MSU Departments
- Chemical Engineering and Material Sciences (Primary)
- Radiology
- Neuroscience
Dr. Assaf Gilad is a Professor of Chemical Engineering & Material Sciences and Radiology at Michigan State University. The overarching theme of his research program is to harnesses the intersection of medical imaging and synthetic biology to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Specifically, he works to develop novel genetically encoded and nanoparticles biosensors for both brain imaging and neuromodulation. He received a B.A. (1996) from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, and M.Sc., (1999) and Ph.D. (2004) in Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel (advisor: Prof. Michal Neeman). He spent three years conducting postdoctoral research in the Department of Radiology at JHU (advisors: Profs. Peter van Zijl and Jeff Bulte). In 2007 he joined the Radiology department as a faculty member and moved to MSU in 2017.
Current Research Focuses
- Constructing Synthetic Biology circuits in prokaryotic and mammalian (stem) cells.
- Characterizing the structure and function of electromagnetic perceptive genes.
- Developing genetically encoded reporters for MRI.
- Constructing genetically encoded indicators for neurotransmitters.
- Engineering novel artificial signaling pathways.
- Magnetobiomanipulation.
- Protein evolution and engineering.
- Biological computers.
Fields
- Health
- Synthetic Biology
- Imaging
