Professors Sharon Gerecht and Hai-Quan Mao have assumed leadership of Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for NanoBioTechnology, succeeding Peter Searson, the Joseph R. and Lynn C. Reynolds Professor, and Denis Wirtz, the vice provost for research and the Theophilus Halley Smoot Professor, respectively.
Gerecht, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Kent Gordon Croft Investment Management Faculty Scholar, will serve as the institute’s director. Her research focuses on stem cells and their microenvironment, especially as applied to tissue repair and regeneration. She was the winner of the inaugural President’s Frontier Award in 2015.
Mao will serve as associate director. He is a professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering, and currently holds a joint appointment in the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at the School of Medicine. Mao’s research is focused on engineering novel nanostructured materials for nerve regeneration and therapeutic delivery. He won the university’s 2015 Cohen Translational Engineering Award and a 2015 Johns Hopkins Discovery Award.