays a leading role in advancing the region’s ambition to become a top 5 tech hub by connecting world-class research with industry, supporting a thriving startup ecosystem, and fueling talent pipelines that serve emerging sectors like AI, cybersecurity, and clean energy.  

Omer Inan, a Georgia Tech researcher and faculty member, has launched multiple companies with the support of the Institute’s commercialization resources. Cardiosense is a medical AI company that leverages sensors to provide better management of cardiovascular disease. Having just achieved FDA 501(k) clearance, its latest device — CardioTag — is the first multimodal, wearable sensor that simultaneously captures three cardio signals to provide noninvasive solutions for heart health.  

"The med tech research I conduct at Georgia Tech delivers new technologies to keep patients with heart failure out of the hospital and enables them to monitor their health status at home,” said Inan. “Now, we are commercializing the technology our lab helped develop, so that this dream of improving the quality of care and life for millions of Americans with heart failure can one day become reality."

“As we look to solidify Georgia Tech’s status as a national innovation hub, we are moving research into the marketplace so it can truly make a difference in people’s lives,” said Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, vice president of Commercialization and chief commercialization officer at Georgia Tech. “We are at a pivotal moment to put Atlanta on the map as a leader in research commercialization and have an opportunity to capitalize on our $1.4 billion in research expenditures that drive meaningful inventions, IP, and industry partnerships.”  

To learn more about the licensing and commercialization process at Georgia Tech, visit licensing.research.gatech.edu.

Available for Media Interviews

Raghupathy "Siva" Sivakumar 
Vice President of Commercialization and 
Chief Commercialization Officer 
Georgia Tech

Omer Inan 
Professor and Regents’ Entrepreneur  
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech

Media Contact: 
Lauren Schiffman       
PressFriendly   
lauren@pressfriendly.com  

Angela Barajas Prendiville   
Director of Media Relations    
Georgia Institute of Technology   
aprendiville@gatech.edu  

On Wednesday, July 17, the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) held its second annual summer art show. One of the summer’s most anticipated events, the show featured 46 submissions from members of the broader IBB community. Participants again showcased their talent and creativity through various mediums, ranging from paintings and photography to a sculpture and even a garden-inspired chair. More than 200 attendees were dazzled by the art pieces and enjoyed a reception.

“IBB is so proud to host this fantastic event to showcase the tremendous artistic talents of our community,” said IBB Executive Director Andrés J. García, Regents’ Professor and the Petit Director’s Chair in Bioengineering and Bioscience. “Experiencing the exhibits, talking with the artists, and sharing this fun event with the community were wonderful.”

A panel of judges voted for awards and selected the winners in three categories, while attendees voted for the Best in Show award. Best in Show was awarded to a submission that stands out across all mediums for its outstanding creativity, innovation, and artistic quality. The Fan Favorite award was voted on by IBB Art Show attendees to reflect the collective sentiment of the community and celebrate the artist's ability to connect with viewers. The new IBB ArtSci Award was a special recognition celebrating the most striking and poignant display of the intersection of art and science. Additionally, the new BRAINiArts Award was given to a piece honoring creative artistic expression through the lens of neuroscience.

BRAINiArts Award
Sakthi Priya Ramamoorthy – Undergraduate student in neuroscience.
Artwork Title: The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
Medium/Description: 3D clay sculpture

IBB ArtSci Award
Hannah Usadi – Strategy and operations management at McMaster Carr and visual communicator for the Williams Lab at IBB. 
Artwork Title: Water in the Origin of Life
Medium/Description: 6 pages of 16''x20'' digitally illustrated prints 

Best in Show Award
Sophia Schumaecker – Undergraduate Student in Chemical Engineering.
Artwork Title: The Gap 
Medium/Description: 12" x 9" acrylic painting on canvas

Fan Favorite Award
Hannah Usadi – Water in the Origin of Life 
 

The Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) is excited to announce the following updates to its external advisory board.

Chris Gemmiti will serve as the new board chair. Gemmiti was the vice president of technical operations at CRISPR Therapeutics. He has dedicated his 25-year career to cell therapy and regenerative medicine, through both industry and academic roles. Before his last role, Gemmiti was the CMC lead for CASGEVY, the first CRISPR gene-edited therapeutic approved by any health authority (sickle cell anemia and b-thalassemia). He is also credited with establishing TechOps and CMC for the In Vivo delivery franchise, resulting in two programs currently in clinical trials.

Previously, he was the senior vice president of operations at Sentien, where he had broad operational responsibilities for the clinical-stage MSC company. He held a key role in opening and executing Sentien’s IND for Covid-19 patients experiencing multi-organ failure. Gemmiti joined Sentien from Harvard’s Wyss Institute, where he guided translation strategy and technical development of early-stage regenerative medicine technologies. While at Organogenesis Inc., he was the business unit director responsible for the clinical development, FDA approval (2012), and commercial launch of GINTUIT™, the first manufactured allogeneic cell therapy approved by BLA. He holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Georgia Tech, where he was an NSF fellow in entrepreneurship, and a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Gemmiti has served on advisory boards at Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, Duke University, TERMIS, Cell Therapy Bioprocessing, and Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.

Erin Dasher will serve as vice chair of the board. She is the founder and CEO of Glui Inc., a global advertising company that creates engagement experiences in all digital environments. An accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and lawyer, Dasher has more than 25 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, M&A, and investment management. Her diverse career includes serving as principal and general counsel at STW Fixed Income Management, where she helped grow assets under management to more than $12 billion and co-led the firm's sale to Schroders.

Dasher began her career as an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, managing significant transactions in venture capital, public and private offerings, and M&A. Her passion for innovation and community involvement is evident through her support of the Georgia Tech community and local scientific research. Dasher serves on the advisory boards for the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and the Alexander-Tharpe Athletic Fund at Georgia Tech and is a member, past board member, and president-elect of the ARCS Foundation, which supports STEM students at Morehouse, Emory, UGA, and Georgia Tech. She graduated magna cum laude from Cornell Law School and is a member of the Order of the Coif. She also holds an undergraduate degree in European intellectual history, graduating with honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Vincent Ling will serve as a new board member. Ling is the senior director of search and evaluation at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. For more than 30 years, Ling led successful research and business innovation groups in diverse biotechnology fields, including cell devices, protein engineering, biosimilars, stem cell differentiation, checkpoint inhibitors, and molecular evolution of antibody scaffolds. He has held leadership positions in large, midsized, and startup environments, creating practical biotherapeutics. His current interests lie in novel drug delivery technologies, which include drug particles, energy guidance, and biomaterial scaffolds. Ling currently serves as senior director within search and evaluation, and business development at Takeda, after directorship roles in external innovation and pharmaceutical sciences.

Before Takeda, Ling was head of biological sciences developing cell therapies for wet AMD at Neurotech. He has held positions including vice president at Dragonfly Sciences, managing all scientific operations and marketing functions, director of molecular genetics at Adnexus (Compound Therapeutics), and other scientific roles in discovery research at Genetics Institute and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Ling earned a B.A. in molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, and postdoctoral training at the Harvard Biological Laboratories.

IBB extends its gratitude to Anjali Kumar for her service as the board chair. Kumar will remain on the board as a member. Additionally, we would like to thank Bruce Rowan and Randy Schiestl for their service on the board. 
 

The PTC brings clinical experts together with Georgia Tech scientists and engineers to develop technological solutions to problems in the health and care of children. The Center provides extraordinary opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in pediatrics, creating breakthrough discoveries that often can only be found at the intersection of multiple disciplines. 

Garcia will work under the leadership of PTC Co-Directors Dr. Stanislav Emelianov (Georgia Tech) and Dr. Wilbur Lam (Children’s) of Georgia Tech’s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Dr. Naveen Muthu of Children’s Physician Group will be Garcia’s counterpart in leading Pillar 1. 

Since 2021, Garcia has served as an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. His research group has published numerous journal and conference papers, and book chapters related to data-driven machine learning and optimization in healthcare, including various applications in diagnosis and disease management of concussion, opioids, cardiovascular disease, glaucoma, and maternal health. He has received federal funding as a primary investigator from both the National Institutes for Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He and his research group have received several national and international recognitions for their work. 

Garcia also teaches graduate-level courses in machine learning and optimization for healthcare. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan and was a postdoctoral fellow at the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment.

The  F.L. "Bud" Suddath and Frances "Lee" Gafford Suddath Fellowship Award was established by Bud Suddath's family, friends, and colleagues in memory of his contributions to Georgia Tech. The award is given annually to graduate students at Georgia Tech who have demonstrated significant bio-research accomplishments while conducting biological or biochemical research at the molecular or cellular level.

After considerable deliberation, a committee of IBB faculty selected three Ph.D. candidates as the 2024 Suddath Award winners from an extremely strong group of applicants:

In Third place, with a cash award of $250

Raghav Tandon 

Raghav is working on his Ph.D. in Machine Learning with Prof. Cassie S. Mitchell within the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Raghav’s research is focused on using machine learning algorithms to identify biomarkers, from diverse data modalities such as omics and neuroimaging, to model the progression of neuro-degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s Disease.

In Second place, with a cash award of $500

Kathryn Loeffler

Kathryn is working on her Ph.D. in Bioengineering with Prof. Ravi Kane within the School of Chemical Engineering

Kathryn’s research has focused on the design of broadly protective coronavirus vaccines. This includes a vaccine that protects against multiple coronaviruses variants, as well as a cocktail vaccine developed to protect against not just SARS-CoV-2 and CoV-1 variants, but also various bat and pangolin coronaviruses that could pose a threat to humans.

In First place, with a cash award of $1000, and the opportunity to present a research seminar at the start of the 2024 Suddath Symposium this coming March.

Andrew Cazier

Andrew is working on his Ph.D. with Prof. Johnny Blazeck within the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Andrew's research has focused on the development of technologies for targeted DNA diversification in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for applications in antibody engineering and directed evolution. Thenovel yeast-based platform developed by Andrew will facilitate the study of immune receptor repertoires and the isolation of clinically relevant antibodies with enhanced affinities.

IBB is excited to congratulate our 2024 Suddath Awardees and to all of the year’s applicants for their impressive accomplishments!

2023 ABOVE & BEYOND AWARDS

Congratulations to these members of the IBB community, who were recognized for their dedication and excellence in 2023!

Faculty

Levi Wood - Associate Professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Levi is a collaborative and supportive PI and provides amazing mentorship to his trainees. He goes above and beyond for everyone he interacts with. His research focuses on applying systems analysis approaches and engineering tools to identify novel clinical therapeutic targets for inflammatory diseases.

Hang Lu - Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, College of Engineering 

Hang provides tremendous leadership for the Bio-E program and through her guidance, the number of Bio-E students has grown. She knows the importance of community building for both the students and advisors and oversees several events each year to accomplish that sense of community. 

Entrepreneurship 

OZ-Link Technologies & Team - Kasie Collins, CEO (Postdoc), Jasmine Hwang, CSO (Postdoc), Steve Seo, COO (GT Affiliate), Wenting Shi, Lead Scientist (Ph.D. Candidate), Prof. M.G. Finn, Scientific Advisor 

This team’s groundbreaking research has consistently translated scientific discoveries into practical, real-world solutions. The group's work in developing innovative diagnostics and therapeutics has had a profound impact on our field, demonstrating exceptional ability to bridge the gap between research and tangible, game-changing solutions. They have participated in Create-X and Nucleate and fostered collaboration from other academic institutions and stakeholders to maximize their technology and real-world impact for patients.

Trainees

Athena Chien, Ph.D. - Biomedical Engineering, Craig Forest, Advisor

Athena provides outstanding contributions as the leader in the BBUGS Outreach and Education Committee. She spends a significant amount of her free time visiting schools, organizing science and engineering demonstrations, and actively engaging with students to spark their interest in these fields. Her passion for science outreach comes through in every exchange with her! Athena does all of this while remaining an exemplary student in her academic pursuits. Her dedication to both research and community engagement demonstrates a well-rounded commitment to advancing her field of research while actively contributing to the broader community.

Daniel Shah, Ph.D. - Biomedical Engineering, Edward Botchwey, Advisor

Daniel is a CTENG trainee and has served as a mentor for CMaT and as a Petit mentor, passing down his scientific skills to underprivileged students in the Atlanta area. He also supports graduate recruitment efforts year-after-year, engaging with his cohort, and incoming cohorts bringing a sense of ease into every conversation while including others to make the community more inviting.

Staff

Lisa Redding - Academic Program Manager, Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biosciences

Lisa is foundational to the operation of the QBioS and Bioinformatics Ph.D. programs. She provides prompt and personalized support to dozens of students and excellent co-ordination and management for the Bioinformatics Program. She values and prioritizes every student's needs, and her unfailing optimism is inspiring.

Leonard Law - Building Coordinator

Leonard makes a great first impression on all visitors thanks to his smile and positive attitude. He brings joy to IBB in all that he does, from welcoming visitors, rearranging our atrium for events, and answering and unending stream of questions from new students, faculty and guests. He embodies Bob Nerem's Rule of Life #10 - "People will remember not what you said, but only how you made them feel." He exhibits a contagious earnestness and warmth. Leonard is a true gem to have as part of our community.

“I am extremely honored to be named the director of the Marcus Center for Therapeutic Cell Characterization and Manufacturing,” said Temenoff. “The Center has demonstrated significant and sustained impact on the field of cell manufacturing since its founding in 2016, and along with our NSF ERC on Cell Manufacturing Technologies, has positioned Georgia Tech on the cutting edge of technologies to improve quality and affordability of cell-based therapeutics.”

