Lab at Temple University since 2012, headed by Peter Lelkes, PhD
Our History
Peter I. Lelkes, PhD, is the Laura H. Carnell Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Bioengineering in the College of Engineering at Temple University. Dr. Lelkes is also the Inaugural Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering (TIME) at Temple University’s School of Medicine. Prior to that he was from 2000-2011 the Calhoun Chair Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel University in Philadelphia, with adjunct appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics and Pathology, Biochemistry and Surgery.
Dr. Lelkes currently directs an interdisciplinary program in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, focusing on nanotechnology-based biomaterials and soft tissue engineering, employing developmental biological principles to enhance the tissue-specific differentiation of embryonic and adult stem cells. Dr. Lelkes has organized several Keystone conferences and published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and 45 book chapters and made more than 400 presentations nationally and internationally.
Dr. Lelkes has received numerous honors and awards, nationally and internationally. Amongst them a Forchheimer Visiting Fellowship at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Honorary Professorships at the University of Applied Sciences Aachen, Germany and the Changchun Institute of Polymer Chemistry and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering at Imperial College, London, UK. In 2011 he was inducted as a Fellow of the AIMBE (American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering) and received the 2012 Ben Franklin Key Award from IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Throughout his career of 30+ years, Dr. Lelkes has received over $18 million in funding from numerous federal and private funding sources. His basic and translational research has been supported by federal (NIH, NSF, NASA, DOE) and state funding agencies (NTI and Dept of Commerce, Tobacco Settlement Funds), as well as private Foundations, including the Coulter Foundation. Dr. Lelkes has organized several Keystone conferences, published more than 175 peer-reviewed papers, authored more than 50 books / book chapters and made more than 400 presentations nationally and internationally.
In his free-time Dr. Lelkes is an active chamber musician and likes to hike in the mountains.