Nancy Allbritton, M.D., Ph.D.

Nancy Allbritton, the dean of the University of Washington College of Engineering and a UW professor of bioengineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the academy announced Feb. 6.

Allbritton was selected “for innovation and commercialization of single-cell, analytical, and gut-on-chip technologies for drug screening and for engineering education.”

Drawing from the fields of engineering, chemistry, physics and materials science, Allbritton’s research develops technologies and platforms for biomedical research and clinical care, including the study and analysis of single cells for the treatment of a variety of diseases such as cancer, macular degeneration and HIV… Continue reading.

Dr. Nancy Allbritton, Kenan Distinguished Professor and chair of the UNC-NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, will receive the 2016 American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Instrumentation at the 252nd ACS National Meeting and Exposition held Aug. 21-25.

The award recognizes advances in the field of chemical instrumentation including: conceptualization and development of unique instrumentation, stimulation of other researchers to use chemical instrumentation and authorship of research papers or books that have had an impact in the use of chemical instrumentation.

Dr. Michelle Kovarik, an assistant professor of chemistry at Trinity College, has organized a symposium in Allbritton’s honor on Wednesday, Aug. 24 during the ACS meeting in Philadelphia, Pa. Kovarik, who worked with Allbritton as a post-doctoral student, and four other speakers will be part of the program. Kovarik said that each session will focus on how the innovation of new technology is being used to probe the biology of single cells, an area where Allbritton is a clear leader. She also said that her talk, “Microfluidic Chemical Cytometry and Peptide Substrate Reporters: Expanding Applications and Access,” will examine how technology developed in Allbritton’s lab is being applied and used by researchers who aren’t specialists, including Kovarik’s own undergraduate students at Trinity College.

Allbritton’s research focuses on biomedical microdevices and pharmacoengineering. Specifically, Allbritton is interested in signaling in single cells and microfabricated systems for cellular analysis. The Allbritton lab conducts multidisciplinary research using principles and techniques from chemistry, physics, engineering, and materials science to develop new assays and technologies for biomedical applications.

Before you can reach the world, it is sometimes necessary to build a bridge.

Two of those bridges – and the people they have connected and work they have joined – were the focus at the University Board of Trustees meeting Oct. 1.

One of the bridges was the joint Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Carolina and N.C. State that Nancy Allbritton, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences, has chaired since 2009.

The second bridge was the one that Judith Cone, interim vice chancellor for commercialization and economic development, began building six years when she came to campus to close the cultural divide separating pure research from commerce.

Chancellor Carol L. Folt said both will play a major part in Carolina’s still unfolding story improving lives across the state, nation and world.

Career at Carolina: Professor and chair of the UNC-NC State Joint Department in Biomedical Engineering since 2009 and professor of chemistry since 2007

Research specialty: World-renowned pioneer in the areas of bioanalytical chemistry and biomedical engineering who holds 11 patents, with eight patent applications pending; known especially for her work in the growing area of single-cell analysis and in cellular signal transduction underlying the heterogeneity of human cancer

Accomplishments: Her discoveries as a scholar and inventor have been the basis of new technologies for biomedical investigations that have led to the creation of several successful companies, including Cell Biosciences and Cell Microsystems.

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named Dr. Jagdish Narayan, John C. C. Fan Distinguished Chair in Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University, and Dr. Nancy Allbritton, professor and chair of the Joint NC State/UNC Department of Biomedical Engineering, as 2014 NAI Fellows.

The National Academy of Inventors was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society.

Narayan invented domain matching epitaxy for thin film growth across the misfit scale, nanostructured efficient light emitting diodes and lasers, supersaturated semiconductor alloys for efficient p-n junctions in current microelectronic and nanoelectronic devices, laser diffused solar cells and metal–ceramic nanocomposites for next-generation devices and automobile systems. He also developed integrated smart sensors and 3D self-assembled nanostructures with oriented magnetic nanodots for information storage, which was hailed by the National Science Foundation as one of the Scientific Breakthroughs of 2004.

Allbritton invented analytical techniques with accompanying instrumentation to perform single-cell biochemical assays for both biomedical research and clinical diagnostics. She also pioneered a new strategy to separate single cells using arrayed-based platforms. Her technologies formed the basis for three start-up companies valued at over $300 million.

She received a B.S. in physics from Louisiana State University in 1979, an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1985 and a Ph.D. in medical physics/medical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987.

Five North Carolina State University faculty members have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Nancy L. Allbritton, professor and chair of biomedical engineering, elected for invention and implementation of new tools for biomedical research and for development of miniaturized devices to enable more accurate disease diagnosis.

They are among 401 scientists to be honored this year by AAAS, the world’s largest scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science.

Each year, the AAAS Council – the policymaking body of the society – elects members who have shown “scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.” Fellows are nominated by their peers and undergo an extensive review process.

Researchers from North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a new technique that uses sound waves to rapidly separate selected collections of cells for use in biomedical research.

Dr. Nancy Allbritton became the new head of the Joint UNC-NC State Department of Biomedical Engineering in August 2009. She talks about her background, her plans for the department and the fast-growing field of biomedical engineering.