Temenoff joined the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Georgia Tech/Emory University in 2005 and is currently the Carol Ann and David D. Flanagan Professor in BME. She also currently serves as the director of the NSF Engineering Research Center in Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT). Temenoff has received several awards and honors for her work in scaling culture of therapeutic cells and biomaterials for regenerative medicine applications. These include the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature, College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE), Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) and Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering, International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE). 

Temenoff is preceded by Krishnendu “Krish” Roy, professor in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. In August, Roy left Georgia Tech/Emory to begin a leadership position at Vanderbilt University as Dean of Engineering. 

“I am particularly excited to be taking on a leadership role in MC3M at this time as the field has grown tremendously in the past five-plus years. The types of tools and technologies we are developing are increasingly important to assure that advanced biotherapeutics are available to all who need them,” stated Temenoff.

The Industry Visit Program is a key component of IBB’s NIH/NIGMS-funded T32 Biotechnology Training Program focused on developing the next generation of leaders for biotechnology industries. The program supports some of Georgia Tech’s brightest Ph.D. students, with professional development activities and travel expenses to biotech industry sites covered. These visits provide students with a firsthand look inside some of the best biotech companies, as well as excellent networking opportunities.

Luiza DaMotta, a second-year bioengineering Ph.D. student in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, was among the students who joined the trip. DaMotta is researching antimicrobial hydrogels for bone healing in Andrés García’s lab.

“This trip to the Resilience site was an exciting experience to meet like-minded Ph.D. students interested in pursuing a career in industry,” DaMotta said. “This was my first exposure to the CTEng students and first time touring a bioindustry site. I was introduced to industry terminology and the operations of industries from the inside through this unique opportunity. My favorite part was talking to current employees about their journey from Ph.D. students to industry and their advice for current students. Everyone was incredibly friendly and truly enjoyed working there. I learned a lot about myself, and I am stepping into my second year more confident in the direction of my future.”

Past companies visited include Genentech, Celgene, Boston Scientific, and Kimberly Clark. Several of our trainees have obtained internships or permanent employment with these companies, highlighting the immense value of industry visits and partnerships.

Shepherd Center and Georgia Tech have announced a partnership that will unite researchers and clinicians to improve care and create more success stories for people with spinal cord and brain injuries, pain, multiple sclerosis, and related neurological conditions. Areas of collaboration will include the development of new technologies, strategies, and approaches to improve neurorehabilitation.

Shepherd Center, an Atlanta hospital that provides world-class clinical care, research, and family support for people experiencing the most complex conditions — including spinal cord and brain injuries, multitrauma, traumatic amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain — is ranked among the top rehabilitation hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

Ninety percent of Shepherd’s patients return to their communities after receiving care at Shepherd Center, which exceeds the national average by more than 30%. In addition to patient care, Shepherd Center has a robust research program, typically participating in 20 grants and 75 research projects concurrently. It is also one of the few institutions recognized as both a Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Model System by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research.

“Shepherd and Georgia Tech will build upon Shepherd’s expertise to conduct and integrate research and technology throughout the entire continuum of care and Georgia Tech’s research and technology development to create new solutions for the people Shepherd serves and beyond,” said Deborah Backus, vice president of Research and Innovation at Shepherd Center. “Potential collaborative research and development efforts can occur in many disciplines — from developing new devices and technologies to fellowships and training for the next generation.”

Leaders from Georgia Tech and Shepherd Center met in late August to celebrate the partnership.

“Shepherd Center leads the world in treating brain and spinal cord injuries with an innovative research program that implements technology throughout inpatient and outpatient programs to get patients back to leading active, independent lives,” said Julia Kubanek, professor and vice president for Interdisciplinary Research at Georgia Tech.

Kubanek was joined by Andrés García, executive director of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB), Petit Director’s Chair in Bioengineering and Bioscience, and Regents’ Professor; and Stephen Sprigle, a professor and researcher in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering who directs Georgia Tech’s Rehabilitation Engineering and Applied Research Lab (REARLab), which focuses on applied disability research and development.

“We were inspired by our recent visit and tour, where we observed clinicians and researchers working directly with patients,” García said. “Georgia Tech’s mission of using technology to improve the human condition is a perfect fit for our collaboration with Shepherd. I’m grateful for Stephen Sprigle and IBB for their goals of increasing the breadth and depth of our partnership. There will be wonderful upcoming opportunities for Georgia Tech students and faculty to bring their expertise in data science, AI, robotics, cell therapies, exercise physiology, and neuroscience, among many strengths, to join with Shepherd clinicians to help patients.”

Driven by a shared vision for transforming healthcare, the two institutions will utilize their complementary capabilities to provide technical solutions for clinical needs. The teams are identifying challenges to tackle and will establish a series of workshops to bring researchers and clinicians together.

For inquiries to support the collaboration, please contact Jaimie Hayes (Senior Director of Development, Office of Development at Georgia Tech)

The World Health Organization reports that millions of adults worldwide live with neurological disorders and brain or brain-related injuries. Globally, 5 million people are left permanently disabled each year after suffering a stroke or spinal cord injury, creating a critical need for advances in patient care and support. The IUCRC BRAIN Center (Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnology) was formed in 2017 to address complex challenges and opportunities in the field of neurotechnology.

Housed at the University of Houston, the BRAIN Center is a collaborative and creative research effort to develop new neurotechnologies. It began as a partnership between the University of Houston and Arizona State University and is supported by the National Science Foundation. The partnership recently expanded to include the Georgia Institute of Technology and West Virginia University. 

“Georgia Tech is very excited to join the BRAIN IUCRC with other leading neuroengineering institutions, all passionate about bringing faculty and students together with industry to collaborate on cutting-edge neurotechnology development,” said Michelle C. LaPlaca, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. LaPlaca's broad research interests are in neurotrauma, injury biomechanics, and neuroengineering as they relate to traumatic brain injury. “The Center partnerships are an excellent opportunity for small and large companies to invest in pre-translational research that both meets industry needs and harnesses academic expertise in order to ultimately improve patients’ lives.” 

Read more about the partnership and the BRAIN Center in the University of Houston's press release. 

On Thursday, July 27, the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) held a highly anticipated summer art show. Co-hosted by IBB and BBUGS, the Bioengineering and Bioscience Unified Graduate Students, the art show featured over 70 submissions from members of the broader IBB community.

The art show proved to be a summer highlight and source of excitement in the community. Participants showcased their creative talents through diverse mediums ranging from oil paintings to photography and blues music. More than 350 attendees admired the art pieces and mingled while enjoying refreshments.

"The intention of the IBB Art Show was to bring the IBB and Georgia Tech communities together for a fun event to highlight the fantastic talents of our faculty, staff, and trainees," said IBB Executive Director Andrés J. García. "I was blown away at the tremendous response, beautiful and creative works of art, and fellowship that we shared in this special event."

A panel of judges selected the winners and attendees voted for a fan favorite award. García presented awards to the competition's winners, listed below. The winning submissions will be displayed at IBB. 

First Place

Madolyn Penuel – Executive assistant to the dean of the Scheller College of Business. Penuel has worked at Georgia Tech for more than six years. 

Artwork Title: Atlantis 

Medium/Description: Digital print on canvas, 16"x30"

Second Place (Tie)

Yenho Chen – Machine learning Ph.D. student and research assistant in the Signal and Information Processing Lab advised by Christopher Rozell. Research focus is on interpretable ML models for complex time series data. 

Artwork Title: Don’t Forget to Breathe 

Medium/Description: Digital video 

Chad Pozarycki – Ph.D. candidate in analytical chemistry and graduate student in the lab of Amanda Stockton studying analytical chemistry and applications of capillary electrophoresis to the detection of astrobiologically relevant small molecules.

Artwork Title: Ninety-Five Theses 

Medium/Description: Mixed media – door with a stack of thesis papers with a stake driven through them. 

Third Place

John McDonald - Emeritus professor, School of Biological Sciences, and director, Integrated Cancer Research Center.

Artwork Title: Touched by the Blues 

Medium/Description: Original music album 

Fan Favorite

Timothy Hunter – Graduate student at Georgia Tech in the lab of Will R. Gutekunst. 

Artwork Title: Free Thugger 

Medium/Description: 5'x4' oil portrait painting on canvas of a woman surrounded by various doodles found in a notebook. 

The Krish Roy - GRA Travel Award is a new travel award endowed by Professor Krishnendu Roy with funding provided by the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA). Roy is a Regents’ Professor and the Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair in Biomedical Engineering. He also serves as Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), the Marcus Center for Cell Therapy Characterization and Manufacturing (MC3M), and the Center for ImmunoEngineering. The award was designed to support to IBB-affiliated undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral trainees conducting research in cell manufacturing, drug delivery, immunoengineering, and regenerative medicine.

Ten finalists (pictured left) were selected to receive a stipend to travel to a domestic or international conference or workshop to present their research work.

“The Krish Roy Travel award allowed me to participate in my first conference of my graduate school career." said Parisa Keshavarz-Joud. "I had the opportunity to present a poster on my research at the Physical Virology Gordon Research Conference in January 2023 and interact with experts in the field. This experience broadened my knowledge of the field and helped me in developing new ideas about the next steps of my project.”

Elijah Holland used his award in January to attend the Fibronectin Gordon Research Conference in Ventura, California. In expressing gratitude for the award, Holland shared that he was able to meet leaders in the cell adhesion field and gave his first oral research presentation, titled "Mechanotransduction at Focal Adhesions: Interplay among Force, FAs, and YAP."

Fourth-year ChemE PhD student Hyun Jee Lee plans to use the award to her support her first experience at an international seminar and conference, where she will present her research and connect with other researchers around the world. Lee's research focus is developing microfluidic tools to study cellular and molecular mechanisms in small organisms. "I'm particularly interested in investigating brain activity changes associated with learning in C. elegans." Lee explained. "I'm very grateful to have received the award." 

Awardees (pictured from top left to right):

John Cox, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Yarelis Gonzalez-Vargas, Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering

Travis Rotterman, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Biological Sciences

Wenting Shi, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Kamisha Hill, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Paris Keshavarz-Joud, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Elijah Holland, Graduate Research Assistant, Mechanical Engineering

Hun Jee Lee, Graduate Student, Chemical Engineering 

Maeve Janecka, Undergraduate Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering 

Sunny (Chao-yi) Lu, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

In Cho of the University of Georgia and Peng Jin of Emory were selected for funding for their proposal, "Developing Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Testicular Assembloid.” This project aims to create a pioneering 3D organoid model that replicates the interactions between these critical tissues. The research could lead to breakthroughs in understanding male reproductive health and fertility, potentially paving the way for new therapeutic strategies.

“This grant builds on the pioneering works of our collaborative team, including my work with Charles Easley on the in vitro spermatogenesis and testicular organoid model and Peng Jin at Emory on the brain-region-specific organoid model,” Cho said. “The development of 3D hypothalamic-pituitary-testis assembloids will facilitate important research on male reproductive health and disease. It will also offer solutions to many of the challenges inherent in this field by providing more relevant, ethical, and detailed models for research, ultimately holding the promise of improved understanding, prevention, and treatment of male reproductive health issues.”

Jin Xie of the University of Georgia and Yong Teng of Emory were selected for funding for their proposal, “Enhancing Dendritic Cell Migration and Maturation in Aged Individuals Using Calcium Nanoparticles.” Focused on addressing the challenges of aging in cancer treatment, this project seeks to enhance the function of dendritic cells in older individuals using cutting-edge calcium nanoparticle technology. The goal is to improve immune response in aged patients, making cancer immunotherapies more effective and accessible for this vulnerable population.

“Immune checkpoint blockade has revolutionized cancer treatment, but many patients, especially the elderly, fail to respond effectively due to a lack of tumor infiltration of conventional type 1 dendritic cells (cDC1s), which are crucial for robust antitumor immunity,” Xie said. “To address this issue, we propose a novel approach using calcium nanoparticles to enhance cDC1 migration, maturation, and function. This strategy has the potential to improve immunotherapy outcomes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and potentially other cancers.”

Nicole Schmitt of Emory and Gabe Kwong of Georgia Tech were selected for funding for their proposal, “NLRC5 Lipid Nanoparticles for Rescue of Sensitivity to Immunotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer.” This research aims to revolutionize the treatment of head and neck cancers by developing lipid nanoparticles that enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy. By targeting immune signaling pathways, this project holds promise for significantly improving patient outcomes in cancers that are notoriously difficult to treat.

“Resistance to immunotherapy is a major problem in head and neck cancers, due to deficiencies in the cellular machinery needed to process and present tumor antigens to T lymphocytes,” said Schmidt. “This project will explore the use of a lipid nanoparticle to deliver mRNA encoding a deficient transcription factor called NLRC5 as a potential strategy for restoring sensitivity to immunotherapy in preclinical models of head and neck cancer.”

Franklin West of the University of Georgia and Levi Wood of Georgia Tech were selected for funding for their proposal, “Illuminating the Neuroprotective and Regenerative Effects of NSC-Derived Extracellular Vesicles for Treatment of TBI in a Translationally Relevant Swine Model.” This ambitious project explores the potential of neural stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles to promote healing and regeneration in traumatic brain injury (TBI). Utilizing a swine model, which closely resembles human biology, this research could lead to new, effective treatments for TBI, ultimately improving recovery outcomes for patients.

"Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a devastating condition that affects over 2 million people in the U.S. every year with no FDA-approved treatment,” said West and Wood in a joint statement. “In this study, we are evaluating neural stem cell extracellular vesicles as a promising therapeutic that is neuroprotective and regenerative and is now going into human clinical trials for stroke. This study is foundational and will likely lead to rapid translation to clinical trials for TBI."

“Some research says that 80% of infections in human bodies can be attributed to the bacteria growing in biofilms,” Aawaz Pokhrel says, lead author of a groundbreaking new study that uses physics to investigate how these biofilms grow.

