Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response

2009 Annual CCNE-TR Symposium

Demir Akin, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Deputy Director, Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence
Stanford University School of Medicine

Dr. Demir Akin is and internationally recognized expert in Nanobiotechnology and a pioneer nanomedical scientist in the areas of bioinspired diagnostic and therapeutic devices and their applications in cancer as well as infectious diseases. His formal education includes a doctorate in veterinary medicine, a master's in clinical and diagnostic microbiology and a doctorate in comparative pathobiology and molecular virology. Most recently he was at the Biomedical Engineering Deapartment at Purdue University as an assistant research professor (Nanomedicine) and there he also managed the BioMEMS and Nanobio laboratories of the Birck Nanotechnoogy Center. He currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence focused on Therapy Response (CCNE-TR) in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. Dr. Akin worked in the areas of molecular virology and viral bioinformatics of coronaviruses and other RNA viruses from 1998 to 2000 for his postdoctoral work at Purdue University. He became a Research Scientist in the School of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue University in 2001 and worked on artificial intelligence-based In-Silico Biology and Genomics software development with a cancer focus. He joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Purdue University in 2002 as a Senior Research Scientist and the Manager of the BioMEMS Laboratories. He was instrumental in the ground-up design, operation and leadership of the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue and served as the Manager of the BioMEMS and Nanobio Laboratories from 2003 to 2008. Among other responsibilities at Birck, he instructed formal Nanobio and BSL-2 training to the shared facility users, provided biomedical expertise to the engineering research groups and he was responsible for the compliance assurances for federal, state and institutional regulations and biocontainment/biosafety practices. Dr. Akin carried out research in the areas of diagnostic and therapeutic micro/nano-medical devices, microchip and microfluidics-based devices for biothreat agent detection, nanomedical robotics via biomimetic devices, biosensing and single molecule imaging studies of biological entities at nanomaterials interafaces and biological engineering for synthetic biology during his Research Assistant Professor appointment at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue. Among his other distinctions, he is a founding member of the American Academy of Nanomedicine, a member of NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer and serves as panelist on numerous grant/scientific review boards nationally and internationally. His research interests include integration of biology and engineering for realization of biomimetic and bioinspired medical devices, Nanomedicine (BioMEMS-based sensors and devices with medical diagnostic and therapeutic potential, early cancer detection and antineoplastic therapy response monitoring, smart nanodrugs and their targeted delivery and controlled release), synthetic biology, single molecule sensing, imaging and their mechanoelastic/biophysical characterization using atomic force microscopy, advanced optical microscopy and electro-mechanical sensing, and infectious agent diagnostics for biothreat agents and viral pathogens with pandemic potential.

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