Distinguished Professors Named
Two McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members have been named Distinguished Professors. They are:
- George Michalopoulos, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Pathology
- Sanjeev G. Shroff, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering
The rank of Distinguished Professor acknowledges extraordinary, internationally recognized scholarly attainment in an individual discipline or field. University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg made the appointments based on the recommendations of Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Patricia E. Beeson.
Dr. Michalopoulos is professor and chair in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology. He has been recognized for his contributions to understanding the pathways of growth factors leading the liver to regenerate. In 1989, his laboratory, in conjunction with two other laboratories, independently discovered Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF), a protein that is a major driver of the regeneration of liver and other tissues. His laboratory subsequently identified the receptor for that protein.
Dr. Michalopoulos joined the School of Medicine faculty in 1991, also serving as associate vice chancellor for the Schools of the Health Sciences and as interim dean for the School of Medicine 1995-98.
He is co-founder of Kytaron, a local biotech company working on building small tissues in culture and capitalizing on several new lines of biotechnology, including some that were invested in and patented by him and his collaborators.
He continues his research in liver regeneration and the connection between growth regulation of normal liver and the genomically altered pathways seen in liver cancer. For his work, Dr. Michalopoulos received the Rous-Whipple award from the Society for Investigative Pathology and the Distinguished Research Award from the American Liver Foundation.
Dr. Michalopoulos received an MD from Athens University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in anatomic pathology and a PhD in oncology at the Wisconsin Medical Center in Madison.
Dr. Shroff is professor and Gerald E. McGinnis Endowed Chair in Bioengineering in the Swanson School of Engineering; professor of medicine in the School of Medicine; and professor of clinical and translational science in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
Additionally, Dr. Shroff is a core faculty member in the Pitt-UPMC McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine and an affiliated faculty member at the Magee-Womens Research Institute. Dr. Shroff also is associate chair of the Department of Bioengineering.
Dr. Shroff received his PhD in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Penn.
His research interests involve studies of the cardiovascular system — including the evaluation of contractile and regulatory proteins and overall whole heart function; vascular stiffness and cardiovascular function; and large-scale mathematical simulations of biological systems for research, education, and engineering design.
He is an elected fellow of the American Physiological Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Dr. Shroff received the 2007 Carnegie Science Center Award for Excellence (University/Post-Secondary Educator). He also received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2011.
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