The paper, “The Biophysical Basis of Bacterial Colony Growth,” was published in Nature Physics this week, and it shows that the fitness of a biofilm — its ability to grow, expand, and absorb nutrients from the medium or the substrate — is largely impacted by the contact angle that the biofilm’s edge makes with the substrate. The study also found that this geometry has a bigger influence on fitness than anything else, including the rate at which the cells can reproduce.

“That was the big surprise for us,” says corresponding author Peter Yunker, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics. “We expected that the geometry would play an important role, and we thought that figuring out exactly what the geometry is would be important for understanding why the range expansion rate, for example, [the rate at which the biofilm spreads across the surface over time] is constant. But we didn't start the project thinking that geometry would be the single most important factor.”

Understanding how biofilms grow — and what factors contribute to their growth rate — could lead to critical insights on controlling them, with applications for human health, like slowing the spread of infection or creating cleaner surfaces. “What got me excited was this opportunity to use physics to learn about complex biological systems,” Pokhrel, who is also a Ph.D. student in Yunker’s lab, adds. “Especially on a project that has so many applications. The combination of the importance for human health and exciting research was really intriguing for me.”

A new method

While biofilms are ubiquitous in nature, studying them has proven difficult. Because these “cities of microorganisms” are comprised of tiny individuals, scientists have struggled to image them successfully.

That changed in 2015, when Yunker began wondering if interferometry, a commonly used imaging technique in physics and materials science, could be applied to biofilms. “Given my background in physics, I was familiar with its use in materials applications,” Yunker recalls. “I thought applying this technique more broadly might be interesting, because we know from decades of physics that surface interfaces contain a lot of information about the processes that create them.” 

The technique proved to be simple, effective, and time-efficient, providing nanometer-scale resolution of bacterial colonies. “It allows us to essentially get a picture of the topography — the shape of the surface of the bacterial population — with super-resolution,” Yunker adds.

Leveraging interferometry, the team began conducting new biofilm experiments, investigating how colonies’ shapes changed over time. Co-first author Gabi Steinbach, formerly a postdoctoral scholar in Yunker’s lab and now a scientific research coordinator at the University of Maryland, noticed that every colony had a specific shape when it was small: a spherical cap, like a slice from the top of a sphere, or a droplet of water. It’s a shape that shows up often in physics, and that sparked the team’s interest.

“A spherical cap in physics is very interesting, because it is a surface-minimizing shape,” Pokhrel adds. “I was curious why a biological material was growing in this shape, and we started wondering if there was some physics to it – perhaps geometry was involved. And that made us think that maybe we could develop a model. And that got me really excited.”

A mathematical mystery

However, the researchers soon hit a roadblock. “While we could see that the colonies were spherical caps at first, they would deviate from that shape as they grew,” Pokhrel says. “And the shape that they grew into was difficult to describe with existing spherical cap geometry.”

“The middle didn’t grow as quickly as it should to keep the spherical cap shape, and we wanted to connect all of this to the range expansion [the rate at which the colony spread across a surface],” Yunker adds. “But we knew that somehow, geometry was playing a very important role.”

Finally, Thomas Day, a former graduate student in Yunker’s lab, now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California, and one of the authors of the paper, suggested a quirky problem of geometry called the napkin ring problem.

“As soon as we started to think about the napkin ring problem, we were able to start developing a mathematical toolkit,” Yunker says, though the solution wasn’t effortless. “We couldn't find anyone who  had ever looked at a spherical cap napkin ring before, because the application is very rare.”

Pokhrel, alongside two co-authors, was responsible for working out the geometry. He discovered that the cells grew exponentially at the edge of the shape, expanding further onto the medium, while the cells in the middle grew upward, creating a shape not unlike an egg in a frying pan — if the egg white was expanding outwards, while the yolk was only growing taller.

This was the breakthrough discovery: Because the cells at the middle were only contributing to the biofilm’s height, the team only needed to account for how many cells were at the edge of the biofilm, and the shape they needed to be in to grow and spread.

After incorporating their findings into a mathematical model, the team found that the contact angle was the most important factor: the angle that the very edge of the biofilm made when it touched the surface it was growing on. That single geometric quality is even more important to a biofilm’s growth than the rate at which it can reproduce cells.

The physics-biology connection

Overall, the project took more than three years, from conception to publication. “Aawaz really made an incredible effort seeing this work through,” Yunker says. “It was many years and many, many experiments. But the finished product is 100% worth it.”

The team hopes the research will pave the way for future studies, which could lead to applications like controlling biofilm growth to help prevent infections.

“Going forward, there are still a lot of research avenues,” Pokhrel says. “For example, looking at competition experiments between biofilms — do taller colonies change their contact angle so that they can spread faster? What role does this geometry play in competition?”

“Biology is complex,” Yunker adds. In nature, the surface a biofilm grows on may not be as consistent as a laboratory surface, and colonies may have different mutations or may consist of more than one species. And while the model is based on how biofilms behave in a controlled lab environment, it’s a critical first step in understanding how they may behave in nature.

Citation: Pokhrel, A.R., Steinbach, G., Krueger, A. et al. The biophysical basis of bacterial colony growth. Nat. Phys. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02572-3

Funding information: This research was funded by the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences and NSF Biomaterials

The PTC brings clinical experts together with Georgia Tech scientists and engineers to develop technological solutions to problems in the health and care of children. The Center provides extraordinary opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in pediatrics, creating breakthrough discoveries that often can only be found at the intersection of multiple disciplines. 

Garcia will work under the leadership of PTC Co-Directors Dr. Stanislav Emelianov (Georgia Tech) and Dr. Wilbur Lam (Children’s) of Georgia Tech’s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Dr. Naveen Muthu of Children’s Physician Group will be Garcia’s counterpart in leading Pillar 1. 

Since 2021, Garcia has served as an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. His research group has published numerous journal and conference papers, and book chapters related to data-driven machine learning and optimization in healthcare, including various applications in diagnosis and disease management of concussion, opioids, cardiovascular disease, glaucoma, and maternal health. He has received federal funding as a primary investigator from both the National Institutes for Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He and his research group have received several national and international recognitions for their work. 

Garcia also teaches graduate-level courses in machine learning and optimization for healthcare. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan and was a postdoctoral fellow at the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment.

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a first-of-its-kind technique called electron videography to capture moving images at the molecular scale. In the first demonstration of the technique, the team took a microscopic moving picture of the delicate dance between proteins and lipids found in cell membranes. The study, “Electron videography of a lipid–protein tango” was published last week in the journal Science Advances.

"This is the first time we are looking at a protein on an individual scale and haven't frozen it or tagged it," says Aditi Das, a corresponding author and associate professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech.

Electron microscopy techniques image at the molecular or atomic scale, yielding detailed, nanometer-scale pictures. However, they often rely on samples that have been frozen or fixed in place, leaving scientists to try to infer how molecules move and interact — like trying to map the choreography of a dance sequence from a single frame of film.

"Usually, we have to crystalize or freeze a protein, which poses challenges in capturing high-resolution images of flexible proteins. Alternately, some techniques use a molecular tag that we track, rather than watching the protein itself,” Das says. “In this study we are seeing the protein as it is, behaving how it does in a liquid environment, and seeing how lipids and proteins interact with each other."

The technique can be used to study the dynamics of other biomolecules, breaking free of constraints that have limited microscopy to still images of fixed molecules. In this study, the team examined nanoscale discs of lipid membranes and how they interacted with proteins normally found on the surface of or embedded in cell membranes.

These membrane proteins are significant for medical treatments, and are involved in processes including muscle contraction, brain function, and immune system functions. Moving forward, the researchers plan to use their electron videography technique to study other types of membrane proteins and other classes of molecules and nanomaterials.

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk0217

The Rosalind Franklin Society Awards are given annually to recognize outstanding scientific papers from women and minorities and, in partnership with Mary Ann Liebert Inc., the Rosalind Franklin Society has awarded $100,000 to exceptional researchers featured in their 2023 anthology. The anthology includes the biography of each winner and an abstract of their published paper. Temenoff is among 14 award winners in biotechnology and regenerative medicine.  

Her paper features a collaboration with former IBB researcher Manu Platt and current IBB researcher Younan Xia to develop a new controlled release platform for the localized delivery of a drug that can inhibit enzymatic activity to reduce tissue damage in orthopedic conditions such as osteoarthritis and rotator cuff tears.

“I am extremely honored to receive this award from the Rosalind Franklin Society for our publication in Tissue Engineering Methods (Part C),” said Temenoff. “I remember first hearing about Franklin’s pioneering work in my undergraduate biochemistry class and she has always been an inspiration to me. Special thanks and recognition goes to my laboratory, especially former trainee Elda Trevino, who led this work.” 

Temenoff’s research is focused on scaling culture of therapeutic cells and developing new biomaterials as carriers for proteins and cells for use in regenerative medicine applications. Her laboratory focuses primarily on promoting the repair of orthopedic tissues, including cartilage, tendon, and muscle.

Find more award details here.

A team of researchers led by biomedical engineer Phil Santangelo has developed a breakthrough therapy to target and kill the virus using the gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas13. The team’s systemic delivery of the treatment was successful in treating dengue virus in mice, as the researchers explained in Nature Microbiology.

Dengue is difficult to treat in part because there are four different serotypes of the virus, which means four different targets for a vaccine. People infected with one serotype who then contract a second version of the virus can end up with a serious disease. That second attack can end up amplifying the first. Symptoms include fever, nausea, rash, aches and pains (including behind the eyes), and in some cases, internal bleeding, shock, and death.

“There are several challenges with trying to treat dengue, so we wondered, is it possible for us to produce an mRNA-based, CRISPR-based antiviral where one shot can clear the virus,” said Santangelo, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “And that’s basically what we’ve shown.” 

New Use for the Tech

With the global proliferation of the Aedes mosquito that spreads dengue and other viruses, the timing of such a treatment would be fortuitous.

“Unfortunately, climate change is enabling an increase of these virus-causing mosquitos,” said Santangelo, also a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech. “So, it’s a good idea to be prepared.”

This is the first time an mRNA-based CRISPR treatment has worked against systemic viral infections in animal models. But Santangelo demonstrated its efficacy in earlier studies focused on lung diseases, including a treatment for coronavirus. That was an inhalable treatment using polymeric nanoparticles — large, biodegradable molecules ideal for delivering medicine directly to the lungs. 

For the dengue virus study, the team used lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which are like tiny fat bubbles that transport drugs through the bloodstream and into cells. The nanoparticles carried a custom-coded messenger RNA (mRNA) molecule.

The mRNA was encoded with Cas13a (a CRISPR protein that can cut viral RNA) and guide RNAs (to direct the Cas13a to the viral RNA that needs to be cut). The process basically created a set of instructions. When the encoded mRNA is delivered to infected cells via the LNPs, the cell uses those instructions to build Cas13a and guide RNAs, which degrade the viral RNA within those targeted cells.

Military Precision

A single dose of the treatment was given to mice infected with lethal doses of two serotypes of dengue virus, DENV-2 and DENV-3. All the treated mice survived with no unintended damage to their RNA. Following treatment, the researchers also looked for evidence of the virus in the mice’s brains but couldn’t find any. 

“It looks like our treatment precludes the virus from getting into the brain,” Santangelo said. “This may not be super critical for dengue, which doesn’t end up in the human brain. But this discovery could be really important for Zika virus, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile, and other viruses that do affect the human brain.”

The study was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is interested in protecting soldiers from mosquito-borne illnesses. Santangelo’s team now is testing their approach on dengue’s other serotypes and will study the treatment in other viruses.

“We’re very interested in trying these kinds of approaches to go after as many viruses as we can with one, potent treatment,” said Santangelo, whose team included researchers from Georgia State University as well as Emory’s Computational Core. “We’re trying to find the most efficient way to kill these viruses. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re going to get there eventually.”

CITATION: Basu, M., Zurla, C., Auroni, T.T. et al. mRNA-encoded Cas13 can be used to treat dengue infections in mice. Nat Microbiol 9, 2160–2172 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01726-6

This research was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, grant No. HR0011-19-2-0008. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.

It’s protection that comes at a cost. While the BBB lets some things in — like water, oxygen, general anesthetics made of very small molecules — it also prevents many vital therapeutics from reaching the brain, limiting the treatment options for neurological problems.

But a multinational team of researchers led by Georgia Tech biomedical engineer Costas Arvanitis is tackling the challenge with a technique that combines microbubbles — tiny gas-filled spheres — and ultrasound technology. Their innovative approach aims to temporarily open the BBB, allowing drugs or immune cells in to take on the fight against disease, offering therapeutic hope for patients battling conditions like brain cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.

“We found that microbubble-enhanced ultrasound, an emerging technology that offers a noninvasive way to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier, allows blood-borne therapeutics to reach the brain,” said Arvanitis, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

The technique can potentially be fine-tuned to establish windows of opportunity to target brain diseases, he added. Costas and his collaborators describe their work in a recent edition of Nature Communications.

Bouncing Bubbles

Microbubbles, smaller than the diameter of human hair, have shells made of a lipid or protein. In healthcare, they’re often used to help enhance visibility in ultrasound, acting as contrast agents, illuminating details inside the body.

Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to create images. When microbubbles are exposed to focused ultrasound waves, they rapidly expand and contract. This gentle mechanical force shakes the protective barrier surrounding the brain, creating small openings for aid to pass through.

“Despite their simple structure, microbubbles have complex behaviors,” Arvanitis said. “They can resonate at specific frequencies, allowing us to manipulate their oscillations to enhance permeability at the blood-brain barrier. And their behavior also depends on their size and shell composition.” 

For instance, microbubbles with elastic shells are more effective in increasing the permeability of the BBB. In their research, Arvanitis and his collaborators noted a 12-fold increase in drug delivery effectiveness using elastic-shelled (lipid-based) microbubbles. 

