Biomaterials

Biography

Anand Ramamurthi is an Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the Cleveland Clinic with adjunct appointments at the University of Akron (Integrated Biosciences Program), and Case Western Reserve University (BME). He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering, from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK in 1999 and subsequently was an American Heart Association postdoctoral fellow at the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic (1999-2001), where he developed novel, glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-based biomaterials for biomimetic tissue engineering of aortic heart valve replacements. Prior to his appointment at the Cleveland Clinic in 2010, Dr. Ramamurthi was a tenured faculty in the Departments of Bioengineering at Clemson University and Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC. His research program focuses on enabling biomimetic regeneration and repair of extracellular matrix structures, specifically the poorly regenerated elastic matrix component, both in vitro, and in situ at sites of chronic matrix disruption (e.g., abdominal aortic aneurysms and pelvic organ prolapse). His research projects span cardiovascular tissue engineering, biomimetic vascular matrix assembly, GAG-based biomaterials for vascular endothelialization and matrix regenerative repair, mechanisms of matrix degeneration in abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), directed matrix regenerative therapies for AAAs, vascular nanomedicine, stem cell -based matrix regenerative therapies, in vivo bioreactor systems for vascular tissue engineering. He is a member of several international professional societies in the cardiovascular sciences, biomaterials, and tissue engineering fields, and is a Professional Member of the American Heart Association Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. He serves on several national committees such as that of the North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO), on the editorial broad of several scientific journals in the field of Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine, and Vascular Biomedicine, and actively reviews for the NIH, NSF, AHA, and nearly 30 journals including Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials, and Acta Biomaterialia. He serves on the external advisory board of the NIH-supported Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in Biomaterials for Tissue Regeneration (CBTR) in South Carolina, and on the Inventions Peer Review Committee of Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the commercialization wing of the Cleveland Clinic. Anand has been an invited presenter at several national conferences and has chaired past conference symposia on the topic of directed elastic matrix regenerative repair. He has 50 peer-reviewed publications to date, numerous abstracts, proceedings, several book chapters, and approved and filed patents. His research has been funded by the NIH, AHA national and affiliate centers, NSF, and industry.

Research Interest

Vascular Tissue Engineering, Cardiovascular degenerative Medicine, Biomimetic Matrix Assembly, Elastin Pathology and Elastic Matrix Regenerative Repair, Therapies for Aortic Aneurysms, Blood-Material Compatibility, Glycosaminoglycan-Based Biomaterials, Stem Cells for Vascular Therapies