Prashant N. Kumta

Edward R. Weidlein Chair Professor
Swanson School of Engineering and School of Dental Medicine
Departments of BioEngineering, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science,
Chemical Engineering, Department of Oral Biology
849 Benedum Hall
University of Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Phone : (412) 648-0223
FAX: (412) 624-8069
E-mail: pkumta@cmu.edu

Education

1990 - Ph.D., Materials Science and Engine ering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Advisor: Subhash H. Risbud, Department of Chemical Eng. and Materials Science, U.C. Davis
1987 - M.S., Materials Science and Engine ering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
1984 - B. Tech., Metallurgical Engine ering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India

Professional Experience

2007 - Edward R. Weidlein Chair Professor, Swanson School of Engineering and School of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
1999-2007 - Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Institute for Complex Engineered Systems, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
1995-1999 - Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
1990 - 1995 - Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
1987-1990 - Research Assistant, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ


Relevant Publications 

  1. D. Olton, Jinhua Li, Mary E. Wilson, Todd Rogers, John Close, Leaf Huang, Prashant N. Kumta and Charles Sfeir, "Nanostructured Calcium Phosphates (NanoCaPs) for Non-Viral Gene Delivery: Influence of the Synthesis Parameters on Transfection Efficiency", Biomaterials 28 (2007) 1267-1279.
  2. Hsu-Feng Ko, Charles Sfeir and Prashant N. Kumta, "In situ synthesis and characterization of porous polymer-ceramic composites as scaffolds for gene delivery", Materials Science and Engineering C 27 (2007) 479-483.
  3. D. Choi and Prashant n. Kumta, "An Alternative Chemical route for the Synthesis and Thermal Stability of Chemically Enriched Hydroxyapatite", J. American Ceramic Society, 89[2] pp.444-449 (2006).
  4. K. Marra, J.W. Szem, P.N. Kumta , P. DiMilla, and. L.E. Weiss, "In vitro analysis of biodegradable polymer blend/hydroxyapatite composites for bone tissue engineering," J. Biomed. Mat. Res., Vol 47, 1999, pp. 324-335.
  5. J.W. Calvert, K. Marra, L. Cook, P. Kumta, P. DiMilla, and L.E. Weiss, "Characterization of osteoblast-like behavior of cultured bone marrow stromal cells on various polymer surfaces" J. Biomed. Mat. Res., Volume 52, Issue 2, 2000, pp. 279-284 .
  6. Prashant N. Kumta, Charles Sfeir, Dong-hyun Lee, Dana Olton, Daiwon Choi, "Nanostructured calcium phosphates for biomedical applications: novel synthesis and characterization", Acta Biomaterialia, Vol. 1 (2005) 65-83.
  7. Keri A. Boduch-Lee, Toby Chapman, Sarah E. Petricca, Kacey G. Marra, and Prashant Kumta, "Design and Synthesis of Hydroxyapatite Composites Containing an mPEG-Dendritic Poly(L-lysine) Star Polycaprolactone", Macromolecules (2004), 37, 8959-8966.
  8. Roger J. Narayan, Prashant N. Kumta, Charles Sfeir, Dong-Hyun Lee, Dana Olton, and Daiwon Choi, 'Nanostructured Ceramics in Medical Devices: Applications and Prospects', Journal of Metals, October (2004) 38-43.
  9. I.S. Kim and Prashant N. Kumta, 'Sol-gel Synthesis and Characterization of Nanostructured Hydroxyapatite Powder', Materials Science and Engineering B 111 (2004) 232-236.
  10. D. Choi, K. Marra and P.N. Kumta, 'In-Situ Chemical Synthesis of Hydroxyapatite/Poly(-caprolactone) Composites', Materials Research Bulletin 39 (2004) 417-432.