Faculty may nominate candidates pursuing doctoral studies for the prestigious fellowship. The Graduate Education Fellowships Selection Committee, established by the Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, reviews the candidates for final selection.

This year, each Georgia Tech scholar will receive $7,500 and two will receive the Global Impact Award of $10,000. The Foundation grants the Global Impact Awards to students working on research problems having a broader global context or addressing global issues.

A scholars award ceremony will be held in November to honor the Atlanta chapter’s recipients.  

Congratulations to the following Georgia Tech 2024-25 ARCS Scholars: 

Returning Scholars

• Noam Altman-Kurosaki is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Herz Global Impact Award. Altman-Kurosaki is a Ph.D. candidate in biology with a research interest in understanding the processes that drive coral reef decline and recovery.
   
• Anjana Dissanayaka is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Northside Hospital Award. Dissanayaka is a Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering with a research interest in leveraging and applying microfluidic techniques to develop low-cost diagnostic devices.
   
• Emily Hughes is a second-year ARCS Scholar who received the Lim Award. Hughes is a Ph.D. candidate in earth and atmospheric sciences with a research interest in the geologic history of the planet Mars, specifically how spectroscopy, field analogue studies, and in situ Martian data can be coupled to reconstruct ancient environments.
   
• Tawfik Hussein is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Boice/Reid Award. Hussein is a Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering with a research interest in the mechanics of the heart, specifically, simulating computationally the mechanical changes in the heart of patients with heart failure to help predict early stages of heart failure.
   
• KC Jacobson is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Herz Global Impact Award. Jacobson is a Ph.D. student in bioengineering, chemical and biochemical engineering, with a research interest in the neural mechanisms of impaired sensory processing in a human-relevant mouse model of autism spectrum disorder.
   
• Cassandra Shriver is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Chambers/Jones Award. Shriver is a Ph.D. student in quantitative biosciences, biological sciences, with a research interest in comparative biomechanics, specifically mammalian climbing mechanics with an emphasis on conservation applications.
   
• Naoki Yokoyama is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Dodson Award. Yokoyama is a Ph.D. candidate in robotics, electrical and computer engineering, with a research interest in developing intelligent robots that can assist the elderly and disabled in home environments.  

New Scholars

• Alivia Eng is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the David, Helen and Marian Woodward Award. Eng is a Ph.D. student in earth and atmospheric sciences with a research interest in planetary science, specifically the geologic history of Mars.
   
• Kierra Franklin is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Burke Award. Franklin is a Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering with a research interest in combining synthetic biology and epigenetics to study chromatin biology and disease pathology.
   
• Marrissa Izykowicz is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Roche Award. Izykowicz is a Ph.D. student in chemical biology with a research interest in designing and synthesizing nanohydrogels for targeted drug delivery in metastatic cancers.
   
• Zachary Mobille is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the HA (Gus) Peed Award. Mobille is a Ph.D. candidate in quantitative biosciences with a research interest in how anatomical structure and precisely-timed dynamics are interrelated in networks of biological neurons.
   
• Heriberto Nieves is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Wahlen Award. Nieves is a Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering, robotics, with a research interest in applying deep learning to automate the quality control and measurement processes for staging liver fibrosis with magnetic resonance elastography.
   
• John Pederson is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Joslin/Mary Jo Peed Award. Pederson is a Ph.D. student in chemistry with a research interest in multi-scale modeling of complex chemical systems to study reactions at solid/liquid interfaces.
   
• Theodore St. Francis is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the ARCS Atlanta Century Award. St. Francis is a Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering with a research interest in electrolysis for both oxygen generation for astronauts and hydrogen production on Earth.
   
• Gianna Slusher is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Swensson/ARCS Atlanta Award. Slusher is a Ph.D. student in bioengineering, mechanical engineering, with a research interest in developing innovative nano-scale technologies to enhance the manufacturing and monitoring of cell-based therapeutics.

The ARCS fellowship is made possible each year by way of fundraising and the continued generous support of the ARCS-Atlanta Foundation.

The mission of the ARCS Foundation is to advance science and technology in the United States by providing financial rewards to academically outstanding U.S. citizens studying to complete degrees in science, engineering, and medical research.

Since its inception in 1992, the ARCS Foundation Atlanta has awarded more than $4.5 million to over 400 science scholars at Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Morehouse College, and the University of Georgia. 

For more information about the 2024-25 ARCS Atlanta Scholars, please visit www.atlanta.arcsfoundation.org/scholars/current-scholars-4.

It turns out, the struggle is more like a loop, with the research impacting the people, and the people impacting the direction of the research.

“I’m interested in how things work, in the science, in exploring and researching. But I always ask myself, ‘what or who am I doing this for?’ So, I try my best to stay connected with the community, with the people whose health and wellbeing we’re ultimately working to improve,” said Fong, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

Fong’s desire to stay connected to communities through her work manifested while she was an undergraduate mechanical engineering student at M.I.T. She wanted to make assistive devices for individuals with disabilities. So, she moved to northwestern Mexico for a fellowship designing wheelchairs for people who had been impacted by drug violence in the region. 

That experience indirectly led her to the Coulter Department, where the Fong lab studies how activity and experience shape brain circuits, with the goal of developing treatments for neurological disorders. Currently, her team is investigating the central visual pathway and visual impairments. 

And when they aren’t working on research, Fong and the students in her lab volunteer with the Center for the Visually Impaired and Georgia Blind Sports Association. And whether they are repairing specialized typewriters called Braillers or working with athletes and coaches at a goalball match, those activities are helping to guide the research. It’s all part of the existential loop.

“Our latest research proposal really grew out of our interactions with the blind and visually impaired community in Atlanta,” said Fong, who recently won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and will use the funding to support her lab’s study of plasticity — the ability to adapt and learn — in the adult brain. 

“We were inspired by the residual sensory abilities of many people we’ve interacted with,” Fong added. “For example, some visually impaired people may develop a heightened sense of hearing. Motivated by a lack of accommodations and infrastructure for this community, we want to study how these enhanced sensory capacities emerge in people with irreversible visual impairment."

Faculty may nominate candidates pursuing doctoral studies for the prestigious fellowship. The Graduate Education Fellowships Selection Committee, established by the Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, reviews the candidates for final selection.

This year, each Georgia Tech scholar will receive $7,500 and two will receive the Global Impact Award of $10,000. The Foundation grants the Global Impact Awards to students working on research problems having a broader global context or addressing global issues.

A scholars award ceremony will be held in November to honor the Atlanta chapter’s recipients.  

Congratulations to the following Georgia Tech 2024-25 ARCS Scholars: 

Returning Scholars

• Noam Altman-Kurosaki is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Herz Global Impact Award. Altman-Kurosaki is a Ph.D. candidate in biology with a research interest in understanding the processes that drive coral reef decline and recovery.
   
• Anjana Dissanayaka is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Northside Hospital Award. Dissanayaka is a Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering with a research interest in leveraging and applying microfluidic techniques to develop low-cost diagnostic devices.
   
• Emily Hughes is a second-year ARCS Scholar who received the Lim Award. Hughes is a Ph.D. candidate in earth and atmospheric sciences with a research interest in the geologic history of the planet Mars, specifically how spectroscopy, field analogue studies, and in situ Martian data can be coupled to reconstruct ancient environments.
   
• Tawfik Hussein is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Boice/Reid Award. Hussein is a Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering with a research interest in the mechanics of the heart, specifically, simulating computationally the mechanical changes in the heart of patients with heart failure to help predict early stages of heart failure.
   
• KC Jacobson is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Herz Global Impact Award. Jacobson is a Ph.D. student in bioengineering, chemical and biochemical engineering, with a research interest in the neural mechanisms of impaired sensory processing in a human-relevant mouse model of autism spectrum disorder.
   
• Cassandra Shriver is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Chambers/Jones Award. Shriver is a Ph.D. student in quantitative biosciences, biological sciences, with a research interest in comparative biomechanics, specifically mammalian climbing mechanics with an emphasis on conservation applications.
   
• Naoki Yokoyama is a third-year ARCS Scholar who received the Dodson Award. Yokoyama is a Ph.D. candidate in robotics, electrical and computer engineering, with a research interest in developing intelligent robots that can assist the elderly and disabled in home environments.  

New Scholars

• Alivia Eng is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the David, Helen and Marian Woodward Award. Eng is a Ph.D. student in earth and atmospheric sciences with a research interest in planetary science, specifically the geologic history of Mars.
   
• Kierra Franklin is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Burke Award. Franklin is a Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering with a research interest in combining synthetic biology and epigenetics to study chromatin biology and disease pathology.
   
• Marrissa Izykowicz is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Roche Award. Izykowicz is a Ph.D. student in chemical biology with a research interest in designing and synthesizing nanohydrogels for targeted drug delivery in metastatic cancers.
   
• Zachary Mobille is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the HA (Gus) Peed Award. Mobille is a Ph.D. candidate in quantitative biosciences with a research interest in how anatomical structure and precisely-timed dynamics are interrelated in networks of biological neurons.
   
• Heriberto Nieves is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Wahlen Award. Nieves is a Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering, robotics, with a research interest in applying deep learning to automate the quality control and measurement processes for staging liver fibrosis with magnetic resonance elastography.
   
• John Pederson is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Joslin/Mary Jo Peed Award. Pederson is a Ph.D. student in chemistry with a research interest in multi-scale modeling of complex chemical systems to study reactions at solid/liquid interfaces.
   
• Theodore St. Francis is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the ARCS Atlanta Century Award. St. Francis is a Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering with a research interest in electrolysis for both oxygen generation for astronauts and hydrogen production on Earth.
   
• Gianna Slusher is a first-year ARCS Scholar who received the Swensson/ARCS Atlanta Award. Slusher is a Ph.D. student in bioengineering, mechanical engineering, with a research interest in developing innovative nano-scale technologies to enhance the manufacturing and monitoring of cell-based therapeutics.

The ARCS fellowship is made possible each year by way of fundraising and the continued generous support of the ARCS-Atlanta Foundation.

The mission of the ARCS Foundation is to advance science and technology in the United States by providing financial rewards to academically outstanding U.S. citizens studying to complete degrees in science, engineering, and medical research.

Since its inception in 1992, the ARCS Foundation Atlanta has awarded more than $4.5 million to over 400 science scholars at Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Morehouse College, and the University of Georgia. 

For more information about the 2024-25 ARCS Atlanta Scholars, please visit atlanta.arcsfoundation.org/current-scholars-2024-25.

The pair's achievement was celebrated earlier this year at a symposium, "Celebration of Science and Mentoring," in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The event was attended by Georgia Tech alumni and trainees and organized by Ankur Singh, Carl Ring Family Professor in the Woodruff School, as well as alumnus Charles Gersbach, Ph.D. BME 2006. Gershbach now serves as the John W. Strohbehn Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University.

"Andrés and Michelle have had a remarkable 25 years. It was a great time reflecting on careers, camaraderie, mentoring, and science," said Singh.

García and LaPlaca, who married after they met at the University of Pennsylvania in grad school, joined Georgia Tech in 1998 after completing their postdoctoral fellowships. "It was a combination of excitement, nervousness, and fear," said García when describing his first weeks at Georgia Tech.

"A blur!" said LaPlaca, remembering her excitement in those first few days. "But I also sensed the endless possibilities ahead of me."

25 years is an impressive term, and both have achieved incredible success and distinction over their time at Georgia Tech. García serves as executive director of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Inventors. In addition to her Associate Chair position, LaPlaca is an elected fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Society.

For some, remaining in one place for 25 years may be unfathomable, and the fear of monotony may be too much. However, García and LaPlaca have only felt themselves and their careers grow and expand with Georgia Tech.

"The school has grown in many ways. The new buildings and international reputation are what some people see. However, I have also seen the continued excellence in education and research reflect the commitment and caring of the faculty, staff, and students," said LaPlaca.

"I feel very valued by the whole community. I have enjoyed working with outstanding faculty and staff and the best students in the world," said García.

Georgia Tech is undoubtedly a family affair for the pair. Their two sons are both graduates of the Woodruff School, and their beloved family dog carries a namesake famous in the Jackets' community, Buzz.

And unfortunately, AF is all too common, affecting one in 100 people. It can be brief or persistent. It can wear you out, leaving you dizzy and out of breath, causing chest pains and palpitations. By itself, AF usually isn’t life-threatening, but it reduces the heart’s efficiency and can lead to blood clots and strokes — which definitely are life threatening. 

“There are some helpful treatments for AF, but they are suboptimal,” said Yue Chen, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the Coulter Department, where he runs the Biomedical Mechatronics Lab. “For too many patients, the treatment is incomplete.”

Treatments like radiofrequency ablation (RFA), for example, have proven effective.  A catheter delivers radiofrequency energy to create scar tissue inside the heart. Scar tissue can’t conduct electricity, so it blocks AF’s abnormal signals, restoring normal rhythm to the heart. But 30-50% of patients have a recurrence of symptoms.

It’s partly because controlling the surgical tools inside the heart’s complex environment isn’t easy. The idea is to create a continuous line of lesions without any gaps, to completely block the faulty electric signals. 

“Sometimes, there are gaps,” said Chen, who aims to close them, and he’s using a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to find a solution. Chen and his collaborators are developing a continuum robotic system that can efficiently perform procedures like RFA while the patient is inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. 

“This CAREER Award means a lot to me and my lab,” said Chen, one of three Coulter BME faculty members, with Ming-fai Fong and Ahmet Coskun, to win the honor this year. 

“I’m honored that my past work as well as my future research visions are being recognized,” he added. “This is a great opportunity for us to explore some new directions — MRI-safe continuum robots. Our goal is to develop robot-based medical interventions for improved treatment outcomes.”

