Alyssa Panitch '90, '97 PhD

Alyssa Panitch '90, '97 PhD received Bachelor’s degrees from Smith College in Biochemistry and from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Chemical Engineering. She completed her PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and University of Zurich. Since July 2022, she has served as the Wallace H. Coulter Department Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. Dr. Panitch specializes in biopolymer design and controlled release. Her research interests include the design and synthesis of glycosaminoglycan-based biomaterials, including hyaluronan-based materials, for drug delivery and the development of biomimetic therapeutics for vascular, cartilage, dermal, neural and fibrotic diseases. She has co-founded four companies based on technologies developed in her laboratory. Several of the compounds have entered human clinical trials. She is a member and Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineers and the National Academy of Inventors.