Translating Cancer Nanomedicines from Lab to Clinic: The NCI Cancer Nanotechnology Initiative

Date: 02/06/2013
Time: 4:40 pm
Location: 335 Shillman Hall
Speaker: Dr. Piotr Grodzinski , Director, NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer

NANO-BIO INNOVATION SEMINAR

Dr. Piotr Grodzinski is a Director of NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He coordinates program and research activities of the Alliance which dedicated $144M over next 5 years to form interdisciplinary centers as well as fund individual research and training programs targeting nanotechnology solutions for improved prevention, detection, and therapy of cancer.

Dr. Grodzinski is materials scientist by training, but like many others found bio- and nanotechnology fascinating. In mid-nineties, he left the world of semiconductor research and built a large microfluidics program at Motorola Corporate R&D in Arizona. The group made important contributions to the development of integrated microfluidics for genetic sample preparation with its work being featured in Highlights of Chemical Engineering News and Nature reviews. After his tenure at Motorola, Dr. Grodzinski was with Bioscience Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory where he served as a Group Leader and an interim Chief Scientist for DOE Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT). In his current capacity at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), he is also co-chairing Trans-NIH Nanotechnology Task Force, which is coordinating the nanotechnology efforts across 27 institutes of the agency with the budget over $200M/year.

Dr. Grodzinski received Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 1992. He is an inventor on 15 patents and published 47 peer-reviewed papers, 7 book chapters, and delivered over 100 invited conference presentations. Dr. Grodzinski has been an invited speaker and served on the committees of numerous bio- and nano-MEMS conferences in the past years