Biotechnology / Nanomedicine / Imaging Program

Co-Directors: Dr. Peter Davies and Dr. R. Nick Bryan

Based in the Institute for Medicine and Engineering (IME), the Biotechnology / Nanomedicine / Imaging research program unit includes research facilities and expertise in cardiovascular studies directed at high throughput chemical library screening, nanotechnology applied to targeted cardiovascular sites, and a HHMI Training Program in Clinical Imaging. The Penn Center for Molecular Discovery (Director: Scott Diamond, PhD) is a NIH-funded Center in the Vagelos building focused on high throughput screening methodologies using multiple platforms (chemical libraries and proteins to zebra fish).

There is a pending NIH program project in nanoparticle targeting of cardiovascular tissue in vivo and a strong infrastructure via the Engineering School of nanochemistry expetise. There is an IME multidisciplinary NIH Cardiovascular Training Grant (Director: Peter F. Davies, PhD) that supports 12 pre- and postdocs for two-year periods and favors quantitative studies. There is a newly funded HHMI Training Program in Clinical Imaging (Director: Peter F. Davies PhD) that includes CV imaging and will support 10 HHMI trainees in 2007-8. There is a Center for Cell Studies of Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension (Director: Peter L. Jones, PhD).

In addition the IME is a repository of expertise in Biophysics, Rheology Biotechnology, and quantitative analyses as they relate to cell and molecular studies of cardiovascular and pulmonary biology and pathology.