Joseph Pancrazio

Professor
Vice President for Research

joseph.pancrazio@utdallas.edu
Phone: 972-883-2138
Office: BSB 13.633

800 West Campbell Rd.
Mailstop: BSB13
Richardson, TX 75080-3021

Lab Website

Education

PhD, Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia
MS, Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia
BS, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois

Overview

Joseph J. Pancrazio earned a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1984, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia (UVa), Charlottesville, in 1988 and 1990, respectively. His Ph.D. training focused on the ion channel electrophysiology using the patch clamp technique. After postdoctoral training in pharmacology in the Department of Anesthesiology as a recipient of a National Research Service Award, he received a joint appointment in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Biomedical Engineering as an Assistant Professor of research at the UVa in 1991.

In 1997, he joined Georgetown University Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as an Assistant Professor working at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC. In 1998, he joined the NRL as a Principal Investigator at the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, becoming the Head of Code 6920, the Laboratory of Biomolecular Dynamics, in 2002.

Dr. Pancrazio joined the Repair and Plasticity Cluster of NIH in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in January of 2004, where he served as the Program Director for neural engineering and the neural prosthesis program. In October 2009, he joined the faculty in the Volgenau School of Engineering as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the new Bioengineering Program. He served as the founding Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at Mason from 2011 to 2015. In 2011, Dr. Pancrazio was elected to the College of Fellows in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a distinction reserved for the top 2% of the field.

From 2012-2016, he has served as the Chair of the Steering Committee for Neural Interfaces Conference, an international meeting central to the neurotechnology field. In August 2015, Dr. Pancrazio joined UT-Dallas as a Professor of Bioengineering and Associate Provost. In 2018, he was selected after a nationwide search to serve as the UT-Dallas Vice President for Research and Innovation.

Research Interests

Dr. Pancrazio’s research focuses on the development and demonstration of novel neural interface technology for both in vitro and in vivo applications. The laboratory leverages advances in material science and microscale fabrication to create new devices capable of neural stimulation and recording. The laboratory conducts studies with implantable microelectrode arrays in animal models, in vitro neuronal networks cultured on microelectrode arrays for neuropharmacological applications, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy with accelerated aging of insulating and conducting materials, modeling of the tissue-electrode interface, and real time imaging of neuronal activity.