Alumni Magazine - Fall 2008 - (Page 78) F A C U LT Y P R O F I L E New Tech assistant professor and onetime TV star Craig Forest is Reaching for Answers to Genetics Questions “We are working to contribute to personalized medicine — medical treatments based on an individual’s DNA — by developing rapid, lowcost genetic diagnostic tools for the clinic.” A lthough he’s only begun his first semester as an assistant professor at Georgia Tech, Craig Forest may look familiar to students, colleagues and alumni. Forest earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Tech in 2001 before heading to MIT for his doctoral degree and to Harvard as a research fellow in genetics. He also may be recognized by the millions of television viewers who saw him last year on “American Inventor.” He and David Moeller, ME 02, made it to the semifinals in the ABC competition with the Claw, a bicycle storage device that was snatched up by Gladiator GarageWorks, a subsidiary of Whirlpool Corp., for an undisclosed sum. Along the way to fame and fortune, Forest interned at Sandia National Laboratories and was a co-op student at the Johnson Space Center for more than three years. He has returned to Georgia Tech excited about the possibilities his research offers in the treatment of diseases. “In the Precision Biosystems Laboratory, we design and build instruments capable of making thousands to millions of genetic measurements simultaneously. Such ultrahigh throughput is absolutely essential to discover the genetic causes of common diseases, such as cancers, diabetes and heart disease, by allowing the comparison of many people with a disease to many without it,” Forest says. “More broadly, we are working to contribute to personalized medicine — medical treatments based on an individual’s DNA — by developing rapid, low-cost genetic diagnostic tools for the clinic as well as applying them to these comparative population studies.” Forest is teaching a senior design class (ME 4182) in which teams of five students are tackling four biomedical research projects through collaborations with Emory’s human genetics department and Georgia Tech’s biomedical engineering department. “Projects range from mice embryo biochemistry instrumentation to balloon angioplasty devices,” he says. “Students are designing, building and testing inventions. “One of my goals is to encourage entrepreneurship on campus, so I’m including a series of lectures on all aspects of starting a consumer product business, such as intellectual property, corporate structure, market research and design for mass production,” Forest says. “We’re working to raise corporate sponsorship for the course, start a venture advisers council with the Alumni Association to mentor the students outside the classroom and host an undergraduate inventor competition to promote the entrepreneurial culture on campus.” Forest is eager to partner with individuals, companies or nonprofit agencies to “accelerate our mission and pursue scientific discoveries.” “We are actively seeking sponsorship to purchase three-dimensional microfabrication tools such as a 25-micrometer wire electrical discharge machine. We are pursuing collaborations with medical professionals and scientists,” he says. “Those who are interested in teaming up, chatting about research ideas or learning what the lab’s been up to may contact me at cforest@gatech.edu.” GT 78 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Fall 2008
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