Principal Investigator
Principal Investigator: Dr. J. Brandon Dixon![]() Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies and Professor Woodruff Faculty Fellow
Degrees: B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 2001 Email: dixon@gatech.edu Dr. Brandon Dixon is a Professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow, as well as the current Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Dr. Dixon joined Georgia Tech in 2009 as an Assistant Professor, and has since grown his research laboratory which focuses on developing engineered approaches to understanding and treating diseases of the lymphatic system. Prior to Georgia Tech, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne in Switzerland doing research on lymphatic biology of lipid transport. Brandon received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 2006 from Texas A&M University where he developed an imaging system for measuring lymphatic flow and estimating wall shear stress in contracting lymphatic vessels. He also received his bachelor’s degree from the same university in 2001. His research has been funded by the NIH, NSF, Gates Foundation, Department of Defense, the Georgia Research Alliance, the American Heart Association, and various private foundations. He is a recipient of the NSF Career Award and the NIH Pathway to Independence Award. He is also a co-founder of LymphaTech, a start-up launched from Georgia Tech focused on the development of diagnostic technologies for lymphedema. |
Current Lab Members
Research Faculty
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Zhanna Nepiyushchikh (2014 – present)Degrees: M.D., State Medical Academy, St. Petersburg, 1996 |
Post-docs
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Eleftheria (Ria) Michalaki (2019 – present)Degrees: Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Stanford, 2019
M.S., Chemical Engineering, Stanford, 2016 B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 2014 Hometown: Iraklion, Greece Research Area: Osteoarthritis, traumatic brain injury (TBI), lipid nanoparticles, lymphedema
Past Research: microfluidics, effect of fluid flow on LECs, calcium dynamics Email: emichalaki3@gatech.edu
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Graduate Students
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Lauren Liebman (2018 – present)Ph.D. Candidate in Biomedical Engineering Research Area: Lymphangiogenesis, cancer, and radiotherapy Email: lliebman3@gatech.edu |
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Likhit Nayak (2018 – present)Ph.D. Student in Bioengineering (Mechanical Engineering) Research Area: Machine learning, point-cloud anthropomorphic data analysis, lymphedema diagnostics Email: lnayak3@gatech.edu |
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Yarelis Gonzalez-Vargas (2019 – present)Ph.D. Candidate in Biomedical Engineering Research Area: Lymphatic malformations, lymphangiogenesis, biomaterials, tissue engineering Email: ygonzale3@gatech.edu |
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Young Jae Ryu (2020 – present)Ph.D. Student in Bioengineering (Mechanical Engineering) Research Area: Lymphatic biomechanics, computational modeling Email: yryu36@gatech.edu |
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Nishone Thompson (2022 – present)MD/Ph.D. Student in Biomedical Engineering Research Area: lymphangiogenesis, lymphatic endothelial cells Email: nthompson64@gatech.edu |
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Shao-Yun Hsu (2022 – present)Ph.D. Student in Biomedical Engineering Research Area: microsurgery, breast reconstruction, lymphedema, tissue engineering |
MS Students
Yanina Kuzminich (2018 – 2020), M.S. in Bioengineering, Current Position: Ph.D. in Bioengineering advised by Dr. James Dahlman, Georgia Institute of Technology
Ryan Akin (2012-2013), M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Current Position: Consultant, Accenture