Moghe:Bio

Prabhas Moghe is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical & Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers University. He obtained his PhD. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and completed postdoctoral research in bioengineering at Harvard Medical School. His research interests are cellinteractive biomaterials for tissue engineering; cellular bioengineering; nanobiomaterials and nanobiotechnology. An elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the American Academy of Nanomedicine (AANM), Dr. Moghe has received several awards/honors for his research potential and accomplishments, including the NSF CAREER Award, the Johnson & Johnson Discovery Award, and Integra LifeSciences Excellence Award; and several teaching and mentoring awards. An author of fifty publications and over 100 presentations, he currently directs an NSF IGERT training program on Integratively Engineered Biointerfaces, a NSF funded Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT), and a major core within a NIH/NIBIB-funded P41 program grant on Cell Profiling of Polymeric Biomaterials.

Dr. Moghe's current research in nanobiomaterials and nanobiotechnology relate to two distinct projects. In the first, the Moghe group, in collaboration with Dr. Kathryn Uhrich's laboratory, have developed selfassembled micellar nanoparticles with potential as “nanolipoblockers” to reduce atherosclerosis. In the second project, matrix-functionalized albumin nanoparticles are being investigated to promote cellular biodynamics during wound repair; as well as for increased survival and differentiation of stem cells within three-dimensional scaffolds. In the area of cell-biomaterial interactions, Dr. Moghe's team is combining new "high content" imaging of stem cell reporters with higher throughput platforms of combinatorially synthesized substrates, to accelerate the rational design of biomaterials "inductive" for strategic stem cell fates.

Dr. Moghe has actively contributed to innovative initiatives in graduate education. Under his stewardship, the Rutgers IGERT designed a new certificate program on Biointerfacial Science and Engineering at Rutgers. Over 100 graduate students have been impacted by this curriculum in the past two and a half years. In partnership with Dr. Carolyn Maher of Rutgers Graduate School of Education, Dr. Moghe has led a novel experiment on the study of interdisciplinary discourse within a community of thirty IGERT trainees from eight distinct graduate programs in life sciences, physical sciences, and engineering. New quantitative tools have emerged from this effort (J. Eng. Education, 2007), which can be used to monitor and help optimally engineer "integrative" outcomes of research discourse. At Rutgers, Dr. Moghe has devoted significant efforts toward the strengthening of a diversity infrastructure to broaden participation of outstanding underrepresented minority and first-generation-tocollege students. In addition to serving as Rutgers’ School of Engineering Champion for the NSF NEAGEP, Dr. Moghe and his coworkers have developed a new IGERT-complementary Summer Undergraduate Research Frontiers (ISURF) program, a bridge-to-IGERT graduate mentoring program, and a newly piloted program for undergraduate faculty/student teaching teams. All these programs have developed a "diversity buzz" built around the core mission of IGERT trainees, and have helped foster successful outcomes in retention and development. Dr. Moghe and his IGERT partners have participated in numerous panels and professional meetings related to broadening participation. For his efforts at promoting diversity, Dr. Moghe was honored with Presidential Leadership in Diversity Award at Rutgers in 2006.