Faculty & Staff

Core Faculty

Robert Frisina

Robert Frisina, Jr., PhD

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.

Christopher Passaglia

Christopher Passaglia, PhD

Associate Chair and Professor

Office: ENG 247 | Email | 813-974-7140 | Website

Research Areas

Vision Systems, Neural Signal Processing, Computational Modeling, Retinal Physiology and Disease

Olukemi Akintewe

Olukemi Akintewe, PhD

Associate Professor of Instruction

Office: ISA 7031G | Email | 813-974-6152

Meisam Asgari

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

Anna Bulysheva, PhD

Assistant Professor

Office: ENG 241| Email | 813-974-4649

Research Areas

Gene Delivery, Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine

Bo Ding

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

Richard Heller, PhD

Professor

Email | 813-974-1221

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.

Person Icon

Dr. Mark Jaroszeski, PhD

Professor

Office: ENG 243 | Email | 813-974-4662

Research Areas

Drug and Gene Delivery, Electrofusion, Biomedical Instrumentation, Electrophoresis

Huabei Jiang

Huabei Jiang, PhD

Professor

Office: ISA 7030A | Email | 813-974-5253

Research Areas

Diffuse optical tomography (DOT), photoacoustic tomography (PAT), fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT), and bioluminescence tomography (BLT).

Albert Kim

Albert Kim, PhD

Associate Professor

Office: ISA 7031D | Email

Research Areas

Acousto-Bioelectronics, Sensor & Actuator, Implantable Microdevices, BioMEMS

Neda Latifi

Neda Latifi, PhD

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

Babak Naghizadehsafa

Babak N. Safa, PhD

Assistant Professor

Office: ENB 139, Lab 3814 Spectrum Blvd, Suite 1403 | Email | LinkedIn| Website

Research Areas

Soft Tissue Biomechanics; Glaucoma; Ocular Biomechanics; Tissue Damage; Tendon Biomechanics

 

Alex Otten

Alex Otten, PhD

Assistant Professor of Instruction

Office: ENG 118 | Email | 813-396-0596

Courses taught

EGN 3365, BME 4931/6931 Statistics for BME

George Spirou

George Spirou, PhD

Professor

Office7037C ISA |Email | 813-974-1425| Website

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.

Icon Person

Hao Yang, PhD

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.

 

Souheil Zekri

Souheil Zekri, PhD

Associate Professor of Instruction

Office: ISA 7031F | Email | 813-974-5203

Courses taught