We start off our semester with the BMES Graduate Student Chapter selected speaker, Dr. Manu Platt. Dr. Platt is an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech.

Things Fall Apart: Proteolytic Networks in Tissue Destructive Diseases

Abstract: Dr. Platt’s research centers on proteolytic mechanisms of tissue remodeling during disease progression using both experimental and computational approaches. These diseases of focus are health disparities in the U.S., but global health concerns: pediatric strokes in sickle cell disease, personalized and predictive medicine for breast cancer, and others, which have taken him to South Africa and Ethiopia for collaborative work to find solutions for low resource settings. Cysteine cathepsins are the most potent mammalian collagenases and elastases, but cathepsin pharmacological inhibitors continue to fail human clinical trials, mostly due to unexpected side effects. This suggests there are underlying regulatory behaviors or feedback loops yet to be elucidated. During this seminar, Dr. Platt will discuss 1) experimental and computational tools to better quantify and model protease activity, 2) concept of a proteolytic network in tissue destructive diseases, and 3) fundamental insights and consequences of the underlying enzymology to improve pharmacological targeting.

Bio: Dr. Platt received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University in 2006. After his postdoctoral work at MIT, Manu returned to Georgia Tech where he joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research interests include Tissue remodeling, HIV, Cardiovascular disease, Sickle cell disease strokes and Predictive medicine. The Platt lab mission is to fuse engineering, cell biology, and physiology to understand how cells sense, respond, and remodel their immediate mechanical and biochemical environments for repair and regeneration in health and disease, then to translate that knowledge to clinics domestically and internationally to address global health disparities.

In addition to his affiliation with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Platt is also the Diversity Director, STC on Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS).