Research Interest

Biological Engineering and Micro/Nanomedicine

  • Chip-based biomedical micro and nano-integrated systems for sensing, diagnosis, and therapy; micro and nano-scale biosensors for cells, proteins, DNA
  • Biomimetically Inspired Engineered Systems
  • Biosensors, Intelligent Medical Devices utilizing machine learning, artificial intelligence and expert systems to improve functionality and performance
  • Polymer-based microfludic and silicon micromachined chips for infectious agent detection and re-emerging diseases
  • Single molecule imaging and image analysis to study cell:pathogen interactions, molecular beacons for intracellular gene expression analysis, Atomic Force Microscopy, study of viral capsid biomechanics and assembly
  • Microbial and cellular engineering for Cancer applications
  • Stimuli responsive polymers such as hydrogels for development of micro/nano-devices for drug delivery and biomedical sensing applications.
  • Wireless Passive Theranostic Devices for medical monitoring and intervention

Genomics/Systems Biology

  • Reverse Engineering of Signal Transduction Networks and Molecular Pathways: SilicoCyte, Virtual Cellular communities
  • Applications of genomics and bioinformatics in molecular profiling of cancer. Identification of predictive tumor markers and anti-cancer small molecule drug leads.
  • Artificial intelligence-based collaborative software development for Systems Biology: Fuzzy logic, Neural Nets, Genetic Algorithms, Expert Systems, Pattern Finding, Data Warehousing

Gene Therapy/Microbiology/Virology

  • Microbial and cellular engineering      
  • Experimental Therapeutics and Diagnostics: Endogenously (Self)-Regulated Gene Therapy; Cellular Re-programming, Therapeutic Transgenics, Correction of genetic defects by via gene replacement
  • Molecular basis of disease resistance , susceptibility and coordinated gene regulation. Enhancement of disease resistance via manipulation of host immune components, DNA vaccines and therapeutic modulation of signal transduction pathways by small molecule drugs
  • Prediction and computational modeling of genome evolution of RNA viruses (Coronaviridae, influenza). Forced evolution of viruses and emergence of new strains or quasi-species formation
  • MEMS and Nano-based Biosensors for detection and continious monitoring of airborne biothreat agents

 

Demir Akin, DVM, PhD

Deputy Director, Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence
School of Medicine, Stanford University
Stanford, California, USA 
Phone: (650) 721-2016 
E-mail: demir.akin@stanford.edu