Smart Snake

Continuum robots are long and slender and made of flexible materials that allow them to bend and twist and move with a great deal of dexterity, like a snake. 

“It makes them perfect for minimally invasive surgeries, such as cardiac ablation, intracerebral hemorrhage removal, drug delivery, and many other procedures,” Chen said.

But that’s not what makes the Chen team’s system unique. Unlike traditional robotic systems, this one is designed to work inside an MRI machine, offering doctors more precision than ever. 

MRI provides high-resolution tissue imaging and real-time tracking, making it superior to other types of imaging. In addition to its diagnostic power, MRI is being used increasingly as part of clinical procedures. 

But most robotic surgical systems haven’t been compatible with MRI, said Chen, “mainly due to the strong magnetic field generated by the MRI scanner, which precludes the use of ferromagnetic materials.”

To overcome this problem, Chen’s team created a new type of flexible robot made from polymers, including a plastic, 3D-printed transmission mechanism. The motors that give the robot mobility are made of 3D-printed resin and are powered by pressurized air. Since no electricity is used, there is no interference with the MRI’s magnetic fields.

“We’ve also devised a controller that ensures the motors will move accurately and designed them in a way that allows easy customization with just a few key settings,” Chen said.

Controlling the Outcome

A key challenge in RFA is manipulating the catheter in the heart, which is not unlike driving a car through a twisting, unfamiliar road. Chen’s robotic system is basically a smart GPS that ensures the car stays on the right path at the right speed.

“Our system will use MR imaging and catheter tracking to provide real-time feedback to the physician, which will help them guide the catheter more accurately,” Chen said. 

Additionally, the research team has developed sensors that will monitor the contact force between the catheter and the heart tissue — the right amount of pressure is crucial for delivering heat energy, creating effective and continuous lesions, and reducing the chances of AF recurrence.

“The project has multiple phases,” Chen said. “First, we’ll develop the navigation software to merge MR imaging, catheter tracking, and contact force estimation into a single interface. This will provide physicians with comprehensive feedback during the procedure.”

The team will enhance the robotic system to control both the catheter, developing algorithms to ensure precise placement inside the patient. Then they’ll test the system on a heart model in an MRI scanner before testing it on animal models.

This is a multi-institutional effort. In addition to Chen’s students — Yifan Wang, Anthony L. Gunderman, and Milad Azizkhani — his collaborators include Ehud Schmidt and Aravindan Kolandaivelu from Johns Hopkins University, and Junichi Tokuda from Harvard University. 

“We believe this platform will significantly improve the outcomes of AF treatments by providing physicians with better tools to perform precise, effective ablations,” said Chen. “This technology could improve the quality of life for many patients.”

The Academy announced his election Oct. 21 alongside 99 others. Membership in NAM is considered one of the highest recognitions in health and medicine, reserved for those who’ve made major contributions to healthcare, medical sciences, and public health. The roster is small: only 2,400 or so individuals have been honored.

“It’s an honor to be elected to the National Academy of Medicine and have the work of our team at Georgia Tech recognized in this way,” said Prausnitz, Regents’ Professor and J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

The Academy cited Prausnitz for innovating microneedle and other advanced drug delivery technologies. He also was honored for translating those methods and devices into clinical trials and products and founding companies to bring the advances to patients. NAM praised Prausnitz for “inspiring students to be creative and impactful engineers.”

Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.

A study from Georgia Tech and Emory University researchers is offering improved understanding of why these inhibitors work — and how to make them effectively fight cancer for more patients.

In a normal, healthy body, PD-1 is a receptor protein that serves as an important off-switch, or checkpoint. Found on a cell’s surface, it binds with a ligand — either PD-L1 or PD-L2 — on another cell surface. This interaction signals the immune systems’ T cells not to attack healthy cells. But sometimes, invading cancer cells also carry a ligand that will bind with PD-1, fooling the body’s immune system into calling off the attack when T cells are needed most.

PD-1 blockade therapy is a checkpoint inhibitor that blocks this signaling process, unleashing the full fury of T cells. Still, only 20% to 40% of patients receive clear benefits from this kind of immunotherapy. 

Here’s the thing: Part of what remains unclear is how PD-1 initiates the stand-down order to T cells. Sometimes, ligands bind with PD-1 and don’t suppress T cell activity. So, solving the mystery of what else causes PD-1 to work as a checkpoint can open the door to more effective cancer therapies.

Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering researcher Cheng Zhu and his collaborators may have found a key: physical force.

“Mechanical forces are an important but previously overlooked component of immunology in general, and specifically in PD-1 activity,” said Zhu, professor Regents' Professor and J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair. “They play a critical role in regulating immune responses.”

Zhu and his team presented their research in Nature Communications, demonstrating that PD-1 is not activated just through interacting or binding with ligands. These ligands must also be anchored to a surface, like a cell membrane, which enables T cells to exert small but measurable forces.

“We show that T cells exert force on this interaction between PD-1 and the ligand. Without that reactive force on the cancer cell ligand, PD-1 doesn’t function,” Zhu said.

And that means T cells can be fully armed and ready for the fight.

Measuring the Force

The recent study is a sequel to research Zhu’s team published in 2021 that explained PD-1’s suppressive role and its value in immunotherapy. This time, the researchers went deeper, identifying and measuring the physical force involved in PD-1’s function.

They used special tools called molecular tension probes and biomembrane force probes to evaluate the tiny physical force exerted by T cells and understand the connection between this molecular jostling and PD-1 activity. 

On a solid cell membrane with the appropriate ligand (PD-L1 for example), T cells exert a force of 4.7 to 12 piconewtons. When the force applied was less than 7 piconewtons, the bond between PD-1 and the ligand got stronger and lasted longer. When the force was higher than 8, the bond weakened and broke more easily.

“If the force is too high, the bond breaks, and that weakens PD-1’s ability to stop T cells,” Zhu explained. “It’s a molecular balancing act, and the right amount of physical force makes all the difference.”

While they confirmed that T cells exert small forces on PD-1 attached to a surface-bound ligand, they also discovered that soluble PD-L1 ligands floating freely in the bloodstream lack the mechanical support needed to activate PD-1.

“This explains why soluble ligands don’t trigger T cell inhibition in the same way,” Zhu said.

Ultimately, the research showed that immune cells need physical as well as chemical cues to properly manage PD-1 activity, and even the tiniest show of force could play a role in our body’s ability to protect itself, against cancer and potentially other diseases. 

“Next, we would like to test our in vitro findings in an in vivo setting, using animal models,” Zhu said.

CITATION: Kaitao Li, Paul Cardenas-Lizana, Jintian Lyu, Anna V. Kellner, Menglan Li, Peiwen Cong, Valencia E. Watson, Zhou Yuan, Eunseon Ahn, Larissa Doudy, Zhenhai Li, Khalid Salaita, Rafi Ahmed, Cheng Zhu. “Mechanical force regulates ligand binding and function of PD-1.” Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52565-2

FUNDING: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, grant No. MCA08X014, and the National Institutes of Health, grant Nos. R01CA243486, U01CA250040, U01CA250040S2, RM1GM145394, and F31CA243502. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.

Keskinocak is the William W. George Chair and Professor and serves as ISyE’s associate chair for faculty development. 

She will be ISyE’s ninth permanent chair, leading a school renowned for its top-ranked graduate and undergraduate industrial engineering programs. U.S. News & World Report has consistently ranked ISyE as the nation's best since the mid-1990s.

“Pinar is a proven and respected leader both on campus and within her academic and research community,” said Raheem Beyah, dean of the College of Engineering and Southern Company Chair. “She is well-positioned to continue advancing ISyE’s national prominence and accelerate the School’s trajectory.” 

Keskinocak is the cofounder and director Georgia Tech’s Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems, an interdisciplinary research center focused on education, outreach, and developing innovative solutions via advanced modeling, analytics, and systems engineering.

Keskinocak’s research has had broad societal impact. This includes policies and practices for improved emergency preparedness and response, disease prevention and public health, healthcare access, resource allocation, and supply chain management. 

These miniature models — known as human immune organoids — mimic the real-life environment where immune cells learn to recognize and attack harmful invaders and respond to vaccines. Not only are these organoids powerful new tools for studying and observing immune function in cancer, their use is likely to accelerate vaccine development, better predict disease treatment response for patients, and even speed up clinical trials. 

“Our synthetic hydrogels create a breakthrough environment for human immune organoids, allowing us to model antibody production from scratch, more precisely, and for a longer duration,” said Ankur Singh, Carl Ring Family Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. 

“For the first time, we can recreate and sustain complex immunological processes in a synthetic gel, using blood, and effectively track B cell responses,” he added. “This is a gamechanger for understanding and treating immune vulnerabilities in patients with lymphoma who have undergone cancer treatment — and hopefully other disorders too.”

Led by Singh, the team created lab-grown immune systems that mimic human tonsils and lymph node tissue to study immune responses more accurately. Their research findings, published in the journal Nature Materials, mark a shift toward in vitro models that more closely represent human immunology. The team also included investigators from Emory University, Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, and Vanderbilt University.

Designing a Tiny Immune System Model

The researchers were inspired to address a critical issue in biomedical science: the poor success rate of translating preclinical findings from animal models into effective clinical outcomes, especially in the context of immunity, infection, and vaccine responses. 

“While animal models are valuable for many types of research, they often fail to accurately mirror realistic human immune biology, disease mechanisms, and treatment responses,” said Monica (Zhe) Zhong, a Bioengineering Ph.D. student and the paper’s first author. “To address this, we designed a new model that faithfully replicates the unique complexity of human immune biology across molecular, cellular, tissue, and system levels.”

The team used synthetic hydrogels to recreate a microenvironment where B cells from human blood and tonsils can mature and produce antibodies. When immune cells from healthy donors or lymphoma patients are cultured in these gel-like environments, the organoids support longer cell function, allowing processes like antibody formation and adaptation to occur — similar to the human body. Utilizing the organoids for individual patients helps predict how that individual will respond to infection.

The models also enable researchers to control and test immune responses under various conditions. The team discovered that not all tissue sources are the same, and tonsil cells struggled with longevity issues. They used a specialized setup to study how healthy immune cells react to signals that help them fight infections, which failed to trigger the same response in cells from lymphoma survivors who seemingly have recovered from immunotherapy treatment.

Using organoids embedded in a novel immune organ-on-chip technology, the team observed that immune cells from lymphoma survivors treated with certain immunotherapies do not organize themselves into specific “zones,” the way they normally would in a strong immune response. This lack of organization may help explain some immune challenges cancer survivors face, as evidenced by recent clinical findings. 

A Game-Changing Technology

This research is primarily of interest to infectious disease researchers, cancer researchers, immunologists, and healthcare professionals  dedicated to improving patient outcomes. By studying these miniature immune systems, they can identify why current treatments may not be effective and explore new strategies to enhance immune defenses. 

"Lymphoma patients treated with CD20-targeted therapies often face increased susceptibility to infections that can persist years after completing therapy.Understanding these long-term impacts on antibody responses could be key to improving both safety and quality of life for lymphoma survivors,” said Dr. Jean Koff, associate professor in the department of Hematology and Oncology at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute and a co-author on the paper. 

“This technology provides deeper biological insights and an innovative way to monitor for recovery of immunological defects over time. It could help clinicians better identify patients who would benefit from specific interventions that reduce infection risk,” Koff added.

Another critical and promising aspect of the research is its scalability: An individual researcher can make hundreds of organoids in a single sitting. The model’s capability to target different populations — both healthy and immunosuppressed patients — vastly increases its usability for vaccine and therapeutic testing. 

According to Singh, who directs the  Center for Immunoengineering at Georgia Tech, the team is already pushing the research into new dimensions, including developing cellular therapies and an aged immune system model to address aging-related questions. 

“At the end of the day, this work most immediately affects cancer patients and survivors, who often struggle with weakened immune responses and may not respond well to standard treatments like vaccines,” Singh explained. “This breakthrough could lead to new ways of boosting immune defenses, ultimately helping vulnerable patients stay healthier and recover more fully.” 

The work was initially funded by the Wellcome Leap HOPE program. This support has led to a boost in recent funding, including a recent $7.5M grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Citation: Zhong, Z., Quiñones-Pérez, M., Dai, Z. et al. Human immune organoids to decode B cell response in healthy donors and patients with lymphoma. Nat. Mater. (2024).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-02037-1

Funding: Wellcome Leap HOPE Program, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Cancer Institute, and Georgia Tech Foundation

Electrophoresis is a lab technique used to separate molecules, like proteins, based on their size and charge, helping scientists understand the composition and behavior of these proteins. When an electric current is applied, proteins move through a gel at different speeds depending on their size and charge, so researchers can analyze the types of proteins involved. The technique can be used to study nanoparticle-protein complexes on nanoparticles with smaller sizes and densities in ways that existing methods, like centrifugation or dynamic light scattering, cannot.

Douglas-Green’s lab has turned the challenges of nanoparticle-protein separation into an opportunity for innovation. By avoiding the use of SDS, a common detergent that interferes with PEG (a polymer that makes nanoparticles more compatible with the body), they found a way to better characterize protein coronas on PEG-coated nanocarriers.

The separation technique developed by Douglas-Green’s lab ensured compatibility with the surface chemistry of dendrimers, a priority as the research team continues advancing nanoparticle separation techniques.

“Our engineering goal is to develop tools and techniques to study protein coronas on various types of nanoparticles,” said Douglas-Green. “Using these tools, we can uncover some biological questions to understand person- or disease-specific protein coronas.”

The work is part of a broader effort to build a toolkit of techniques for scientists to better understand bio-nanoparticles interactions–leading to more targeted nanoparticle-based treatments and therapeutics.

