Utkan Demirci is currently a tenured Professor of Radiology and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He joined Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Divisions and Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor at the age of 29. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator for the Bio-acoustic MEMS in Medicine Lab at the Canary Center at Stanford University for Cancer Early Detection. He is a fellow-elect of the American Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering. His multiple biotechnological inventions led to multiple products in the in vitro fertilization space to sort the most motile sperm and have been FDA and CE cleared and led to over an estimated 10,000 newborns globally. These products are clinically available under the label Zymot in the US and Fertile in Europe and Turkey. Prior to returning to Stanford, he was an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and at Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology serving at the Division of Biomedical Engineering, Division of Infectious Diseases and Renal Division. In 2006, he was named in the MIT Technology ReviewTR35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35. Dr. Demirci is a serial academic entrepreneur has co-founded multiple successful start-ups including DxNow Inc., Koek Biotechnology, and Levitas Bio.
Education
Demirci received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1999 as a James B. Angell Scholar from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He received his M.S. degree in 2001 in Electrical Engineering, his M.S. degree in Management Science and Engineering in 2005, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2005, all from Stanford University.
Research
His group is focused on the development of point-of-care technologies and creating microfluidic platforms for sorting rare cells and exosomes for infectious diseases and cancer. His early work founded the basics of 3-D bioprinting of cells and biomaterials. As an academic entrepreneur, Dr. Demirci's seminal work in microfluidics has led to the development of innovative platform technologies in medicine with broad applications in label-free rare cell sorting and point-of-care diagnostics. His lab has developed various microfluidic, bioprinting platforms with broad medical applications, including a portable biosensor for monitoring HIV infected CD4+ T cells rapidly at point-of-care, which was successfully tested on patients in Tanzania. Some of his inventions in microfluidic technologies have been widely used by fertility clinics around the world in assisted reproductive technologies that have led to an estimated over 10,000 live births globally. These FDA approved and CE marked products continue to serve patients across the globe. Dr. Demirci is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research Distinguished Investigator Award, MIT TR-35 Award, Harvard Medical School-Young Investigator Award, Stanford Basic Scientist of the Year Award, Brigham and Women's Hospital-Bright Future Award, IEEE EMBS Early Career Award, IEEE EMBS Translational Science Award, NSF CAREER Award, Coulter Foundation Early Career Award and Chinese International Young Scientist Award. He is also a fellow-elect of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Dr. Demirci holds 25 issued or pending patents, provisional applications and invention disclosures that have been licensed to numerous companies, and he is the founder of such startups as DxNow, LevitasBio, Koek Biotechnology. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed research articles, 24 book chapters and editorials, and has edited four books, and serves as an editorial board member for various peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Demirci is one of the few recipients of the Full Presidential Fellowship given by the Turkish Ministry of Education and is a co-recipient of the 2002 Outstanding Paper Award of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society. He is the winner of Stanford University Entrepreneur's Challenge Competition in 2004 and Global Start-up Competition in Singapore in 2004. He is also a member of Phi Kappa PhiNational Honor Society and the IEEE. His research interests involve biological applications of Microelectromechanical Systems and acoustics, especially: microfluidics for low cost CD4 counts for HIV in resource-limited-settings for global health problems; acoustic picoliter droplets for cell-by-cell 3D tissue generation, and semiconductor applications; capacitive micromachined ultrasonic arrays for medical imaging applications. His work specializes in applying micro- and nano-scale technologies to problems in medicine at the interface between micro/nanoscale engineering and medicine. Its major research theme focuses on creating new microfluidic technology platforms targeting broad applications in medicine as disposable point-of-care devices, cancer technologies for sorting cancer cells and exosomes, 3-D biofabrication technologies nanoliter droplet biopreservation and microscale tissue engineering applications. Demirci has received a Honorary Bionanotechnology Award on December 11, 2007, in Istanbul, as HST faculty member for his work on a low-cost AIDS monitoring chip. The award was part of a set of annual technology awards presented jointly by the Turkish Technology Development Foundation, the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, and the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association.
