Antonios G. Mikos is the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. He is the Director of the Biomaterials Lab, the Director of the Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering, and the Director of the J.W. Cox Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering at Rice University. He received his Dipl.Eng. (1983) from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and his Ph.D. (1988) in chemical engineering from Purdue University. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Medical School before joining the Rice Faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor.

Mikos’ research focuses on the synthesis, processing, and evaluation of new biomaterials for use as scaffolds for tissue engineering, as carriers for controlled drug delivery, as non-viral vectors for gene therapy, and as platforms for disease modeling. His work has led to the development of novel orthopaedic, dental, cardiovascular, neurologic, and ophthalmologic biomaterials. He is the author of over 710 publications and 32 patents. He is the editor of 15 books and the author of one textbook (Biomaterials: The Intersection of Biology and Materials Science, Pearson, 1st ed., 2008 and 2nd ed., 2023). He has been cited over 105,000 times and has an h-index of 169.

Mikos is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Member of the National Academy of Inventors, a Member of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology, a Member of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, a Member of the Academia Europaea, a Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a Member of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Galicia, and a Member of the Academy of Athens. He is a Founding Fellow of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, a Fellow of the Controlled Release Society, and a Fellow of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

Mikos has been recognized by various awards including the Jensen Tissue Engineering Award of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Global and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas, the Founders Award and the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature of the Society For Biomaterials, the Founders Award of the Controlled Release Society, the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecturer Award and the Shu Chien Achievement Award of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Biomaterials Global Impact Award, the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal, the International Award of the European Society for Biomaterials, the Excellence in Surface Science Award of the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation, the Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research, the James E. Bailey Award in Biological Engineering, and the Cato T. Laurencin Regenerative Engineering Founder’s Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Meriam/Wiley Distinguished Author Award of the American Society for Engineering Education, the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology, the Marshall R. Urist Award for Excellence in Tissue Regeneration Research of the Orthopaedic Research Society, the Distinguished Scientist Award – Isaac Schour Memorial Award of the International Association for Dental Research, the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award of Purdue University, and the Presidential Award for Mentoring and the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Service of Rice University, as well as Honorary Doctorates from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Crete, Greece.

Mikos has mentored 71 graduate students on their way to completing their doctoral studies, as well as 42 postdoctoral fellows, 34 of whom remain in academia at institutions including Chung-Ang University, Dongguk University, Georgia Tech, Hanyang University, Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, Mayo Clinic, National University of Singapore, Radboud University Medical Center, Tulane University, University of Maryland, University of New Mexico, University of Oklahoma, University of Pittsburgh, University of Santiago de Compostela, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and Virginia Tech among others. He has given over 820 presentations in national and international meetings and over 230 invited seminars at universities and companies. He is organizer of the continuing education course Advances in Tissue Engineering offered annually at Rice University since 1993.

Mikos is a founding editor and editor-in-chief of the journals Tissue Engineering Part A: Research Advances, Tissue Engineering Part B: Reviews, and Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods and a member of the editorial boards of the journals Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, Cell Transplantation, Journal of Biomaterials Science Polymer Edition, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research (Part A and B), and Journal of Controlled Release. He is Past-President of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas and the Society For Biomaterials.

Research Statement

Ongoing projects in the Mikos Research Group include:

• Investigating novel 3D printing and bioprinting strategies for manufacturing biodegradable polymer scaffolds with precise geometries, physiologically relevant tissue architectures, and controlled release of biochemical signals to direct stem cell differentiation and tissue formation for bone and cartilage regeneration and repair;
• Synthesizing novel extracellular matrix-derived and nanomaterial-based bioinks for 3D printing and bioprinting;
• Fabricating injectable, in situ polymerizable, biodegradable composite scaffolds to deliver stem cells for osteochondral tissue engineering;
• Harnessing biomimetic strategies to promote articular cartilage regeneration;
• Designing tunable and electro-active scaffolds of decellularized extracellular matrix for skeletal muscle repair;
• Leveraging mechanically tunable polymeric scaffolds and in vitro bioreactors to examine the effects of mechanical forces and various cellular compartments within the tumor microenvironment on disease progression and drug resistance profiles of bone sarcomas; and
• Developing in vivo bioreactors for craniofacial reconstruction.