Wikipedia

Draft:Saad Bhamla

  • Comment: There has been a minor improvement since the last version. However, it still has too much WP:Peacock and does not meet WP:NPROF. Ldm1954 (talk) 14:53, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

Saad Bhamla is a biophysicist and American chemical engineer, currently serving as an assistant professor at the Georgia Tech's School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. His work predominantly revolves around the physics of living systems and frugal science for development of low-cost medical devices for synthetic biology and global health applications.

Early life and education edit

Saad Bhamla was born in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is of Indian descent. He completed his Bachelor of Technology (BTech) in Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University, where he conducted research under the guidance of Gerald Fuller. After his PhD, he pursued postdoctoral research with Manu Prakash, a MacArthur fellow, at Stanford University.[1].

Career and research edit

In 2017, Bhamla joined the faculty at Georgia Tech's School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, where his research falls into two thematic focuses: the physics of living systems and frugal science[2][3]. He is the director of the NSF-funded Jungle Biomechanics Lab, which brings students to the Amazon Rainforest for in-situ studies of invertebrate biomechanics[4]. Additionally, Bhamla co-founded Piezo Therapeutics with Mark Prausnitz for the commercialization of the ePatch technology[5] and directs the Frugal Science Academy, empowering high school students and teachers in synthetic biology and frugal innovation, funded by the NIH[6][7].

Notable contributions edit

Bhamla co-invented the Paperfuge with Manu Prakash. The Paperfuge, a twenty-cent device for diagnosing diseases such as malaria[8], won the product category at the 2018 Beazley Designs of the Year, alongside notable nominees like the SpaceX Falcon Heavy[9]. He also led the development of the LoCHAid, an ultra-low-cost hearing aid that costs less than $1 to produce[10][11].

Bhamla's TED Talk on the fascinating physics of insect pee highlights his innovative approach to scientific inquiry[12]. His curiosity-driven research has also led to significant discoveries in the study of worm blobs. In collaboration with MIT mathematicians, his team's work on California blackworms was published in Science, offering insights into ultrafast reversible self-assembly and potential applications in robotics[13][14][15].

Bhamla is a co-inventor of the ePatch, an ultra-low-cost electroporator with microneedle electrodes for COVID-19 vaccination. This device, published in PNAS, represents a breakthrough in DNA vaccination against COVID-19, combining affordability and practicality for mass vaccination, especially in low-resource settings[16]. This innovation has the potential to greatly expand global access to life-saving treatments[17]. The ePatch, developed partly based on Bhamla's earlier work on the ElectroPen, uses piezoelectric crystals from BBQ lighters [18][19].

Bhamla's investigation into the physics of finger snapping contributed to understanding the mechanics behind this common action. His team's research, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, identified the critical role of skin friction in the dynamics of a finger snap. The study revealed that a finger snap can achieve peak angular accelerations of 1.6 × 10^6° s^−2 in just 7 ms, categorizing it as one of the fastest motions produced by the human body[20][21][22].

Awards and recognition edit

Bhamla has received numerous awards, including the NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award, and Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award. Dr. Bhamla has also been recognized as a National Geographic Explorer, an honor reflecting his significant contributions to scientific exploration and communication[23].

He was awarded the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communication[24] by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, recognizing his innovative approach to sharing scientific knowledge. This award particularly acknowledges his work on the multilingual comic series “A Curious Zoo of Extraordinary Organisms,” which aims to make science accessible and engaging for young children and historically excluded groups[25].

He was also featured as one of 10 visionaries in Newsweek's Great Disruptors series[26]

Selected publications edit

Bhamla has over 40 publications, including articles in Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).[27]

Invited commentary and interviews edit

  • Biomedical Beat Blog – National Institute of General Medical Sciences: Curiosity-Driven Science: Q&A With Saad Bhamla
  • Medgadget: Low-Cost Medical Devices for Low-Resource Regions: Interview with Prof. Saad Bhamla, Georgia Tech
  • NPR: How do insects pee? A seemingly silly question that led to a physics discovery