“For me, this is more than seed funding to pursue science,” Douglas-Green said. “This is funding the start of a dream realized!”
 

A new interdisciplinary initiative with researchers at Georgia Tech, Emory University, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Weill Cornell Medical aims to address the knowledge gap in lymphomas — particularly diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common form of blood cancer. Survival rates for DLBCL are lower among African American patients and those with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which is prevalent in Latin America. The team uses immunoengineering tools to facilitate this discovery.

Tackling Health Disparities in Lymphoma Treatment

To address these health disparities, the team combines expertise in cancer biology and immunoengineering. At Georgia Tech, Ankur Singh works with oncologists and cancer biologists from partner institutions to create innovative cancer technologies, such as lab-grown, lymph node-mimicking models of DLBDL tumors. Singh is Carl Ring Family Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and directs the Center for Immunoengineering. These models will mimic the tumor environments in lymphoma from African American patients and model specific mutations prevalent in these patients. Researchers will observe how various genetic changes work in concert with the immune system to impact a tumor's response to treatments. 

“We want to understand the full makeup of these tumors; not just the cancer cells but the surrounding supportive cells and proteins,” said Singh, who serves as co-investigator for LLS SCOR.  “This study will help us pinpoint which parts of the tumor are critical for its survival and how we can disrupt those mechanisms, including the immune cells.” 

Challenges for Understanding Tumor Biology in High-Risk Groups

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is the most common form of blood cancer. While many patients respond well to standard therapies, a significant portion — including a disproportionate number of African Americans and individuals with EBV-related conditions, experience poorer outcomes. The reasons behind these disparities are still largely unknown. Current barriers include a lack of diverse representation in research studies and a paucity of engineered technologies dedicated to understanding cancers in patients from underrepresented backgrounds. 

"Most lymphoma studies don't include nearly enough African American or Hispanic patients," said Jean Koff, lead investigator and associate professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute. “This means we are likely missing key insights into the unique biology and treatment needs of these populations.”

A Collaboration Focused on Advancing Lymphoma Research and Care

This new initiative, funded by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) Program, will analyze a comprehensive collection of DLBCL tumor samples that includes many cases from Black and Hispanic patients. By examining genetic differences and tumor structures, the researchers hope to identify the factors most important for improving therapy for these groups. 

“This program is groundbreaking because it addresses both biological and structural barriers in treatment, leveraging the latest bioengineered technologies,” Singh noted. “We’re looking at factors that have been overlooked for too long in cancer research, especially in high-risk communities.” 

To explore the composition and diversity of cells within tumors of African American patients and better understand how they grow and respond to treatments, the team leverages the expertise of Ahmet Coskun. Coskun is a Georgia Tech immunoengineer known for his innovative approaches to understanding the immune response to cancer. An assistant professor in BME, Coskun holds the Bernie Marcus Early Career Professorship. He and his team use advanced imaging techniques and engineering principles to analyze tumor microenvironments in unprecedented detail. By examining how different immune cells interact with cancer cells, they hope to uncover the complexities of tumor biology and identify factors that contribute to treatment resistance.

This five-year, multi-million-dollar LLS SCOR award is the culmination of years of collaboration among leading researchers in the field of lymphoma. Singh, with colleagues Koff, Coskun, Christopher Flowers at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Cornell Medicine’s Ari Melnick, Ethel Cesarman, and Leandro Cerchietti, are fostering a partnership in lymphomas and EBV-related cancers, which is instrumental in advancing research on lymphoma treatment health disparities. Their longstanding partnership reflects a commitment to addressing the complex challenges different populations face when battling deadly cancers.

"With this unique partnership, leveraging new cancer technologies, biology, and clinical expertise, we hope to make breakthroughs in lymphoma research and begin to address health disparities in lymphoma at multiscale levels,” said Melnick, a co-lead for LLS SCOR and Gebroe Family Professor of Hematology and Oncology at New York’s Weill Cornell Medicine. 

The group also played a significant role in organizing, moderating, and presenting at the inaugural conference “Health Disparities in Hematologic Malignancies: From Genes to Outreach,” held in May 2023 in New York. The conference served as a vital platform for discussing the latest research, sharing best practices, and highlighting the importance of outreach initiatives aimed at improving care for underserved populations. 

"The research will provide a unique window into the intricate structure of lymphomas and how these complexities influence treatment,” said Flowers, a physician-scientist and division head of Cancer Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. “By studying lymphoma microenvironments in patient tissues and organoids, we can begin addressing health disparities in lymphoma, identifying why certain populations may respond differently to therapies. No other technology currently provides this level of insight or potential for tailored patient care."

This unique research collaboration is crucial, as understanding tumor heterogeneity can inform the development of more personalized treatment strategies, particularly for underserved communities that often face disparities in cancer care. By integrating engineering with oncology, the team hopes to create more effective therapies tailored to individual patient profiles, ultimately aiming to improve outcomes for all lymphoma patients. This multi-site collaboration aims to fast-track the development of therapies against lymphomas in African Americans and individuals with EBV-related conditions and eventually bring them to clinical trials. 

Project Title: Translating molecular profiles into treatment approaches to target disparities in lymphoma

(Funding and award period: $5 million, October 1, 2024 - September 30, 2029) 

While they’re at it, they’re pioneering new fields of research, and possibly spinning the work into a new commercial venture.

Last year, Coskun and his team introduced a new study in “single cell spatial metabolomics,” which explores the distribution of small molecules — metabolites — within tissues and organs. Now they’re spearheading “spatial interactomics,” a research area concerned with interactions between various biomolecules inside of individual cells. 

To study these interactions, they’ve developed an innovative technique, or tool, to better understand why non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, resists treatment in so many patients. They call it the “intelligent sequential proximity ligation assay,” or iseqPLA.

“It’s a smart test that can look at proteins and how they interact with each other in space,” said Coskun, Bernie Marcus Early Career Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

“Basically, we’re the first to create a new research area on spatial protein-protein interactions, which can tell us more about cell types and their functions,” said Coskun. “With spatial interactomics, we can validate how cells physically touch, sense, and regulate nearby cells through the interaction of pairs of proteins.”

So, the immediate goal of spatial interactomics is to investigate how protein-protein interactions drive drug resistance in NSCLC. And iseqPLA allows researchers to visualize how it’s all happening at the subcellular level. Coskun’s team described its work recently in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. He’s also forming a company to commercialize the technology.

Smarter Tools

Drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs, like Osimertinib) have been successful in treating people with NSCLC. But many patients who initially respond well to the regimen, eventually develop a resistance. Protein interactions, a molecular kind of crosstalk, are a prime suspect in causing this resistance. 

Proteins interact with each other all the time, and this mingling controls how cells grow, divide, or survive. Coskun and his team want to see how these interactions change in response to cancer treatment, and iseqPLA shows them, essentially attaching glowing tags to proteins, lighting up their locations and interactions under a microscope.

“Think of it like a super detailed map showing how different proteins in a cell are connected,” Coskun said. 

The iseqPLA can examine 47 protein interactions in a single sample, which saves a lot of time (and resources) when compared to older methods, which look at two to three interactions at a time.

The researchers also created a computer model to analyze the spatial data they collected from iseqPLA, identifying patterns in protein interactions to help predict whether a cell was responding to a treatment or developing resistance.

“We showed that the test works not only in lab-grown cells but also in tissues from mice and humans,” Coskun said. “It can really help us understand how patients respond to certain treatments.”

Building a Spatial Omics Market

Going forward, Coskun aims to enhance iseqPLA to study interactions among RNA, proteins, and metabolites, as well as the RNA, proteins, metabolites, etc., and other subcellular dynamics. He also hopes to get the technology into the hands of other researchers.

“We believe it will be a groundbreaking tool,” he said.

With that in mind, Coskun is planning to form a startup company called SpatAllize. He’s working with VentureLab, the nonprofit organization at Georgia Tech that provides entrepreneurship programs for students and faculty.

“We are currently performing customer interviews and forming a strategy for a viable plan towards the marketplace,” he said.

He also plans to expand iseqPLA’s utility into other areas of research, focusing on how protein interactions influence the immune system, the heart, and brain health. His team is also developing a spatial interactomics robot that integrates iseqPLA with advanced imaging and automated deep learning.

“This will allow us to map all molecules within cells and tissues for an even better understanding of drug-cell interactions, particularly in cancer treatment planning,” Coskun said.

CITATION: Shuangyi Cai, Thomas Hu, Abhijeet Venkataraman, Felix G. Rivera Moctezuma, Efe Ozturk, Nicholas Zhang, Mingshuang Wang, Tatenda Zvidzai, Sandip Das, Adithya Pillai, Frank Schneider, Suresh S. Ramalingam, YouTake Oh, Shi-Yong Sun, and Ahmet F. Coskun. “Spatially resolved subcellular protein–protein interactomics in drug-perturbed lung-cancer cultures and tissues.” Nature Biomedical Engineering.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-024-01271-x

FUNDING: This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grant Nos. P50CA217691, P30CA138292, and R33CA291197; and the National Science Foundation, grant No. R35GM151028. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.

COMPETING INTERESTS: Coskun, Cai, and Hu declare a patent application related to the spatial-signaling interactomics assay (U.S. Provisional 63/399,427 and U.S. Application No. 18/452,178). 

RNA molecules are best known as protein production messengers. They carry genetic instructions from DNA to ribosomes — the factories inside cells that turn amino acids into the proteins necessary for many cell functions. But Storici’s team found that RNA can also help cells repair a severe form of DNA damage called a double-strand break, or DSB.

A DSB means both strands of the DNA helix have been severed. Cells have the tools to make some repairs, but a DSB is significant damage — and if not properly fixed can lead to mutations, cell death, or cancer. (Interestingly, cancer treatments, like chemotherapy and radiation, can cause DSBs.) 

Storici, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, has dedicated her research to studying the molecules and mechanisms underlying damaged DNA repairs. Ten years ago, she and collaborators discovered that RNA could serve as a template for DSB repair.

“Now we’ve learned that RNA can directly promote DSB repair mechanisms,” said Storici, whose lab teamed with mathematics experts in the lab of Nataša Jonoska from the University of South Florida. They’re all part of the Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology based at Georgia Tech. They explain their discovery in the journal Nature Communications.

“These findings open up a new understanding of RNA's potential role in maintaining genome integrity and driving evolutionary changes,” added Storici.

The researchers used variation-distance graphs to visualize millions of DSB repair events, offering a comprehensive snapshot of sequence variations. The graphs highlighted major differences in repair patterns, depending on the DSB position. 

This mathematical approach also uncovered significant differences in repair efficiency, pointing to RNA's potential in modulating DSB repair outcomes.

“These findings underscore the critical role of mathematical visualization in understanding complex biological mechanisms and could pave the way for targeted interventions in genome stability and therapeutic research,” said Jonoska.

Molecular Grunt Work

When a DSB happens in DNA, it’s like a load-bearing beam in a building breaking. A careful, precise repair is needed to ensure the building’s — or the DNA’s — stability. The pieces must be rejoined accurately to prevent further damage or mutation. Repairing a damaged building requires having a reliable foreman on the job site. A DSB requires something very similar.

“A key mechanism we identified is that RNA can help position and hold the broken DNA ends in place, facilitating the repair process,” explained Storici, whose team conducted the research in both human and yeast cells. 

Specifically, they found that RNA molecules and the broken section of DNA can match up like puzzle pieces. When RNA has this kind of complementarity with the DNA break site, it acts as a scaffold, or a guide, beyond its traditional coding function, showing the cellular machinery where to make repairs. Over millennia, cells have evolved complex mechanisms to fix DSB, each of them functioning like different tools from the same toolbox. 

Storici’s team showed that RNA can influence which tools are used, depending on its complementarity to the broken DNA strands. This means that in addition to being the important protein production messenger, RNA acts as both a foreman and laborer when it comes to DNA repair. 

A deeper understanding of RNA’s role in DNA repair could lead to new strategies for strengthening repair mechanisms in healthy cells, potentially reducing the harmful effects of treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. 

“RNA has a much broader function than we knew,” Storici said. “We still have a lot of research to do into these mechanisms, but this work opens up new ways for exploring how RNA could be harnessed in healthcare, potentially leading to new treatments for cancer and other genetic diseases.”

As Storici and other researchers continue probing RNA’s effects in DNA repair, their revelations could have a lasting impact on human health and evolution. That means better gene therapies, new cancer treatments and anti-aging strategies — and also the ability to influence how organisms adapt and evolve. 

CITATION: Youngkyu Jeon, Yilin Lu, Margherita Maria Ferrari, Tejasvi Channagiri, Penghao Xu, Chance Meers, Yiqi Zhang, Sathya Balachander, Vivian S. Park, Stefania Marsili, Zachary F. Pursell, Nataša Jonoska, Francesca Storici. “RNA-mediated double-strand break repair by end-joining mechanisms.” Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51457-9

FUNDING: NIH grants GM115927, ES028271; NSF grant MCB-1615335; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar grant 55108574; Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology NSF DMS-1764406; Simons Foundation grant 59459; NSF grants CCF-2107267 and DMS-2054321.

This barren land isn't Mars or Pluto, but volcanic deserts in Iceland. The environment is so comparable to Mars' arid landscape that researchers can use it as an analog. From Earth, they can extrapolate how planets in our galaxy and beyond could sustain life and what tools humans might need to make homes on these planets.

Georgia Tech researchers explore everywhere from Oregon's mountaintops to Arizona's deserts to better understand space — and life on this planet.

The tiny detectives can identify key biological markers using logical reasoning inspired by the “AND” function in computers — like, when you need your username and password to log in. And unlike traditional biosensors comprised of genetic materials — cells, bits of DNA — these are made of manufactured molecules.

