University of Utah faculty members wear many hats, and for some, those hats include being both inventors and department chairs. These researchers are key to creating a culture of innovation at the U. Keep reading to learn about a few of these faculty members.
Trusting the process: Darrell Davis
Some University of Utah departments have entrepreneurship built into their identity. While some are obvious like many business school departments, others might surprise you. For example, Darrell Davis, chair and professor of medicinal chemistry, said the department is as an example of an entrepreneurial, science forward department.
“That interaction with the tech transfer office and the commercialization of discoveries are really part of the culture of the department,” Davis said. This relationship has resulted in multiple successful startups and technology coming from the department. Now Davis is working on a new technology that has the potential to be one of the next success stories from his department.
The go-to guy on campus for microfluidics: Bruce Gale
Bruce Gale, mechanical engineering professor and chair, has researched microfluidics and its applications at the University of Utah since 2001.
“These are little, tiny fluid channels for moving chemicals or biological materials around,” Gale said. “I usually explain our research with the example of taking a little drop of blood and trying to analyze it, maybe to do a DNA analysis to tell you if you have either cancer or COVID or something like that, or maybe we do some sort of cell growth or processing to manipulate cells in the sample.”
After over two decades at the U, the knowledge of Gale and his microfluidics expertise has spread throughout campus. Gale has worked with U faculty members from biochemistry, plastic surgery, pathology, andrology and more to figure out how microfluidics can solve problems across multiple fields.
From U student to department chair: Hamid Ghandehari
After Hamid Ghandehari graduated from the University of Utah with his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in pharmacy and pharmaceutics & pharmaceutical chemistry, he spent about 11 years working for other universities before he made his way back to the U.
Upon returning to the U as a USTAR professor in 2007, he continued his research in the Departments of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Biomedical Engineering. Ghandehari has since established himself as one of the great U researchers. His lab focuses on drug delivery to specific sites in the body in order to minimize side effects while maximizing the benefits of the drug. The scope of his research includes not only studying different types of biomaterials to serve as carriers for the drugs, but also making the materials and then testing them both on cells and later animal models.
