Cassie Mitchell

Cassie Mitchell

Cassie Mitchell

Assistant Professor

Dr. Cassie S. Mitchell is a research engineer, elite athlete, and mentor. She is a current member of the USA Paralympic team and research faculty in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. At age 18 Cassie was afflicted with Devics Neuromyelitis Optica, leaving her as a quadriplegic and with visual impairments. Her faith and philosophy on life has helped her to overcome the resulting challenges. She graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from GT/Emory. She enjoys mentoring high school and college students as well as new spinal cord injury patients at Shepherd Center Brain and Spinal Cord Rehabilitiation Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia.

cassie.mitchell@bme.gatech.edu

Office Location:
UAW 3106

Lab Website

  • Personal Website
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Neuroscience
    Additional Research:
    Cassie Mitchell's research goal centers around expediting clinical translation from bench to bedside using data-enabled prediction. Akin to data-based models used to forecast weather, Cassie's research integrates disparate, multi-scalar experimental and clinical data sets to dynamically forecast disease. Cassie is the principal investigator of the Laboratory for Pathology Dynamics, which uses a combination of computational, analytical, and informatics-based techniques to identify complex disease etiology, predict new therapeutics, and optimize current interventions. Cassie's research has predominantly targeted neuropathology, but her research applications in predictive medicine expand across all clinical specialties.

    IRI Connections:

    Eric Gaucher

    Eric Gaucher

    Eric Gaucher

    Adjunct Associate Professor

    Gaucher was guided in biochemistry by Peter Tipton and Bayesian Theory by George Smith. Gaucher subsequently earned his Ph.D. from the University of Florida under the tutelage of Steve Benner and Michael Miyamoto.[1] Gaucher received the Walter M. Fitch Award from the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution for his graduate work.[2] He then did postdoctoral work with NASA's Astrobiology Institute in conjunction with a National Research Council Fellowship. After the two-year fellowship, Gaucher served as President of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution.

    Gaucher was hired as an Associate Professor by the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008 [1][3][4] The Gaucher group conducts basic and applied research at the interface of molecular evolution and synthetic biology. As of February 2016, his h-index, as calculated by Google Scholar, is 25.[5]

    Gaucher is also the founder and president of the early-stage biotechnology company General Genomics. His company exploits novel platforms to engineer proteins for the biomedical and industrial sectors.

    eric.gaucher@biology.gatech.edu

    404-385-3265

    Office Location:
    EBB 5013

    Website

  • http://www.biology.gatech.edu/people/eric-gaucher
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Drug Design, Development and Delivery
    • Molecular Evolution
    • Neuroscience
    Additional Research:
    Our laboratory has diverse research interests including: evolutionary synthetic biology, molecular biology, comparative genomics, computational biology, bioinformatics, biomedicine, molecular evolution and origins of life, and evolution and engineering of protein thermostability.

    IRI Connections:

    Hee Cheol Cho

    Hee Cheol Cho

    Hee Cheol Cho

    Associate Professor
    Urowsky-Sahr Scholar in Pediatric Bioengineering

    Hee Cheol Cho is the Urowsky-Sahr Scholar in Pediatric Bioengineering and Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Pediatrics. He received his PhD in Physiology from the University of Toronto in 2003.

    HeeCheol.Cho@emory.edu

    404-727-6356

    Office Location:
    Emory HSRB E184

    Website

  • Related Site
  • Cho Lab
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Regenerative Medicine
    Additional Research:
    The Heart Regeneration Lab focuses on using genes and chemicals to pace and regenerate the heart. We are based at Emory University in Pediatrics and BME in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering of Georgia Tech and Emory University.