    Names in bold face are all graduate students mentored by Professor Kumta

Synergistic Activities 

Prashant N. Kumta played a key role in starting the Tissue Engineering Initiative at Carnegie Mellon. For this program, he worked in coordination with a multidisciplinary team of faculty represented from several departments within the College of Engineering (including Mechanical, Chemical, and Civil), the Robotics Institute, CMU's Science and Technology Center for Imaging and Light Microscopy, and surgeons from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The initiative evolved into the Bone Tissue Engineering Center (BTEC) that is now directed by Jeffrey Hollinger. BTEC has been identified as a university-wide strategic thrust. Professor Kumta’s participation in this initiative was fostered by several key seed funding from the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative (PTEI). The initial seed funding culminated in grants from NSF-NIRT and the NIH. Prashant Kumta is Editor of the Materials Science and Engineering, B, a leading journal for advanced functional solid-state materials. Professor Kumta is an active member of the American Ceramic Society (Acers), Materials Research Society (MRS), the Society for Biomaterials (SFB), the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), and the Electrochemical Society (ECS). He was the organizer of the first symposium on ‘Role of Ceramics for Electrochemical Devices’ for the Acers 97th. Annual meeting held in Cincinnati, 1995 and has remained one of the key organizers for this symposium that runs every year for the ACers. Professor Kumta has over 155 publications in peer reviewed journals and has been mainly responsible for building a nationally recognized research and
education program in ceramics for electronic, electrochemical and biological applications. Professor Kumta has been extremely active in the biomaterials and bone tissue engineering area at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also affiliated with the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine (MIRM) and is closely connected with the research activities of MIRM. He has given several invited presentations on his work related to nanostructured biomaterials for gene delivery and protein interactions at the materials society conference (TMS), MIRM, and various universities.

Collaborators and Other Affiliations:

S.H. Risbud, U.C. Davis; A.F. Hepp, NASA-GRC; R. Raffaelle, R.I.T.; G.E. Blomgren, Blomgren Consulting Services, Lion Cells, CA; C. Sfeir, University of Pittsburgh; Doris Britton, NASA; Lee Weiss, Phil Campbell, Lynn Walker, Carnegie Mellon University; Roger Narayan, University of North Carolina, Donald Schleich, Ecóle-Polytechnique, Nantes, France.

Graduate Advisor: Dr. S.H. Risbud, U.C. Davis

Thesis Advisor and Postgraduate-Scholar Sponsor:
M.A. Sriram, Ph.D. (Intel, Oregon), Takahisa Okano, M.D. (Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan), A. Waghray, Ph.D. (Honeywell, Indiana), A. Landa, Ph.D. (LLNL, Berkeley), J.Y. Kim, Ph.D. (PNNL, Richland, WA), C.C. Chang, Ph.D. (Changs Ascending, Taiwan), Sang-Mock Lee; Ph.D. (Samsung, Korea), Zhenguo-Yang, Ph.D. (PNNL, Richland, WA), I.S. Kim, Ph.D. (Duracell, New Jersey), O.I. Velikokhatnyi, Ph.D. (UPitt), S. Roy, Ph.D. (DMRL, India), M. Dutta, Ph.D. (UPitt), Jeffrey P. Maranchi, Ph.D. (U Rochester), Daiwon Choi, Ph.D. (PNNL, Richland, WA), Amit Paul, Ph.D. (UPitt), D. Olton, Ph.D. (BD, New Jersey), Hsu-Feng Ko, Ph.D. (UPitt),

Undergraduate Sponsor:
Todd Roger, Kristen Pappacena, Mary Beth Wilson, Matthew Jones, Brian Leukart, Parth Patel, Bonnie Waddell, Brian Ingram, Daniel Schmidt, Jennifer Singelyn, Paul McMichael, Paul Smith, Min Chen, Mike Stolfi, Michael Tran, Arati Bagal, Danielle Gainor, Patrick Gilligan, Kiho Chang, R. Hackenberg, Ronald Polcawich, Rebecca Wehrer, Jeffrey Rayberg, Jason Lange, Shauna Rucker, Richard Hsu, John Matoney, Robert Gilles, Benjamin Garris, Christopher Devlin, Christopher Messier, Noah Scarr, Thomas Gilbert, Chui Wang, Christoph Lassnier, Frederick Hillard, Rebecca Snyder, Henry Chou, Douglas King, Marco Dyer, Stephanie Sharick.