The Campaign for UB
SEAS forms center to advance cell, gene and tissue engineering research
Stem cell expert and SUNY Distinguished Professor Stelios Andreadis named inaugural director
SUNY Distinguished Professor Stelios Andreadis is the director of the Center for Cell, Gene and Tissue Engineering.
by Jane Stoyle Welch
Published October 20, 2020
A team of University at Buffalo researchers in chemical, biological and biomedical engineering have joined forces to develop innovative technologies for regenerative medicine and educate future leaders in the field.
Funded by the UB Provost, the new Center for Cell, Gene and Tissue Engineering (CGTE) will be led by SUNY Distinguished Professor Stelios Andreadis.
“I am very happy to announce the launch of the Cell, Gene and Tissue Engineering Center with support from Provost Weber. The Center will build on existing strengths in SEAS to enhance our research infrastructure, promote collaborations, increase our competitiveness in large center type grants and make UB one of the leading institutions in this area,” said Kemper Lewis, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Andreadis is an expert in stem cells, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and is the director of UB’s Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine (SCiRM) Training Program, a joint initiative between the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Graduate Division and funded from the New York State Stem Cell Science Board (NYSTEM).
“I am excited that we are able to launch the CGTE Center during such difficult times, and am looking forward to working with the core faculty on collaborations that will enrich our collective research activities as well as that of the UB scientific community at large,” says Andreadis.
The Center’s research will initially focus on several areas of core faculty expertise, including stem cell engineering, tissue engineering and regeneration; biomaterials; cell and tissue biomechanics; gene, protein and drug delivery (including novel vectors, vaccines and CRISPR technologies), novel imaging technologies; high-throughput data acquisition technologies; BioMEMS; and omics (genomics, proteomics, glycomics) and associated systems, computational and big data engineering.
The core faculty are Sriram Neelamegham, Natesh Parashurama, Sheldon Park and Blaine Pfeifer, from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and B. Rita Alevriadou, Jonathan Lovell, Yun Wu and Ruogang Zhao, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint program with the Jacobs School. The Center will eventually expand to include additional faculty from SEAS as well as other UB units such the Jacobs School and the College of Arts and Sciences.