Peter Tolias

Biography

Dr. Tolias is Director of the university-wide Center for Healthcare Innovation and Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Biological Sciences at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He is the recipient of over 40 grants, contracts, awards and honors, the co-founder of several diagnostic and biotechnology companies and has held board and scientific advisory memberships on scientific journals, corporations, non-profit organizations and universities. He was formerly the Executive Director of the Institute of Genomic Medicine, Research Director of the Autism Center and Professor of Pediatrics at the New Jersey Medical School. Previously, he served as Worldwide Vice President of Advanced Research and Technology Assessment in the Dignostic division of Johnson & Johnson and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Rosetta Genomics. Earlier in his career, he was an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the New Jersey Medical School, an Associate Member of the NY Public Health Research Institute and earlier as an Assistant Member.

Research Interest

Discovery and translational development of biomarkers, drugs and new technologies and their integration into clinical practice. He performs research in Center of Healthcare Innovation state-of-the-art biotechnology and preclinical drug discovery facilities staffed with 12 researchers formerly from the pharmaceutical industry along with graduate and undergraduate students. His team explores therapeutic disease targets of interest and identifies model compounds that are used as structure/activity entry points and scaffold platforms in drug discovery projects. Current research is focused on discovery and development of inhibitors of key cancer genes. Dr. Tolias is also involved in patient specific 3D microfluidic culture disease modeling from biopsies for assessing drug efficacy and therapy selection.