Faculty & Staff
Core Faculty
Chair and Distinguished University Professor
Office: ENC 3504 | Email | 813-974-4394
Research Areas
Development of Bio-therapeutic Systems, Devices and Compounds for Treating Sensory Deficits; Emphasis on Bench-to-Bedside Investigations of the Auditory System, and Translational Research on Deafness and Other Neuroengineering Applications.
Meisam Asgari, PhD
Assistant Professor
Office: ENB 357| Email | 813-396-0368
Research Areas
Nano-biomechanics of human aortic disease; Collagen mineralization in human tissue; Toughening mechanisms in mineralized tissues.
Anna Bulysheva, PhD
Assistant Professor
Office: ENG 241| Email | 813-974-4649
Research Areas
Gene Delivery, Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine
Bo Ding, MD, MS
Research Associate Professor
Office: 3802 Spectrum Boulevard, Suite 210 (BPB 210) | Email| 813-974-4124
Research Areas
Investigate the molecular mechanism of age-related hearing loss and especially characterize the role of autophagy, a highly conserved cellular process, in the auditory system with aging.
Richard Heller, PhD
Professor
Research Areas
The major focus is to develop effective drug and gene delivery. The emphasis is on translational studies that include the development and testing of new protocols or devices that can be utilized for potential therapies for cancer, wound healing, metabolic disorders and vascular diseases (peripheral and coronary ischemia) as well as vaccine and immunotherapy protocols.
Associate Professor
Office: ISA 7031D | Email| Video
Research Areas
Acousto-Bioelectronics, Sensor & Actuator, Implantable Microdevices, BioMEMS
Assistant Professor
Office: ENC 2510 | Email |813-396-0489
Research Areas
Tissue engineering; Tissue-mimetic biomaterials; Preclinical translation of engineered tissues; Cell-biomaterial interactions;Tissue culture bioreactors; Cardiovascular engineering; Collagen; Elastin
Alex Otten, PhD
Assistant Professor of Instruction
Office: ENG 118 | Email | 813-396-0596
Courses taught
EGN 3365, BME 4931/6931 Statistics for BME
Professor
Office: 7037C ISA |Email | 813-974-1425| Website | Video
Research Areas
Research in the Spirou laboratory is focused on formation of neural circuits in early development and on construction of connectomes, or neural wiring diagrams, at nanoscale resolution. The generation of large image volumes for this work necessitated development of tools to understand these complex data sets. Leveraging long-standing interest in 3D reconstruction of brain structure, he and collaborators joined the revolution in immersive virtual reality to develop software for viewing, annotating and analyzing images. Their software, called syGlass, is marketed by their company, IstoVisio, Inc., which began operation in summer, 2017.
Research Faculty
Office: ISA 7030B | Email | 813-974-4923
Research Areas
Optical-based imaging technologies for in vivo visualization of tissue at both the macroscopic and microscopic scales.