Philip Santangelo

Philip J. Santangelo is a Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech.13 He is also a member of the Cancer Immunology Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute.3 Dr. Santangelo's research focuses on three main areas: native RNA regulation, RNA virus pathogenesis, and RNA therapeutics and vaccines.4

Dr. Santangelo obtained his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Polytechnic University (now NYU Tandon School of Engineering) in 1991.1 He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California at Davis in 1998.13 Following his doctoral studies, he completed postdoctoral fellowships at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California, and at Georgia Tech under Dr. Gang Bao.12

His lab develops advanced imaging tools to study the spatial biology of RNA viruses and RNA regulation.3 They have created both single molecule-sensitive probes for imaging RNA molecules and whole-body PET/CT imaging tools for investigating viral infections.14 Dr. Santangelo's work has been published in high-impact journals such as Nature Methods, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Nature BME, Science, and Nucleic Acids Research.1

Dr. Santangelo's research interests also include the development of mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines, with a focus on applications such as delivering mRNA-encoded antibodies and CRISPR proteins to mucosal interfaces, particularly in the lung and female reproductive tract.5