Christopher E. Carr is an engineer/scientist with training in aero/astro, electrical engineering, medical physics, and molecular biology. At Georgia Tech he is an Assistant Professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering with a secondary appointment in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. He is a member of the Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL) and runs the Planetary eXploration Lab (PXL). He serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) or Science PI for several life detection instrument and/or astrobiology/space biology projects, and is broadly interested in searching for and expanding the presence of life beyond Earth while enabling a sustainable human future. He previously served as a Research Scientist at MIT in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and a Research Fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Department of Molecular Biology. He serves as a Scott M. Johnson Fellow in the U.S. Japan Leadership Program.

Our goal is to contribute to the fundamental understanding of the Earth's biogeochemical cycling in the present and past climate, to conduct research in Ecosystem and Biogeochemistry, Ocean Carbon Cycle, Global Climate Change, and Ocean Deoxygenation using computational modeling, observations and AI/machine learning approaches. 

Nate Damen is a Research Engineer I with Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems Laboratory of Georgia Tech Research Institute. Damen’s work at ATAS has focused on Mixed Reality applications, robotics, the automation of CAR-T cellular expansions, and bioreactor design. Before joining GTRI, Damen conducted research into the manipulation of textiles with Softwear Automation and the design of deformable parcel manipulation systems with Dorabot. His creative work ATLTVHEAD with the Atlanta Beltline Inc., includes the creation of several wearable electronic systems for remote computing and novel interactions between wearable systems and live user input from those walking the Atlanta Beltline. 

Sabetta Matsumoto received her B.A., M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Sciences and in the Applied Mathematics group and Harvard University. She is a professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She uses differential geometry, knot theory, and geometric topology to understand the geometry of materials and their mechanical properties. She is passionate about using textiles, 3D printing, and virtual reality to teach geometry and topology to the public.

Dr. Aditya Kumar is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and his doctorate from Illinois.

Dr. Kumar’s main area of research is mechanics and physics of soft materials. Specifically, his research group develops mathematical theories and their computational implementation to study fundamental problems in materials like elastomers, adhesives, and biological tissues. Recent work includes the development of a fracture theory for elastomers that has been able to explain experimental observations that had puzzled scientists for decades. This work has also provided a unifying perspective on fracture in all brittle solids, soft or hard, and has led to an ongoing search for a complete theory of nucleation and propagation of fracture for all solids. Currently, his group is also working on the nonlinear mechanics of material evolution (remodeling) in biological tissues and the multi-physics modeling of 3D printing in polymers. 
 

Joe is Director of Research at Zoo Atlanta and Adjunct Professor of Biology at Georgia Tech University, where he teaches regularly. He is Past-President of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. He co-authored the global IUCN-Amphibian Conservation Action Plan and co-founded the Amphibian Ark. Joe has been studying amphibians and reptiles for more than 30 years, concentrating mostly on Mexico, Central America, and the southwestern US. Most of his work has involved evolutionary studies and taxonomy―including the discovery and naming of about 40 new species. Other studies have included ecology, biomechanics, and natural history. Joe’s writing, such as Op-Ed pieces, essays, and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of media and fora. Joe has published more than 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, Biology Letters, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Journal of Herpetology. He also has authored a number of articles and essays. His work has been featured in media outlets such as National Public Radio, National Geographic, Nature, New York Times, CNN, and Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. Additionally, Joe is a guitarist in the Atlanta-based science punk-rock band Leucine Zipper and the Zinc Fingers.

Overview:
Our brain not only processes sensory signals but also makes predictions about the world. Generating and updating predictions are essential for our survival in a rapidly changing environment. Multiple brain regions including the cerebellum and the cortex are thought to be involved in the processing of prediction signals (aka predictive processing). However, it is not clear what circuit mechanisms and computations underlie predictive processing in each region, and how the cortical and cerebellar prediction signals interact to support cognitive and sensorimotor behavior. Our lab is interested in figuring out these questions by using advanced experimental and computational techniques in systems neuroscience.

The Panitch lab research has focused on the extracellular matrix (ECM) and how matrix signals affect tissue regeneration, including nerve regeneration, wound healing and angiogenesis, cartilage and vascular. More recently, the lab has focused on the proteoglycan component of the ECM. Proteoglycans are critical components of tissue function. They influence matrix organization, the viscoelastic properties of the matrix, access of enzymes to the matrix and serve as a protective barrier as in the case of the glycocalyx. Proteoglycans are difficult to synthesize because of the complex post translational modifications and the complexity of carbohydrate chemistry. The Panitch laboratory has demonstrated that proteoglycan function can largely be recapitulated by conjugating short, bioactive peptide sequences to GAGs. The peptide sequences direct the GAG to its target and ensure that it is held in place, similarly to how native proteoglycans function. The lab has used proteoglycan mimetic strategies to develop therapeutics to treat osteoarthritis, improve wound healing, and treat diseased blood vessels.

 As a physician scientist, Dr. Bauser-Heaton's clinical and research interests are focused on pulmonary vascular disease. Our 3D bioprinted disease modeling allows study of patient specific geometries and cell types for potential therapeutic targets. Through collaborations with several IBB members, we have created a pipeline for disease modeling that includes computational fluid dynamics, particle image velocity measurement of shear stress, additive manufacturing and iPSC utilization. 

Saurabh Sinha received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2002, and after post-doctoral work at the Rockefeller University with Eric Siggia, he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 2005, where he held the positions of Founder Professor in Computer Science and Director of Computational Genomics in the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology until 2022. He joined Georgia Institute of Technology in 2022, as Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Engineering, with joint appointments in Biomedical Engineering and Industrial & Systems Engineering. Sinha’s research is in the area of bioinformatics, with a focus on regulatory genomics and systems biology. Sinha is an NSF CAREER award recipient and has been funded by NIH, NSF and USDA. He co-directed an NIH BD2K Center of Excellence and was a thrust lead in the NSF AI Institute at UIUC. He led the educational program of the Mayo Clinic-University of Illinois Alliance, and co-led data science education for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Sinha has served as Program co-Chair of the annual RECOMB Regulatory and Systems Genomics conference and served on the Board of Directors for the International Society for Computational Biology (2018-2021). He was a recipient of the University Scholar award of the University of Illinois, and selected as a Fellow of the AIMBE in 2018.