"Life after Duke: Career and research of a Duke biomedical engineer at an industrial research center"

This seminar will present the story so far for one BME Ph.D.'s career path and research experiences in an industrial research setting. Dan Meyer earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke in 2002. Advised by Prof. Chilkoti, his graduate research developed methods for the genetically directed synthesis of protein-based polymers, and established new applications of these macromolecules in drug delivery and biotechnology. Following graduate school, Dan directly joined GE Global Research, and has worked since on a variety of projects developing in vivo and in vitro diagnostics, moving through the roles of Lead, Senior and Principal Scientist. Dan's initial project focus at GE was a polymer-based contrast agent for MR, and over time this transitioned into the leadership of a multidisciplinary team developing a new iron oxide nanoparticle for imaging of neuroinflammation and for the characterization of tumor vasculature. The team completed preclinical safety and efficacy studies, and achieved formal Lead Selection status towards two distinct target product profiles. Following this, he then led teams in extending the GE multiplexed tissue immunofluorescence methodologies, and associated down-stream analytics, first to immunocytology for the deep molecular characterization of individual circulating tumor cells and then most recently to neuroscience towards the study of molecular and cellular mechanisms spanning neurological diseases.