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Research Team
Howard S. An, M.D., Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
The Morton International Endowed Chair Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery & Director, Division of Spine Surgery and Spine Fellowship Program, Rush University Medical Center
As one of the leading authorities on spinal surgery, Dr. An has published more than 140 articles, 80 chapters and 15 books on spinal surgery and instrumentation. Dr. An holds the inaugural Morton International Endowed Chair position at Rush University Medical Center since 1997, and is currently Director of Spine Surgery and Spine Fellowship Program at Rush.
Dr. An served as Director of Spine Surgery for eight years at the Medical College of Wisconsin. A medical graduate from the Medical College of Ohio in 1982, Dr. An stayed at the school to complete his internship and residency in orthopedic surgery. He followed his internship and residency with a spine surgery fellowship at Rothman Institute-Pennsylvania Hospital and Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Dr. An is a recipient of the 1990 North American Traveling Fellowship from the American Orthopaedic Association and the 1995 Scoliosis Research Society Traveling Fellowship. Dr. An is currently involved in research in the fields of spinal biomechanics and tissue engineering with funding from NIH, industries, and foundations.
Dr. An is a member of several medical societies and associations, including the North American Spine Society, International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, Cervical Spine Research Society, Scoliosis Research Society, American Spinal Injury Association, and American Orthopaedic Association.
Antonios G. Mikos, PH.D., Rice University, Houston, Texas
Director of the Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering
Antonios G. Mikos is the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. He is the Director of the J.W. Cox Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering at Rice University. He received his Dipl.Eng. (1983) from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and his Ph.D. (1988) in chemical engineering from Purdue University. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Medical School before joining the Rice Faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor.
Mikos’ research focuses on the synthesis, processing, and evaluation of new biomaterials for use as scaffolds for tissue engineering, as carriers for controlled drug delivery, and as non-viral vectors for gene therapy. His work has led to the development of novel orthopedic, dental, cardiovascular, neurologic, and ophthalmologic biomaterials. He is the author of over 420 publications and 25 patents. He is the editor of 14 books and the author of one textbook (Biomaterials: The Intersection of Biology and Materials Science, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008). He has been cited over 17,000 times and has an h-index of 70.
Mikos is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a Fellow of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering, and a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society. He has been recognized by various awards including the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecturer Award of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Founders Award and the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature of the Society For Biomaterials, the Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research and the Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Award in Chemical Engineering of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Meriam/Wiley Distinguished Author Award and the Chemstations Lectureship Award of the American Society for Engineering Education, the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering of The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, the Marshall R. Urist Award for Excellence in Tissue Regeneration Research of the Orthopaedic Research Society, the Distinguished Scientist Award - Isaac Schour Memorial Award of the International Association for Dental Research, and the Outstanding Chemical Engineer Award of Purdue University.
Mikos is a founding editor and editor-in-chief of the journals Tissue Engineering Part A, Tissue Engineering Part B: Reviews, and Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods and a member of the editorial boards of the journals Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, Cell Transplantation, Journal of Biomaterials Science Polymer Edition, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research (Part A and B), and Journal of Controlled Release. He is currently president of the North American Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society.