    IRI Connections:

    Gregory Sawicki

    Gregory Sawicki

    Gregory Sawicki

    Associate Professor; School of Mechanical Engineering & School of Biological Sciences
    Director; PoWeR Lab

    Dr. Gregory S. Sawicki is an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech with appointments in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Biological Sciences. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University ('99) and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of California-Davis ('01). Dr. Sawicki completed his Ph.D. in Human Neuromechanics at the University of Michigan, Ann-Arbor ('07) and was an NIH-funded Post-Doctoral Fellow in Integrative Biology at Brown University ('07-'09). Dr. Sawicki was a faculty member in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State and UNC Chapel Hill from 2009-2017. In summer of 2017, he joined the faculty at Georgia Tech with appointments in Mechanical Engineering 3/4 and Biological Sciences 1/4.

    gregory.sawicki@me.gatech.edu

    404.385.5706

    Office Location:
    GTMI 411

    PoWeR Lab

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Human Augmentation
    Additional Research:

    wearable robotics; exoskeletons; locomotion; biomechanics; muscle mechanics


    IRI Connections:

    Annalise Paaby

    Annalise Paaby

    Annalise Paaby

    Assistant Professor

    After studying ecology as a biology major at Swarthmore College, Annalise Paaby learned fly pushing as a technician for Steve DiNardo and then discovered evolutionary genetics as a tech for Paul Schmidt. She joined Paul’s lab as a graduate student and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. In 2015, Paaby completed her postdoctoral training with Matt Rockman at New York University and began her appointment at Georgia Tech.

    paaby@gatech.edu

    404-385-4588

    Office Location:
    EBB 3011

    Website

  • http://www.biology.gatech.edu/people/annalise-paaby
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Molecular Evolution
    • Systems Biology
    Additional Research:
    Our lab explores major questions in evolution and quantitative genetics. We work with the nematode wormC. elegansand relatedCaenorhabditisspecies. Current projects include exploring how cryptic alleles in embryogenesis depend on genetic background, how development evolves over time, and the role of molecular mechanisms in trait determination and evolution. We are also interested in how the environment influences trait expression and imposes selection in natural populations, and are conducting field collection trips in the nearby Appalachian foothills.

    IRI Connections:

    Patrick McGrath

    Patrick McGrath

    Patrick McGrath

    Associate Professor

    Patrick McGrath's research group is interested in understanding the genetic basis of heritable behavioral variation. In the current age, it has become cheap and easy to catalog the set of genetic differences between two individuals. But which genetic differences are responsible for generating differences in innate behaviors, including liability to neurological diseases such as autism, bipolar disease, and schizophrenia? How do these causative genetic variants modify a nervous system? Besides their role in disease, genetic variation is the substrate for natural selection. To understand how behavior evolves, we must understand how it varies.

    patrick.mcgrath@biology.gatech.edu

    404-385-0071

    Office Location:
    EBB 3013

    Website

  • http://biosciences.gatech.edu/people/patrick-mcgrath
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Molecular Evolution
    • Neuroscience
    • Systems Biology
    Additional Research:
    Mostbiological traits have a strong genetic, or heritable, component. Understanding how genetic variation influences these phenotypes will be important for understanding common, heritable diseases like autism.However, the genetic architecture controlling most biological traits is incredibly complex - hundreds of interacting genes and variants combine in unknown ways to create phenotype.The McGrath lab is interested in using fundamentalmechanistic studies inC. elegansto identify, predict, and understand how genetic variation impacts the function of the nervous system.We are studying laboratory adapted strains and harnessing directed evolution experiments to understand how genetic changes affect development, reproduction, and lifespan. We combine quantitative genetics, CRISPR/Cas9, genomics, and computational approaches to address these questions.We believe this work will lead to insights into evolution, multigenic disease, and systems biology.

    IRI Connections:

    Brian Hammer

    Brian Hammer

    Brian Hammer

    Associate Professor

    Brian Hammer's lab studies molecular mechanisms important for microbial interactions. Bacteria are genetically encoded with regulatory networks to integrate external information that tailors gene expression to particular niches. Bacteria use chemical signals to orchestrate behaviors that facilitate both cooperation and conflict with members of the communities they inhabit. The group uses genetics and genomics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and ecological approaches with a focus on the waterborne pathogen Vibrio cholerae.

    brian.hammer@biology.gatech.edu

    404-385-7701

    Office Location:
    Cherry Emerson 223

    Website

  • http://biosciences.gatech.edu/people/brian-hammer
  • Google Scholar

    Additional Research:
    Microbiology, quorum sensing, regulatory small RNAs, signal transduction, host-pathogen interactions, microbial biofilms. Our lab studies molecular mechanisms important for microbial interactions. Bacteria are genetically encoded with regulatory networks to integrate external information that tailors gene expression to particular niches. Bacteria use chemical signals to orchestrate behaviors that facilitate both cooperation and conflict with members of the communities they inhabit. We use genetics and genomics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and ecological approaches with a focus on the waterborne pathogenVibrio cholerae.

