Presented by Prof. Sakhrat Khizroev, Florida International University
Professor of Cellular Biology & Pharmacology, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering & Computing

Abstract: The emerging field of personalized nanomedicine promises unprecedented patient- and disease-specific medical diagnostic and treatment. Significant progress has been achieved in this field from the perspective of biotechnology. With the development of bioinformatics, there are endless computational resources and chemical databases to identify a molecular compound tailored to almost any biomarker. Conversely, the development of high technology to treat a disease at a fundamental single-molecule level is still in its very early stage. Such a technology-driven approach could significantly benefit from understanding the physics of nanomagnetics to enable a high-efficacy external-field control of intrinsic molecular processes that underlie specific diseases. Being complementary to the conventional approach, the new development can make its own special contribution to the big goal of making personalized nanomedicine a reality. This presentation will discuss our recent studies on using magneto-electric nanoparticles to advance the state of treatment of cancer, HIV/AIDs, and other diseases. The promising results of in-vitro and animal studies on mice will be presented to demonstrate the novel nanotechnology.

Bio: Sakhrat Khizroev, a professor with a joint appointment in the College of Engineering and the College of Medicine, is an inventor with expertise in nanomagnetic/spintronic devices. His group’s current research focus is at the intersection of nanotechnology and medicine. His research team works hand-in-hand with leading medical researchers and clinicians to advance the state of the art in areas of oncology, HIV/AIDs, neurodegenerative diseases, ophthalmology, and others. Prior to re-joining FIU in 2011 to lead the university-wide multi-disciplinary research effort in personalized nanomedicine, Khizroev was a tenured faculty (professor from 2009-2011 and associate professor from 2006-2008) at the department of electrical engineering of the University of California, Riverside (UCR). From 2003-2005, he was associate professor of electrical engineering at FIU, where he was tenured in 2005. Prior to his academic career, Khizroev spent almost four years as a research staff member with Seagate Research (1999-2003) and one year as a doctoral intern with IBM Almaden Research Center (1997-1998). For his pioneering contribution to the development of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), the current main technology in the multi-billion-dollar data storage industry, and other discoveries in the broad area of spin-based nanodevices, Khizroev was named a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (2012). He holds over 30 granted US patents plus many international patents. He has authored over 120 peer-reviewed papers, and has acted as a guest science and technology commentator on television and radio programs across the globe. He has served as an editor for IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology, Nanotechnology, and IEEE Transactions on Magnetics. Khizroev received a B.S/M.S. degree in physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1992/1994, a M.S. degree in physics from the University of Miami in 1994, and a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999.

Hosts: Prof. Wolfgang Porod and Prof. Gary Bernstein, Electrical Engineering