Bellamkonda Lab

Professor Bellamkonda directs the Neurological Biomaterials and Cancer Therapeutics Laboratory, a part of the Laboratory for Neuroengineering in the joint Georgia Tech/Emory Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. He also serves as associate vice president within the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research (EVPR), directs a T32 training grant called Rational design of Biomaterials, directs a Graduate Leadership Program for BioE/BME graduate students and is a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar.

Neurological Biomaterials and Cancer Therapeutics is a diverse group that believes in developing meaningful and productive science and technology, and doing so in an amiable and exciting environment. Our members consist of an international team and their backgrounds include Biological science as well as Chemical, Biomedical, and Electrical Engineering, creating a multi-disciplinary environment.

Our group is interested in developing anisotropic scaffolds for peripheral nerve regeneration and interfacing, understanding and overcoming CSPG contribution to regenerative failure in the CNS, in developing vehicles for contrast agents and receptor-targeted nano-scale drug delivery for the treatment of malignant tumors and engineering a system for tumor exvasion. We are also interested in interfacing technologies that will better integrate external electronics to the nervous system.

The philosophy of our research program is to derive the design criteria for therapeutic approaches from a thorough examination and understanding of the underlying biology, both developmental and pathological, and then draw from the biomaterials science and engineering to fashion novel therapeutic approaches. Our work is funded by grants from NIH, NSF, the Coulter Foundation, the Georgia Cancer Coalition, and Ian’s Friend’s Foundation.