Prof. Ashutosh Chilkoti
Award Year: 2015 | Degree Year: 1985
Prof. Ashutosh Chilkoti received his Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1985. He subsequently received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington, USA in 1991.
Prof. Chilkoti is the Theo Pilkington Professor at Duke University, USA and is currently the Department Chair of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, which is one of the top-ranked Biomedical Engineering departments in the United States.
Prof. Chilkoti’s Bioengineering research explores the interaction between biological and synthetic polymers with biology at the molecular level, with the goal of developing molecular tools and devices for medicine and biotechnology. His research has two foci: Bioinspired Materials and Biointerface Science. In the area of Bioinspired Materials, he has pioneered the development of a class of genetically engineered stimulus responsive biopolymers -elastin-like polypeptides – and developed numerous applications of these polymers, including their use for non-chromatographic protein purification and as vehicles for the delivery of small molecule and protein drugs. In the area of Biointerface Science, he has worked on the development of clinical diagnostics and plasmonic biosensors.
Prof. Chilkoti is the founder of three start-up companies: PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc. that has taken the recombinant bipolymer drug delivery technology that he has developed into clinical trials, Sentilus Inc., a clinical diagnostics company that was acquired by Immucor in 2014, and BioStealth Inc., a spinoff of Sentilus.
Prof. Chilkoti was awarded the CAREER award by the National Science Foundation in 1998, the 3M non-tenured faculty award in 2002, and the Distinguished Research Award from the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University in 2003 and in 2005. He was awarded a senior researcher award by the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation in 2010, the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature by the Society for Biomaterials in 2011, and the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecture award by the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2013 which is the highest award bestowed by the Society. In 2015, he was inducted as a Fellow into the National Academy of Inventors. He is also a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Controlled Release Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
In honouring Prof. Ashutosh Chilkoti, IIT Delhi recognizes the outstanding contributions made by him in Teaching & Research. Through his achievements, Prof. Ashutosh Chilkoti has brought glory to the Institute.