These new biosensors are more precise and simpler to manufacture, reducing the number of false positives and making them more practical for clinical use. And because the sensors are cell-free, there’s a reduced risk for immunogenic side effects.

“We think the accuracy and simplicity of our biosensors will lead to accessible, personalized, and effective treatments, ultimately saving lives,” said Gabe Kwong, associate professor and Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, who led the study, published this month in Nature Nanotechnology. 

Breaking With Tradition

The researchers set out to address the limitations in current biosensors for cancer, like the ones designed for CAR-T cells to allow them to recognize tumor cells. These advanced biosensors are made of genetic material, and there is growing interest to reduce the potential for off-target toxicity by using Boolean “AND-gate” computer logic. That means they’re designed to release a signal only when two specific conditions are met.

“Traditionally, these biosensors involve genetic engineering using cell-based systems, which is a complex, time-consuming, and expensive process,” said Kwong.

So, his team developed biosensors made of iron oxide nanoparticles and special molecules called cyclic peptides. Synthesizing nanomaterials and peptides is a simpler, less costly process than genetic engineering, according to Kwong, “which means we can likely achieve large-scale, economical production of high-precision biosensors.”

Unlocking the AND-gate

Biosensors detect cancer signals and track treatment progress by turning biological signals into readable outputs for doctors. With AND-gate logic, two distinct inputs are required for an output. 

Accordingly, the researchers engineered cyclic peptides — small amino acid chains — to respond only when they encounter two specific types of enzymes, proteases called granzyme B (secreted by the immune system) and matrix metalloproteinase (from cancer cells). The peptides generate a signal when both proteases are present and active.

Think of a high-security lock that needs two unique keys to open. In this scenario, the peptides are the lock, activating the sensor signal only when cancer is present and being confronted by the immune system. 

“Our peptides allow for greater accuracy in detecting cancer activity,” said the study’s lead author, Anirudh Sivakumar, a postdoctoral researcher in Kwong’s Laboratory for Synthetic Immunity. “It’s very specific, which is important for knowing when immune cells are targeting and killing tumor cells.”

Super Specific

In animal studies, the biosensors successfully distinguished between tumors that responded to a common cancer treatment called immune checkpoint blockade therapy — ICBT, which enhances the immune system — from tumors that resisted treatment. 

During these tests, the sensors also demonstrated their ability to avoid false signals from other, unrelated health issues, such as when the immune system confronted a flu infection in the lungs, away from the tumor.

“This level of specificity can be game changing,” Kwong said. “Imagine being able to identify which patients are responding to the therapy early in their treatment. That would save time and improve patient outcomes.”

The first step toward this simpler, precise form of cancer diagnostics began with an ambitious but humble ($50,000) seed grant from the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience five years ago for a collaboration between Kwong’s lab and the lab of M.G. Finn, professor and chair in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

It evolved into a multi-institutional project supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health that included researchers from the University of California-Riverside, as well as Georgia Tech faculty researchers Finn and Peng Qiu, associate professor in the Coulter Department.

“The progression of the research, from an initial seed grant all the way to animal studies, was very smooth,” Kwong said. “Ultimately, a collaborative, multidisciplinary effort turned our early vision into something that could have a great impact in healthcare.”

Citation: Anirudh Sivakumar, Hathaichanok Phuengkham, Hitha Rajesh, Quoc D. Mac, Leonard C. Rogers, Aaron D. Silva Trenkle, Swapnil Subhash Bawage, Robert Hincapie, Zhonghan Li, Sofia Vainikos, Inho Lee, Min Xue, Peng Qiu, M. G. Finn, Gabriel A. Kwong. “AND-gated protease-activated nanosensors for programmable detection of anti-tumour immunity.” Nature Nanotechnology (January 2025).  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01834-8

Funding: This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants 5U01CA265711, 5R01CA237210, 1DP2HD091793, and 5DP1CA280832.

“I am deeply honored by this recognition,” shared García. “I am thankful to all of those that made this award possible, notably my exceptional past and current trainees and collaborators as well as sponsors and funders. A big shout out to IBB and Georgia Tech – the supportive and collaborative multi-disciplinary ecosystem is truly unique and I am very proud to be part of this fantastic team.”

García was nominated for the award by IBB faculty member Ankur Singh. Singh is Carl Ring Family Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and directs the Center for Immunoengineering. “Andrés is an extraordinary, internationally acknowledged scholar who has also made exceptional contributions to the intellectual advancement of the field of bioengineering as a whole,” said Singh. “His work has revolutionized the design and application of biomaterial platforms, focusing on eliciting targeted tissue repair and developing innovative technologies that exploit cell-adhesive interactions. His work has generated deep mechanistic insights into the complex interplay between cell biology and mechanics, which have led to impactful translational applications that have significantly advanced healthcare solutions.”

García will be honored and present his recent work at an Award Ceremony during TERMIS EU 2025, which will take place from May 20-23 in Freiburg, Germany. 

Full press release here. 

The team is developing innovative technology aimed at improving outcomes for patients undergoing cancer surgery. The project, entitled “MarginCall,” is set to transform how surgical margins are evaluated during cancer surgeries, with an initial focus on breast and ovarian cancer.

This innovative system enables real-time, precise evaluation of surgical margins, potentially reducing the need for repeat surgeries and enhancing patient care. Read the full story here.

Their work could unlock a new wave of at-home testing options and provide new diagnostic capabilities in parts of the world where medical resources are scarce.

The testing platform fills a gap in using cell-free synthetic biology for disease detection. Existing cell-free tools have proven effective at measuring DNA, RNA, and other small molecules, but not proteins. That’s an important advance because proteins in viruses or bacteria tend to change less than the DNA or RNA sequences that encode those proteins. They’re also easier to detect since they can be found on the outside of cell walls or free-floating in biofluids. 

“Diagnosing disease and democratizing medical care by putting it into the public's hands has great potential. You can have a big impact on a lot of people,” said Mark Styczynski, William R. McLain Endowed Professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

“I think about that a lot in terms of the developing world, but also there's a lot of healthcare inequality even in the United States. Studies have shown your ZIP code can determine your life expectancy. You can think about people in sub-Saharan Africa or people in rural Appalachia all benefiting. They’re among those who need more access to low-cost tools.”

Styczynski and a group of researchers led by former Ph.D. student Megan McSweeney presented their test in late February in the journal Science Advances.

Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.

Georgia Tech’s Pediatric Innovation Network (PIN) has collaborated with Shriners Children’s since 2017. The initiative connects researchers — including engineers, data analysts, scientists, and others — with frontline pediatric clinicians to create new technologies for unmet pediatric healthcare needs. This dynamic collaboration began with a conversation between Marc Lalande, vice president of research at Shriners’ Children’s, and Leanne West, chief engineer of pediatric technologies at Georgia Tech, who were introduced by a mutual colleague. 

That conversation has resulted in 22 projects to date, spanning topics such as artificial intelligence, data management, robotic exoskeletons, augmented reality games, wearable sensors, and more. The collaboration between Shriners Children’s and GT PIN works to engage faculty and students within Georgia Tech’s cutting-edge research ecosystem and multiple hospitals within Shriners’ network.

“From the very beginning, this has been an amazing collaboration. Our faculty love working on the real-world problems brought to us by Shriners’ clinicians,” said West.

Learn more about one of these projects on how virtual reality is transforming assessment of patients with upper limb movement challenges.

Georgia Tech stands on the brink of a medical revolution, fueled by a monumental award from the Marcus Foundation. This transformative $40 million endeavor, with a principal investment of $20 million from the Marcus Foundation, promises to make high-quality, life-saving cell therapies more affordable, reliable, and accessible than ever before. 

Every morning in Miami, our fieldwork begins the same way. Fresh Cuban coffee and pastelitos – delicious Latin American pastries – fuel our team for another day of evolutionary detective work. Here we’re tracking evolution in real time, measuring natural selection as it happens in a community of Caribbean lizards.

As an assistant professor of ecology and evolution at Georgia Tech, my journey with these remarkable reptiles has taken me far from my London roots. The warm, humid air of Miami feels natural now, a far cry from the gray, drizzly and lizard-free streets of my British upbringing.

Our research takes place on a South Florida island roughly the size of an American football field – assuming we’re successful in sidestepping the American crocodiles that bask in the surrounding lake. We call it Lizard Island, and it’s a special place.

Here, since 2015, we’ve been conducting evolutionary research on five species of remarkable lizards called anoles. By studying the anoles, our team is working to understand one of biology’s most fundamental questions: How does natural selection drive evolution in real time?

Each May, coinciding with the start of the breeding season, we visit Lizard Island to capture, study and release all adult anoles – a population that fluctuates between 600 to 1,000. For the entire summer, female anoles lay a single egg every seven to 10 days. By October, a whole new generation has emerged.

The Secret Lives of Lizards

Anoles aren’t early risers, so we don’t expect much activity until the Sun strengthens around 9:30 a.m.; this gives us time to prepare our equipment. Our team catches anoles with telescopic fishing poles fitted with little lassos, which we use to gently pluck the lizards off branches and tree trunks. Ask any lizard biologist about their preferred lasso material and you’ll spark the age-old debate: fishing line or dental floss? For what it’s worth, we recently converted – we’re now on Team Fishing Line.

Picture yourself as an anole on Lizard Island. Your life is short – typically just one year – and filled with daily challenges. You need to warm up in the Sun, find enough food to survive, search for a mate, guard your favorite branch from other lizards and avoid being eaten by a predator.

Like human beings, each lizard is unique. Some have longer legs, others stronger jaws, and all behave slightly differently. These differences could determine who survives and who doesn’t; who has the most babies and who doesn’t.

These outcomes drive evolution by natural selection, the process where organisms with traits better suited to their environment tend to survive and reproduce more. These advantageous traits are then passed on to future generations, gradually changing the species over time. However, scientists still have an incomplete understanding of exactly how each of these features predicts life’s winners and losers in the wild.

To understand how species evolve, researchers need to crack open this black box of evolution and investigate natural selection in wild populations. My colleagues and I are doing this by studying the anoles in exquisite detail. Last year was especially exciting: We ran what we called the Lizard Olympics.

Tiny Fishing Poles

As the morning heat builds, we spot our first lizards: Cuban brown anoles near to the ground, and the mottled scales of Hispaniolan bark anoles just above them. Further up, in the leafy tree canopies, are American green anoles, and the largest species, the Cuban knight anole, about the size of a newborn kitten.

In 2018, a new challenger entered the arena – the Puerto Rican crested anole, a species already present in Miami but one that hadn’t yet made it to Lizard Island. Its arrival provided us with an unexpected opportunity to study how species may evolve in real time in response to a new neighbor.

Catching these agile athletes requires patience and precision. With our modified fishing poles, we carefully loop the dental floss over their heads. Each capture site is marked with bright pink tape and a unique ID number; all lizards are then transported to our field laboratory just a short walk away.

The Lizard Olympics

Here, the real Olympic trials begin. Every athlete goes through a comprehensive evaluation. Our portable X-ray machine reveals their skeletal structure, and high-resolution scans capture the intricate details of their feet. This is particularly critical: Like their gecko cousins, anoles possess remarkable sticky toes that allow them to cling to smooth surfaces such as leaves and maybe even survive hurricanes.

We also measure the shape and sharpness of their claws, as both features are crucial for these tree climbers. DNA samples provide a genetic fingerprint for each individual, allowing us to map family relationships across the island and see which is the most reproductively successful.

The performance trials are where things get interesting. Imagine a tiny track meet for lizards. Using high-speed video cameras, we precisely test how fast each lizard runs, and using specialist equipment we measure how hard it bites and how strong it grips rough branches and smooth leaves.

These aren’t arbitrary measurements – each represents a potential evolutionary advantage. Fast lizards might better escape predators. Strong bites might determine winners in territorial disputes. Excellent grip is crucial for tree canopy acrobatics.

Each measurement helps us answer fundamental questions about evolution: Do faster lizards live longer? Do stronger biters produce more offspring? These are the essential metrics of evolution by natural selection.

As afternoon approaches, the team relocates each piece of bright pink tape and returns the corresponding lizard to the exact branch it was caught on. The anoles now sport two tiny 3-millimeter tags with a unique code that lets us identify it when we recapture it in future research trips, along with a small dot of white nail polish so we know not to catch it immediately after we let it go.

At 8:30 p.m., with the Lizard Olympics done for the day, we return to the island donning headlamps. Night brings a different perspective. Some of the most wily lizards are difficult to catch when fully charged by the midday Sun, so our nocturnal jaunts allow us to find them while they sleep. However, it’s often a race against time. Hungry lizard-eating corn snakes are also out hunting, trying to find the anoles before we do. As we wrap up another 16-hour day around 11:30 p.m., the team shares stories of the night.

Evolution on the Island

Now spanning 10 years, 10 generations and five species, our Lizard Island dataset represents one of the longest-running active studies of its kind in evolutionary biology. By tracking which individuals survive and reproduce, and linking their success to specific physical traits and performance abilities, we’re documenting natural selection with unprecedented detail.

So far we have uncovered two fascinating patterns. Initially, it didn’t pay to be different on Lizard Island. Anoles with very average shapes and sizes lived longer compared with those that are slightly different. But when the crested anoles arrived, everything changed: Suddenly, brown anoles with longer legs had a survival advantage.

The Lizard Olympics is helping us understand why. The larger, more aggressive crested anoles are forcing brown anoles to spend more time on the ground, where those with longer legs might run faster to escape predators – allowing them to better survive and pass on their long-leg genes, while shorter-legged anoles might be eaten before they can reproduce.

By watching natural selection unfold in response to environmental changes, rather than inferring it from fossil records, we’re providing cutting-edge evidence for evolutionary processes that Charles Darwin could only theorize about.

These long days of observation are slowly revealing one of biology’s most fundamental processes. Every lizard we catch, every measurement we take adds another piece to our understanding of how species adapt and evolve in an ever-changing world.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The measles outbreak that began in west Texas in late January 2025 continues to grow, with 400 confirmed cases in Texas and more than 50 in New Mexico and Oklahoma as of March 28.

Public health experts believe the numbers are much higher, however, and some worry about a bigger resurgence of the disease in the U.S. In the past two weeks, health officials have identified potential measles exposures in association with planes, trains and automobiles, including at Washington Dulles International Airport and on an Amtrak train from New York City to Washington, D.C. – as well as at health care facilities where the infected people sought medical attention.

Measles infections can be extremely serious. So far in 2025, 14% of the people who got measles had to be hospitalized. Last year, that number was 40%. Measles can damage the lungs and immune system, and also inflict permanent brain damage. Three in 1,000 people who get the disease die. But because measles vaccination programs in the U.S. over the past 60 years have been highly successful, few Americans under 50 have experienced measles directly, making it easy to think of the infection as a mere childhood rash with fever.

As a biologist who studies how viruses infect and kill cells and tissues, I believe it is important for people to understand how dangerous a measles infection can be.

Underappreciated Acute Effects

Measles is one of the most contagious diseases on the planet. One person who has it will infect nine out of 10 people nearby if those people are unvaccinated. A two-dose regimen of the vaccine, however, is 97% effective at preventing measles.

When the measles virus infects a person, it binds to specific proteins on the surface of cells. It then inserts its genome and replicates, destroying the cells in the process. This first happens in the upper respiratory tract and the lungs, where the virus can damage the person’s ability to breathe well. In both places, the virus also infects immune cells that carry it to the lymph nodes, and from there, throughout the body.

What generally lands people with measles in the hospital is the disease’s effects on the lungs. As the virus destroys lung cells, patients can develop viral pneumonia, which is characterized by severe coughing and difficulty breathing. Measles pneumonia afflicts about 1 in 20 children who get measles and is the most common cause of death from measles in young children.

The virus can directly invade the nervous system and also damage it by causing inflammation. Measles can cause acute brain damage in two different ways: a direct infection of the brain that occurs in roughly 1 in 1,000 people, or inflammation of the brain two to 30 days after infection that occurs with the same frequency. Children who survive these events can have permanent brain damage and impairments such as blindness and hearing loss.

Yearslong Consequences of Infection

An especially alarming but still poorly understood effect of measles infection is that it can reduce the immune system’s ability to recognize pathogens it has previously encountered. Researchers had long suspected that children who get the measles vaccine also tend to have better immunity to other diseases, but they were not sure why. A study published in 2019 found that having a measles infection destroyed between 11% and 75% of their antibodies, leaving them vulnerable to many of the infections to which they previously had immunity. This effect, called immune amnesia, lasts until people are reinfected or revaccinated against each disease their immune system forgot.

Occasionally, the virus can lie undetected in the brain of a person who recovered from measles and reactivate typically seven to 10 years later. This condition, called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, is a progressive dementia that is almost always fatal. It occurs in about 1 in 25,000 people who get measles but is about five times more common in babies infected with measles before age 1.

Researchers long thought that such infections were caused by a special strain of measles, but more recent research suggests that the measles virus can acquire mutations that enable it to infect the brain during the course of the original infection.

There is still much to learn about the measles virus. For example, researchers are exploring antibody therapies to treat severe measles. However, even if such treatments work, the best way to prevent the serious effects of measles is to avoid infection by getting vaccinated.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Wilbur Lam, professor at Georgia Tech and Emory University, and a clinician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, led the study. He worked closely with Yongzhi Qiu, an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine. 

The significance of the thromboinflammation-on-a-chip model, is that it mimics clots in a human-like way, allowing them to last for months and resolve naturally. This model helps track blood clots and more effectively test treatments for conditions including sickle cell anemia, strokes, and heart attacks. 

Read the full story from Emory University

Astrobio in Focus

The Minor in Astrobiology will provide a broad, interdisciplinary introduction to the field of astrobiology while encouraging exploration beyond students’ primary fields of study. 

The program will foster the development of well-rounded scientists and engineers who will graduate with confidence in their knowledge and ability to engage in cutting-edge endeavors across the astrobiology discipline. 

"One of the most exciting aspects of the GT astrobiology minor is that it is truly interdisciplinary, enabling students to see how the arts and sciences operate synergistically," said Regents' Professor Lisa Yaszek, who teaches some of the classes. "This is particularly true of science fiction, which is often called 'the premier art form of modernity' because it emerged in tandem with the scientific and industrial revolutions and enables artists to communicate their experiences with science and technology and their hopes and fears about the future across centuries, continents, and cultures."

The Minor in Astrobiology is open to all undergraduates at Georgia Tech. Students who enroll now and meet program requirements may graduate with the minor designation as early as the end of Fall 2025 term.

Mariel Borowitz, who teaches space policy in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, said it's crucial for scientists and engineers to understand the implications of technology.

"Including space policy ensures that students understand how policy decisions and institutions affect the path and priorities for research. This gives them the tools to understand — and potentially engage in — policy development in this area, preparing them to be leaders in the field," said Borowitz.

Enrolled students will learn about the physical and chemical conditions for development of a habitable planet; deeply understand Earth, space, and planetary science as well as the origin and evolution of life on Earth; and critically evaluate scientific issues related to astrobiology in media and popular culture.

Habitable Planet

The foundation of the new minor is the popular School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) course EAS 1601: Habitable Planet. Led by EAS Assistant Professor Frances Rivera-Hernández, the course enrolls up to 300 students a semester and expands options for study and career horizons. 

"Students from a lot of different majors enjoy 1601 where they get a true sense for the broadness of astrobio — stars, galaxies, biology, life beyond Earth, and how we create technology and science to explore those places,” Rivera-Hernández explains.

Like the new minor, EAS 1601 is also open to all majors. The class is offered in person across fall and spring semesters, and also available online during the summer term.

“We’re purposely very flexible with that course and the overall minor,” adds EAS Jean “Chris” Purvis Professor Jennifer Glass. “Students use EAS 1601 as a launchpoint to pick their interests for their wider field of study and to hone career interests — whether that’s space, biology, and autonomous rovers; hunting for chemical signs of life beyond our planet; or becoming an entrepreneur.” 

Over the past five years, students in the class frequently asked for formal degree offerings in astrobiology. Glass and fellow faculty partnered with then-graduate fellow Tyler Roche to explore the idea of a minor, leveraging Sutherland Dean's Chair funding in 2021 to officially launch the Georgia Tech Astrobiology Program in tandem with the Astrobiology Graduate Certificate Program, Astrobiology Fellows, and ExplOrigins young researcher group. 

Astrobio and Beyond

The Astrobiology Program is now supported by the new Georgia Tech Space Research Initiative and co-directed by Rivera-Hernández and EAS Assistant Professor Christopher E. Carr, who holds a primary appointment in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. 

Glass and Rivera-Hernández co-direct the Astrobiology Graduate Certificate Program, and co-direct the Astrobiology Minor with Nicholas Hud, Regents' Professor and Julius Brown Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

The team’s collaborative approach to interdisciplinary leadership mirrors unique opportunities ahead for students who are interested in exciting careers across the field of astrobiology and beyond. 

“The minor is designed across three broad divisions of study,” Glass adds. “Whether you’re curious about ‘Foundations of Life,’ want to dive deep into ‘Earth, Space, and Other Worlds,’ or are exploring career ideas for ‘Astrobiology in a Wider World,’ we’ve built a solid home for you in Astrobio at Tech.”

The Minor in Astrobiology will be listed in the 2025-26 Catalog beginning May 12.

“We tend to think of our skin as being this impermeable barrier that’s just enclosing our body,” said Matthew Flavin, assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Our skin is constantly in flux with the gases that are in our environment and our atmosphere.”

Led by the Georgia Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), researchers have developed a novel wearable device that can monitor the flux of vapors through the skin, offering new insights into skin health and wound healing. This technology, detailed in a recent Nature publication, represents a significant advancement in the field of wearable bioelectronics.

“You could think of this being used where a Band-Aid is being used,” said Flavin, one of the lead authors of the study. The compact, wireless device is the first wearable technology able to continuously and precisely measure water vapor, volatile organic compounds, and carbon dioxide fluxes in the skin in real time. Because increases in these factors are associated with infection and delayed healing, Flavin notes that this kind of wireless monitoring “could give clinicians a new tool to understand the properties of the skin.”

The Measurement Barrier

Our skin is our first line of defense against environmental hazards. Measuring how effectively it protects us from harmful pollutants or infections has been a significant challenge, especially over extended periods.

“The vapors coming from your skin are in very, very low concentration,” explained Flavin. “If we just put a sensor next to your skin, it would be almost impossible to control that measurement.”

The new device features a small chamber that condenses and measures vapors from the skin using specialized sensors hovering above the skin. A low-energy, bi-stable mechanism periodically refreshes the air in the chamber, allowing for continuous measurements communicated to a smartphone or tablet through Bluetooth.

“There are other devices that can measure certain parts of what we're talking about here,” said Flavin, “but they are not feasible for a wearable device, can't do this continuously, and are not able to get all the information that our device can get.”

Scratching the Surface

By tracking the skin's water vapor flux, also known as transepidermal water loss, the device can assess skin barrier function and wound healing. This capability is particularly valuable for tracking the healing process in diabetic patients, who often have sensory issues that complicate wound monitoring. “What you see in diabetes is that even after the wound looks like it's healed, there's still a persistent impairment of that barrier,” said Flavin. This new non-invasive device tracks those properties. 

“There are many areas where people don't have great access to healthcare, and there aren’t doctors monitoring wound healing processes,” Flavin added. “Something that can be used to monitor that remotely could make care more accessible to people with these conditions.”

The device’s wearable nature also makes it ideal for studying the long-term effects of exposure to environmental hazards like wildfires or chemical fumes on skin function and overall health.

Though the applications in health are numerous, the research team is continuing to explore different ways to use the device. “This measurement modality is very new and we're still learning what we can do with it,” saidJaeho Shin, a senior researcher at KIST and a co-leader of the study. “It's a new way of measuring what's inside the body.” 

“This is a great example of the kind of technology that can emerge from research at the interface between engineering science and medical practice,” said John Rogers, a materials science professor at Northwestern and another co-leader of the study. “The capabilities provided by this device will not only improve patient care, but they will also lead to improved understanding of the skin, the skin microbiome, the processes of wound healing, and many others.”

As a new faculty member and a member of Georgia Tech’s Neuro Next Initiative, a burgeoning interdisciplinary research hub for neuroscience, neurotechnology, and society, Flavin attributes the success of this research to its interdisciplinary nature.

“A broad challenge we have in these fields of research is that they integrate a lot of different areas. One of the reasons I came to Georgia Tech is because it's a place where you have access to all those different areas of expertise.”

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08825-2

Funding: Querrey-Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics and the Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering (CARE), Northwestern University; National Research Foundation of Korea; National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

A team of researchers at Georgia Tech has addressed this challenge, creating a new way to predict how these cutting-edge treatments might work in a particular patient. And it could revolutionize treatments for kids with complex immune system challenges.

Read full story here. 

Read the full press release here. 

Citation: Robert G. Mannino, Julie Sullivan, Jennifer K. Frediani, Wilbur A. Lam. “Real-world Implementation of a Noninvasive, AI-augmented, Anemia-screening Smartphone App and Personalization for Hemoglobin Level Self-monitoring,” PNAS. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2424677122

The fellows are Professor Flavio Fenton from the College of Sciences, Joy Arulraj from the College of Computing, Patrick Danahy from the College of Design, and Professor and Associate Chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Ying Zhang, from the College of Engineering. Each fellow will lead a project that advances AI’s role in higher education.

“We deeply appreciate the generosity of the Dr. Bill Kent family in establishing this first philanthropic gift to our new College. Their generous support will allow us to encourage practical applications of AI and foster an appreciation for its ethical use,” said William Gaudelli, inaugural dean of the Georgia Tech College of Lifetime Learning. “This Fellowship will ensure we grow and learn about its use thoughtfully, developing highly innovative and engaging pedagogical experiences for all life’s stages.”

Arulraj’s TokenSmith: Fast, Local, Citable LLM Tutoring introduces a privacy-conscious AI tutoring system for database courses that provides verifiable, course-aligned answers. Fenton’s AI as a Learning Assistant develops AI-enabled instructional modules for physics, neuroscience, and scientific writing to improve conceptual understanding and promote ethical AI use. Danahy’s AI-Enabled Design Ideation and Robotic 3D Printing with Open-Source Platforms integrates AI-driven design and robotic fabrication into architecture education while addressing ethics and sustainability. Zhang’s AI-Enabled Personalized Engineering Education expands personalized learning in large engineering courses through AI tutoring frameworks and integrates AI literacy into the curriculum.

“The Bill Kent Family Fellowship gives our faculty the resources and flexibility to experiment with AI in ways that directly benefit students and inform the future of higher education,” said Stephen Harmon, executive director of C21U.

The fellowship received 21 applications from all seven Georgia Tech colleges, reflecting the educational AI subject-matter experts for their units and the Institute as a whole. Fellows will develop and implement their projects during the 2025–26 academic year and share outcomes through C21U Learning Labs and other campus events.

The Bill Kent Family Foundation partnered with C21U to establish this fellowship and support faculty innovation at Georgia Tech. Through this program, the Foundation invests in projects that explore responsible and impactful uses of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning. By funding this initiative, the Foundation aims to empower educators to develop scalable instructional models, promote ethical AI practices, and prepare students for a future shaped by emerging technologies.