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Athanassios Sambanis
Professor
Contact Information
Building: Petit IBB
Office: 1306
Phone: 404.894.2869
Fax: 404.894.2291
email
Mailing Address
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Chemical &
Biomolecular Engineering
311 Ferst Drive, N.W.
Atlanta, GA 30332-0100
Links
Athanassios Sambanis
Education
B.S. 1979, National Technical University,
Athens Greece
Ph.D. 1985, University of Minnesota
Research Interests
Dr. Sambanis' area of expertise is biochemical and biomedical engineering. His research emphasizes the application of chemical engineering principles towards developing enabling technologies for cell and tissue-based therapies for metabolic diseases, primarily diabetes. Current projects involve (i) engineering non-pancreatic cells for glucose-responsive secretion of recombinant insulin with kinetics that closely approximate those of normal pancreatic islets; (ii) developing methods for the low temperature preservation (cryopreservation) of encapsulated cells and other tissue engineered systems; (iii) developing approaches for the non-invasive monitoring of tissue engineered substitutes in vitro and post-implantation in vivo; and (iv) engineering bioreactor systems for the functional maturation of islets and for the characterization of the metabolic and secretory competency of free and encapsulated cells. Mathematical modeling is used to engineer optimally functional capsules and to simulate biological processes at the subcellular, cellular and tissue levels. Dr. Sambanis is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Tissue Engineering Society International. His research is supported by NIH and NSF.