Dr. Andrés J. García, Georgia Tech, Receives JDRF Research to Reality Award.
Dr. Andrés J. García Receives JDRF Research to Reality Award
At this year’s Annual Meeting, JDRF was proud to honor Dr. Andres Garcia with the JDRF Georgia Chapter’s Research to Reality Leadership Award for his pioneering work in the development of synthetic hydrogels for beta cell encapsulation.
Andrés J. García is the Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Endowed Chair and Regents’ Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was the featured speaker in February at a JDRF Research Forum co-hosted by the Petit Institute. Dr. García’s lab has been the recipient of more than $1.7 million in grants from JDRF since 2013 in recognition of his work on synthetic hydrogels for the delivery of protein and cell therapies and, more recently, for his work on immunomodulatory materials for islet engraftment. Both areas of research have translational potential for improving the lives of millions of people with type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Garcia earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with Honors from Cornell University, and M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in cell and molecular biology at the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania and then joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 1998. Dr. García is recognized as an international leader in bioengineering. He has received several distinctions, including the NSF CAREER Award, Arthritis Investigator Award, Young Investigator Award from the Society for Biomaterials, Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Interdisciplinary Activities Award, and the Clemson Award for Basic Science from the Society for Biomaterials. He is an elected Fellow by the International Union of Societies of Biomaterials Science and Engineering, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.