Elastic Fiber Matrices

Anand Ramamurthi is an associate professor of molecular medicine and biomedical engineering at the Cleveland Clinic, with adjunct appointments at the University of Akron (Integrated Biosciences Program), and Case Western Reserve University (BME). In 1999, he earned his PhD in chemical engineering from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic funded by an award from the American Heart Association (AHA). Prior to 2010, Dr. Ramamurthi was a tenured faculty in the Departments of Bioengineering at Clemson University and Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, respectively. For the past 13 years, he has directed a research program that focuses on developing technologies for enabling biomimetic regeneration and repair of extracellular matrix (ECM) structures, specifically the poorly regenerated elastic matrix component, both in vitro, and in situ at sites of chronic matrix disruption (e.g., aortic aneurysms and pelvic organ prolapse). His research has resulted in several book chapters, 50 peer-reviewed publications in top journals in the biomaterials, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine fields, nearly 200 conference abstracts and proceedings, and several awarded and filed patents. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), AHA, and industry. Dr. Ramamurthi is a member of several international professional societies in the cardiovascular sciences, biomaterials, and tissue engineering fields. He is a professional member of the AHA Council on arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology, and is an elected fellow of the AHA Council on basic cardiovascular sciences. He serves on several national committees such as that of the North American Vascular Biology Organization, on the editorial board of several scientific journals in the fields of tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and vascular biomedicine, and actively reviews for the NIH, NSF, AHA, and several international scientific funding agencies, and nearly 40 journals including Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials, and Acta Biomaterialia. He serves on the external advisory committee of the NIH-supported Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in biomaterials for tissue regeneration in South Carolina, and on the Inventions Peer Review Committee of Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the commercialization wing of the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Ramamurthi has been an invited speaker at several national conferences, and in 2007, he was the featured investigator at the Biomedical Entrepreneurship Meeting of the Upstate South Carolina Biomedical Cluster.

Chandrasekhar Kothapalli is a tenured Associated Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the Cleveland State University (CSU). He also holds adjunct appointments in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Lerner Research Institute in Cleveland Clinic, and in the Division of General Medical Sciences at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He earned his PhD in bioengineering from the Clemson University-Medical University of South Carolina joint program in 2008, and performed postdoctoral work in the Biological Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the City University of New York. His research interests are in tissue engineering, matrix biology, microfluidics, simulations and modeling, axonal biology, toxicology, stem cells, and cancer cell biology. Dr. Kothapalli's research has resulted in one approved and two filed patents, 32 peer-reviewed journal publications and conference proceedings, four book chapters, and more than 60 conference abstracts and presentations. He is an active member of numerous professional societies in biomedical and materials science fields and serves as a reviewer for numerous federal and private funding agencies, conferences, and journals. Among his honors, he was a recipient of the Faculty Merit Award from CSU in 2013 and 2014, a member of Sigma XI, and the presidential scholar at the Medical University of South Carolina. His current research is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and institutional funds.