References edit

  1. ^ "Curiosity-Driven Science: Q&A With Saad Bhamla – Biomedical Beat Blog – National Institute of General Medical Sciences". November 15, 2023.
  2. ^ Physics of Life. National Academies Press. December 22, 2022. doi:10.17226/26403. ISBN 978-0-309-27400-5. PMID 36622924. S2CID 126098054.
  3. ^ "Research". The Bhamla Lab.
  4. ^ "Jungle Biomechanics Lab". The Bhamla Lab. May 1, 2023.
  5. ^ "PiezoTx". PiezoTx.
  6. ^ "Frugal Science Academy". Frugal Science Academy.
  7. ^ Award, Science Education Partnership. "Frugal Science Academy: Training K-12 innovators and democratizing synthetic biology tools | Science Education Partnership Award". nihsepa.org.
  8. ^ Bhamla, M. Saad; Benson, Brandon; Chai, Chew; Katsikis, Georgios; Johri, Aanchal; Prakash, Manu (January 10, 2017). "Hand-powered ultralow-cost paper centrifuge". Nature Biomedical Engineering. 1 (1): 1–7. doi:10.1038/s41551-016-0009. S2CID 16459214 – via www.nature.com.
  9. ^ Keats, Jonathon. "From The SpaceX Falcon Heavy to the Paperfuge, The 2018 Beazley Design Awards Are Timelessly Timely". Forbes.
  10. ^ https://www.science.org/content/article/1-hearing-aid-could-treat-millions-hearing-loss
  11. ^ Sinha, Soham; Irani, Urvaksh D.; Manchaiah, Vinaya; Bhamla, M. Saad (September 23, 2020). "LoCHAid: An ultra-low-cost hearing aid for age-related hearing loss". PLOS ONE. 15 (9): e0238922. Bibcode:2020PLoSO..1538922S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0238922. PMC 7510997. PMID 32966301.
  12. ^ Bhamla, Saad (February 28, 2023). "Saad Bhamla: The fascinating physics of insect pee" – via www.ted.com.
  13. ^ Imbler, Sabrina (October 25, 2021). "Behold, the Worm Blob and Its Computerized Twin". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  14. ^ Patil, Vishal P.; Tuazon, Harry; Kaufman, Emily; Chakrabortty, Tuhin; Qin, David; Dunkel, Jörn; Bhamla, M. Saad (April 28, 2023). "Ultrafast reversible self-assembly of living tangled matter". Science. 380 (6643): 392–398. arXiv:2210.03384. Bibcode:2023Sci...380..392P. doi:10.1126/science.ade7759. PMID 37104611. S2CID 252762285 – via CrossRef.
  15. ^ "Unraveling the mathematics behind wiggly worm knots | NSF - National Science Foundation". new.nsf.gov. 31 May 2023.
  16. ^ Xia, Dengning; Jin, Rui; Byagathvalli, Gaurav; Yu, Huan; Ye, Ling; Lu, Chao-Yi; Bhamla, M. Saad; Yang, Chinglai; Prausnitz, Mark R. (November 9, 2021). "An ultra-low-cost electroporator with microneedle electrodes (ePatch) for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (45). Bibcode:2021PNAS..11810817X. doi:10.1073/pnas.2110817118. PMC 8609327. PMID 34670842.
  17. ^ Jones, Sam. "This Cheap Device Could Expand the World's Access to Vaccines". Scientific American.
  18. ^ Byagathvalli, Gaurav; Sinha, Soham; Zhang, Yan; Styczynski, Mark P.; Standeven, Janet; Bhamla, M. Saad (January 10, 2020). "ElectroPen: An ultra-low–cost, electricity-free, portable electroporator". PLOS Biology. 18 (1): e3000589. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3000589. PMC 6953602. PMID 31922526.
  19. ^ Bushwick, Sophie (May 1, 2020). "DIY Tool Lets High Schoolers Practice Gene Editing". Scientific American.
  20. ^ Hopkin, Karen. "The Surprising Physics of Finger Snapping". Scientific American.
  21. ^ Acharya, Raghav; Challita, Elio J.; Ilton, Mark; Saad Bhamla, M. (November 2, 2021). "The ultrafast snap of a finger is mediated by skin friction". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 18 (184). doi:10.1098/rsif.2021.0672. PMC 8596009. PMID 34784775.
  22. ^ "Snap! A record-breaking motion at our fingertips | NSF - National Science Foundation". new.nsf.gov. 29 November 2021.
  23. ^ "Explorer Home".
  24. ^ https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2023/11/national-academies-announce-2023-recipients-of-eric-and-wendy-schmidt-awards-for-excellence-in-science-communications
  25. ^ "Comics". The Bhamla Lab.
  26. ^ Gunn, Meghan; Potter, Ned; Renzulli, Kerri Anne (June 14, 2023). "Magic mushrooms, $1 hearing aids: Medical marvels disrupting healthcare". Newsweek.
  27. ^ "Saad Bhamla". scholar.google.com.
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