Steven R. Little, PhD

At the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Steven Little is the Chairman of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and is the William Kepler Whiteford Endowed Professor in the Departments of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Bioengineering, Immunology, Ophthalmology, and Pharmaceutical Sciences.  Dr. Little joined the McGowan Institute in 2006 after receiving his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Researchers in Dr. Little’s Lab focus upon therapies that are biomimetic in that they replicate the biological function and interactions of living entities using synthetic systems. The areas of study include bioengineering, chemistry, chemical engineering, ophthalmology, and immunology. The health issues addressed include autoimmune disease, battlefield wounds, cancer, ocular diseases, and transplantation. Some of the ongoing research projects in the lab include: Mimicking Biological Structure and Behavior Using Polymers, Treatments for Inflammatory Diseases that Restore Immunological Homeostasis, Sequential Delivery of Growth Factors for Regeneration of Tissues, and Thermo-gelling Eye Drops for the Delivery of Ophthalmic Therapies. Dr. Little currently has 15 issued patents and pending patent applications. Since joining the McGowan Institute, Dr. Little has received numerous awards. Most recently this past year, he was named a Fellow of the Controlled Release Society.  He is also Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society and the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering.  He is one of the recipients of the Curtis W. McGraw Award from the American Society for Engineering Education, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, and the Beckman Young Investigator Award.  Other awards include being named one of five Pittsburgh “Disruptors” who are “Shaking Up the Status Quo and Reshaping Our World” by Pop City Pittsburgh (2014), the Innovative Ophthalmic Research Award - Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) (2014), and several Carnegie Science Awards.  He is the only individual University history to win all three Chancellor’s Distinguished Award (Distinguished Research, Distinguished Teaching, and Distinguished Service). Dr. Little is also a Co-Founder for Qrono Inc., a Pittsburgh-based biotech start-up company that custom designs controlled release formulations in silico for pharmaceutical companies, academic laboratories, and agricultural companies. View a list of Dr. Little’s publications here.