    IRI Connections:

    Jeffery Markowitz

    Jeffery Markowitz

    Jeffery Markowitz

    Assistant Professor

    Our work focuses on how the brain decides which action to perform at each moment in time – that is, action selection. We are interested in the cortical and subcortical circuits that mediate this process, and how they go awry in neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Specifically, we perform measurements of large-populations of neural activity in freely behaving mice using imaging and physiology, and distill their behavior in real-time using 3D cameras and probabilistic approaches to machine learning. Additionally, we are pursuing new methods to control activity in these circuits using precision closed-loop deep brain stimulation.

    jeffrey.markowitz@bme.gatech.edu

    Office Location:
    UAW 3102

    https://markolab.org/


    IRI Connections:

    Walker Byrnes

    Walker Byrnes

    Walker Byrnes

    Research Engineer I

    Education

    Masters of Science, Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022

    Bachelors of Science, Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020

    Research Expertise

    Robot Planning and Control, Embodied Artificial Intelligence, Laboratory Automation, Software Engineering

    Selected Publications

    Bowles-Welch, A., Byrnes, W., Kanwar, B., Wang, B., Joffe, B., Casteleiro Costa, P., Armenta, M., Xu, J., Damen, N., Zhang, C., Mazumdar, A., Robles, F., Yeago, C., Roy, K., Balakirsky, S. (2021). Artificial Intelligence Enabled Biomanufacturing of Cell Therapies. Georgia Tech Research Institute Internal Research and Development (IRAD) Journal

    Byrnes, W., Ahlin, K., Rains, G., & McMurray, G. (2019). Methodology for Stress Identification in Crop Fields Using 4D Height Data. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 52(30), 336–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.12.562

    Byrnes, W., Kanwar, B., Damen, N., Wang, B., Bowles-Welch, A. C., Roy, K., & Balakirsky, S. (2023). Process Development and Manufacturing: A NEEDLE-BASED AUTOSAMPLER FOR BIOREACTOR CELL MEDIA COLLECTION. Cytotherapy, 25(6), S172.

    Wang, B., Kanwar, B., Byrnes, W., Costa, P. C., Filan, C., Bowles-Welch, A. C., ... & Roy, K. (2023). Process Development and Manufacturing: DIGITAL TWIN-ENABLED FEEDBACK-CONTROLLED AUTOMATION WITH INTEGRATED PROCESS ANALYTICS FOR BIOMANUFACTURING OF CELL THERAPIES. Cytotherapy, 25(6), S206-S207.

    Professional Activities

    STEM@GTRI Program Mentor

    IEEE Member

    walker.byrnes@gtri.gatech.edu

    404-407-6513

    https://fptd.gatech.edu/people/walker-byrnes


    IRI Connections:

    Vince Calhoun

    Vince Calhoun

    Vince Calhoun

    Director TReNDS
    Director CABI
    Distinguished University Professor

    Vince Calhoun, Ph.D., is the founding director of the tri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS) where he holds appointments at Georgia State, Georgia Tech and Emory. He is the author of more than 900 full journal articles. His work includes the development of flexible methods to analyze neuroimaging data including blind source separation, deep learning, multimodal fusion and genomics, neuroinformatics tools. Calhoun is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, The American Institute of Biomedical and Medical Engineers, The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) and the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. He currently serves on the IEEE BISP Technical Committee and is also a member of IEEE Data Science Initiative Steering Committee as well as the IEEE Brain Technical Committee.

    vcalhoun@gatech.edu

    Learn more

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Algorithms & Optimizations
    • Big Data
    • Bioengineering
    • Health & Life Sciences
    • Machine Learning
    • Neuroscience

    IRI Connections: