Dr. Gross’s research interests include: restorative approaches (including cell and gene therapy) for Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders; physiology of movement disorders (Parkinson's disease, tremor, dystonia); novel surgical techniques for epilepsy (e.g. deep brain stimulation, cell and gene therapy). In particular, he has been elucidating the role of axon guidance molecules in the development and reconstruction of the nigrostriatal pathway, which degenerates in P.D. This approach, which encompasses molecular and cellular engineering in combination with neurotransplantation, may be generally useful in reconstructive approaches for many types of nervous system degeneration and injury. 

In July of 2007, Dr. Gross, along with Steve M. Potter, Ph.D. of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, was the recipient of a prestigious grant from The Epilepsy Research Foundation (ERF) for translational research funding awards supporting innovative epilepsy products. The grant supports the development of a novel electrical stimulation approach that directly controls the activity of the brain to attain a more stable state from which seizures will not arise.

Dr. Waller specializes in bone marrow transplants for acute leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, myeloproliferative neoplasms, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, sickle cell disease and in the management of graft-versus-host disease.

David G. Lynn has contributed in the general areas of molecular recognition, synthetic biology and chemical evolution, and has developed chemical and physical methods for the analysis of supramolecular self-assemblies, of signal transduction in cellular development and pathogenesis, of molecular skeletons for storing and reading information, and of the evolution of biological order.

Lynn has earned a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professorship, the Emory Scholar-Teacher Award, a fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the ACS Charles H. Herty Medal.

During his tenure as Chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2006-2015, Lynn assisted in the renovation of the Atwood chemistry building. In 2018 and 2019, Lynn also served as a board member for the Atlanta Science Festival.

Khalid Salaita is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry, and Director for Graduate Studies in the Chemistry Department at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Khalid grew up in Jordan and moved to the US in 1997 to pursue his undergraduate studies at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia (USA). He worked under the mentorship of Prof. Nancy Xu studying the spectroscopic properties of plasmonic nanoparticles. He then obtained his Ph.D. with Prof. Chad Mirkin at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) in 2006. 

During that time, he studied the electrochemical properties of organic adsorbates patterned onto gold films and developed massively parallel scanning probe lithography approaches. From 2006-2009, Khalid was a postdoctoral scholar with Prof. Jay T. Groves at the University of California at Berkeley (USA) where he investigated the role of receptor clustering in modulating cell signaling. In 2009, Khalid started his own lab at Emory University, where he is currently investigating the use of nucleic acids as molecular force sensors, smart drugs, and synthetic motors. 

In recognition of his independent work, Khalid has received a number of awards, most notably: the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the Camille-Dreyfus Teacher Scholar award, the National Science Foundation Early CAREER award, the Kavli Fellowship, and Merck Future Insight Prize. Khalid is currently the director of the Center on Probes for Molecular Mechanotechnology, and an Associate Editor of SmartMat. Khalid’s program has been supported by NSF, NIH, and DARPA.

Dr. Keeling earned his medical degree at the University of Louisville in 2001, did his general surgery residency at the University of South Florida School of Medicine from 2001-2008, and completed his cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Emory in 2011. Dr. Keeling directs the cardiothoracic surgery program at Grady Memorial Hospital and provides clinical service at Emory University Hospital Midtown. His clinical interests include reoperative cardiac surgery, valve repair and thoracic aortic pathology, and his research focuses on clinical trials as well as data-driven investigations of adult cardiac surgical sub-populations.

Mara Schenker, MD is a clinician-scientist at Emory University. Her clinical practice is in orthopaedic trauma at Grady Memorial Hospital, and her interests include complex periarticular trauma, infection, nonunion, and malunion. Dr. Schenker performs approximately 600 complex trauma surgeries per year. Her research interests include host factors associated with delayed fracture healing (nutrition, infection, frailty, and others). Additional research interests include optimization of resident education.

Gary J. Bassell, Ph.D. joined the faculty at Emory University School of Medicine in 2005, where he is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology. His personal lab’s main interest is in understanding the mechanisms and functions of mRNA transport and local protein synthesis in neurons of the central and peripheral nervous system. The lab utilizes in vitro and in vivo mouse models and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to study the basic mechanism, regulation and function of mRNA localization and local translation in axonal growth cones and dendritic spines. Prior to moving Emory, Dr. Bassell was a member of the faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology (1995-1998) and subsequently in the Department of Neuroscience and Rose Kennedy Center for Mental Retardation (1998-2005). 

Hicham Drissi is a professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at Emory University School of Medicine. He holds a Ph.D. from Paris Descartes University.

Our interests lie in the adhesion and signaling molecules of the immune system as well as those involved in platelet adhesion and aggregation. We are primarily focused on early cell surface interaction kinetics and their primary signaling responses, as these are critical in determining how a cell will ultimately respond upon contact with another cell. The majority of our work ranges from single molecule interaction studies using atomic force microscopy, molecular dynamics simulations, or biomembrane force probe assays to single cell studies using micropipette adhesions assays, fluorescence imaging techniques, or real-time confocal microscopy. These assays focus on the mechanics and kinetics of receptor-ligand binding and their downstream signaling effects within cells. T cell receptors, selectins, integrins, and their respective ligands are some of the cell surface molecules currently under investigation in our lab. Understanding the initial interaction between molecules such as these and their subsequent early signaling processes is crucial to elucidating the response mechanisms of these physiological systems. Ultimately, our research strives to help better understand the mechanisms within these systems for possible medical applications in autoimmunity, allergy, transplant rejection, and thrombotic disorders. 

Aaron Young is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and is interested in designing and improving powered orthotic and prosthetic control systems for persons with stroke, neurological injury or amputation. His previous experience includes a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan in the Human Neuromechanics Lab working with exoskeletons and powered orthoses to augment human performance. He has also worked on the control of upper and lower limb prostheses at the Center for Bionic Medicine (CBM) at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. His master's work at CBM focused on the use of pattern recognition systems using myoelectric (EMG) signals to control upper limb prostheses. His dissertation work at CBM focused on sensory fusion of mechanical and EMG signals to enable an intent recognition system for powered lower limb prostheses for use by persons with a transfemoral amputation.