massachusetts institute of technology

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Angelika Amon

Professor of biology
areas of expertise: cell cycle control, decoding cell division, microbiology, biochemistry and biophysics, cancer biology, chromosome mis-segregation, mitosis
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Angelika AmonAngelika Amon is a professor of biology and studies the molecular mechanisms that prevent chromosome mis-segregation and hence aneuploidy in mitosis and meiosis.

Her laboratory also investigates the consequences for cell growth and division when the mechanisms that ensure accurate chromosome segregation fail.

Daniel G. Anderson

Research associate, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
areas of expertise: cancer, drug delivery, genetic therapy, sirna delivery, biomaterials
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Daniel G. AndersonDaniel G. Anderson is appointed at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.

At MIT, he pioneered the use of robotic methods for the development of smart biomaterials for drug delivery and tissue engineering. He has developed methods allowing rapid synthesis, formulation, analysis and biological testing of large libraries of biomaterials for use in medical devices, cell therapy and drug delivery. In particular, the advanced drug delivery systems he has developed provide new methods for nanoparticulate and microparticulate drug delivery, nonviral gene therapy, siRNA delivery and vaccines.

His work has resulted in the publication of more than 110 papers, patents and patent applications. These patents have led to a number of licenses to pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnology companies.

He received his PhD in molecular genetics from the University of California at Davis.

Sangeeta Bhatia

Professor of health sciences and technology and electrical engineering and computer science
areas of expertise: cancer nanotechnology, biomems, regenerative medicine/tissue engineering, liver disease
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Sangeeta BhatiaSangeeta Bhatia, MD, PhD is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and professor of health sciences and technology and electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

She is a member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, an associate member of the Broad Institute, affiliated faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and a biomedical engineer at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is director of the Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies, which focuses on the applications of micro- and nanotechnology for tissue repair and regeneration.

She co-authored the first undergraduate textbook on tissue engineering and is a frequent advisor to governmental organizations on nanobiotechnology, biomedical microsystems and tissue engineering.

Michael J. Cima

Sumitomo Electric Industries Professor of Engineering
areas of expertise: health technologies, drug formulation, micron-scale assembly, drug delivery, 3-d printing, colloid science, materials science
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Michael J. CimaMichael J. Cima is a professor of materials science and engineering. He earned a BS in chemistry in 1982 (Phi Beta Kappa) and a PhD in chemical engineering in 1986, both from the University of California at Berkeley.

Cima joined the MIT faculty in 1986 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to full pzrofessor in 1995. He was elected a fellow of the American Ceramics Society in 1997. He now holds the Sumitomo Electric Industries professorship at MIT. He is author or co-author of more than 190 peer-reviewed scientific publications, 45 patents, and is a recognized expert in the field of materials processing.

Cima is actively involved in materials and engineered systems for improvement human health such treatments for cancer, metabolic diseases, trauma and urological disorders. Cima's research concerns advanced forming technology for complex macro and micro devices, colloid science, MEMS and other micro components for medical devices that are used for drug delivery and diagnostics, as well as high-throughput development methods for formulations of materials and pharmaceutical formulations. He is a co-inventor of MIT’s three-dimensional printing process. His research has led to the development of chemically derived epitaxial oxide films for HTSC coated conductors. He and collaborators are developing implantable MEMS devices for unprecedented control in the delivery of pharmaceuticals and implantable diagnostic systems.

Finally, through his consulting work, he has been a major contributor to the development of high-throughput systems for discovery of novel crystal forms and formulations of pharmaceuticals. Cima also has extensive entrepreneurial experience. He is co-founder and a director of MicroChips Inc., a developer of microelectronic-based drug-delivery and diagnostic systems. He took two sabbaticals to act as senior consultant and management team member at Transform Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company that he helped start and which was ultimately acquired by Johnson & Johnson. He is a co-founder and director at T2 Biosystems, a medical-diagnostics company. Most recently, Cima co-founded Entra Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company, and Taris Biomedical, a urology products company.

Rick Lane Danheiser

Arthur C. Cope Professor of Chemistry
areas of expertise: invention of new methods for chemical synthesis, synthesis of natural products, antitumor agents, and neurotoxic alkaloids, green chemistry, and chemical lab safety, chemistry
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Danheiser joined the MIT faculty in 1978 and at present is the Arthur C. Cope Professor of Chemistry.

Current investigations in his laboratory involve the development of new strategies for the synthesis of complex molecules and their application in the total synthesis of natural products and biologically active compounds. Danheiser is the editor-in-chief of Organic Syntheses and serves on the editorial boards of several other journals.

Danheiser has a special interest in laboratory safety and serves as the chair of the Department of Chemistry's Environmental Health and Safety Committee and as chair of the MIT Committee on Toxic Chemicals. Danheiser has also served on the National Research Council Committee on Prudent Practices for the Handling, Storage and Disposal of Chemicals in Laboratories and chaired the Subcommittee on Assessing Chemical Hazards.

Richard Hynes

Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
areas of expertise: cell adhesion and migration, metastasis and cancer progression (not clinical), tumor microenvironment, angiogenesis and vascular development, stem cells (particularly public policy issues)
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Richard HynesRichard Hynes is the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at MIT, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a senior associate member of the Broad Institute. 

He is a governor of the Wellcome Trust, a major biomedical research charity that funds scientific research and training in the U.K. and in the developing world, including support for the control of new and established infectious diseases. He co-chaired the National Academy Committees that established and implemented guidelines for the conduct of human embryonic stem cell research.

The Hynes laboratory studies the molecular and cellular basis of cell adhesion and its involvement in development, physiology and pathology (inflammation, thrombosis and cancer). Its particular interests focus on cell-matrix adhesion and on adhesion of cells in the vasculature. Both of these involve integrin adhesion receptors and their ligands. The current emphasis of the laboratory is on mechanisms involved in vascular development (cardiogenesis, vasculogenesis, angiogenesis), metastasis and the role of the tumor microenvironment in cancer progression.

The laboratory makes extensive use of mouse models of human diseases and applies cellular and molecular approaches to deciphering the mechanisms underlying the in vivo phenomena revealed in those mouse models.

Stephen Lippard

Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry
areas of expertise: inorganic chemistry, biological chemistry, biochemistry, synthesis, reactions, physical, and structural properties of transition metal compounds, cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(ii) or cis-ddp, bioinorganic chemistry and neurochemistry, polyiron centers in biology, anticancer platinum drugs, metalloproteins, methane monooxygenase, neurochemistry, chemistry
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Stephen LippardStephen J. Lippard is the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at MIT, where he was head of the Department of Chemistry from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Pittsburgh and educated at Haverford College (BA in chemistry) and MIT (PhD in inorganic chemistry). After a postdoctoral year at MIT during 1965 to 1966, he joined the faculty of Columbia University, where he served until moving to MIT in 1983.

Lippard’s research activities span the fields of inorganic chemistry, biological chemistry, and neurochemistry. Included are studies to understand and improve platinum anticancer drugs, the synthesis of dimetallic complexes as models for non-heme iron metalloenzymes, structural and mechanistic investigations of methane monooxygenase and related bacterial non-heme diiron multicomponent monooxygenases, and inorganic neurotransmitters, especially nitric oxide and zinc.

He has published more than 750 papers on these and other topics and has co-authored a popular textbook with Jeremy Berg titled Principles of Bioinorganic Chemistry. He has supervised the PhD thesis research of 100-plus graduate students and more than that number of postdoctoral associates. His honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds honorary DSc degrees from Haverford College, Texas A&M University and the University of South Carolina, has been elected to honorary memberships in the Italian Chemical Society, the Royal Irish Academy and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and has won numerous awards and medals from the American Chemical Society. He was awarded the 2004 National Medal of Science by President George W. Bush.

Scott Manalis

Associate professor of biological and mechanical engineering
areas of expertise: microfluidic devices and silicon microfabrication, measuring physical properties of single cells, biomolecular detection
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Scott ManalisScott Manalis’ laboratory develops quantitative and real-time techniques for biomolecular detection and single cell analysis. The lab uses conventional silicon processing techniques to fabricate fluidic devices and develop precision measurement methods by exploiting the unique physical properties associated with micro- and nanoscale dimensions.

As an example, it has developed a method for monitoring the mass of a single mammalian cell with a precision near ~0.01 percent. It is currently using this method to investigate how cell growth relates to progression through the division cycle, and if the response of cancer cells to pathway-directed therapeutics can be classified according to subtle changes in growth.

Phillip A. Sharp

Institute Professor
areas of expertise: molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, cancer, gene regulation, regulation of transcription/rna splicing, rna interference, regulation of messenger rna synthesis in mammalian cells identification of factors responsible for controlling initiation or elongation of transcription, studies of the mechanisms for rna splicing and polyadenylation development of methods for genetic analysis of mammalian cells, short interfering rna, microrna biology and applications, gene regulation by micrornas in cancer, therapeutic applications of regulatory rnas, splicing of introns from nuclear precursor rna
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Phillip A. SharpPhillip A. Sharp is an Institute Professor at MIT. Much of his scientific work has been conducted at MIT's Center for Cancer Research (now the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research), which he joined in 1974 and directed from 1985-1991. He subsequently led the Department of Biology from 1991-1999 before assuming the directorship of the McGovern Institute from 2000-2004.

Sharp has authored more than 350 scientific papers. He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees, and has served on many advisory boards for the government, academic institutions, scientific societies and companies. His awards include the Gairdner Foundation International Award, General Motors Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize for Cancer Research, the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the National Medal of Science and the inaugural Double Helix Medal from CSHL. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

A native of Kentucky, Sharp earned a BA degree from Union College, Kentucky in 1966, and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1969. He did his postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology, where he studied the molecular biology of plasmids from bacteria in Professor Norman Davidson's laboratory. Prior to joining MIT, he was senior scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In 1978, he co-founded Biogen (now Biogen Idec), and in 2002 he co-founded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, an early-stage therapeutics company.
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