Mark DeCoster's Biography

Mark DeCoster, Associate Professor, Louisiana Tech University

Dr. DeCoster is the James E. Wyche III endowed Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. He is also a member of the Institute of Micromanufacturing there.
He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the Medical College of Virginia/ Virginia Commonwealth University, and his B.S. in Biology from the College of William and Mary.
His research interests include combining nanotechnology with cell biology to understand systems in the brain and in disease states such as cancer.
A current growing interest in his group is three-dimensional (3D) constructs in cell biology. As part of recent discoveries in his lab, in 2010 Dr. DeCoster founded the startup company Nanogaia, which is developing novel nano-biological hybrid materials and is beginning to provide tools for 3D and 2D cell interfaces.
Dr. DeCoster has published 60 peer-reviewed papers with over 1,750 citations of this work. He has served extensively as a reviewer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and for more than 25 different scientific journals including Neuroscience and Nanotechnology journals. He has contributed extensively over the years to a large number of national and international scientific meetings, with over 140 scientific abstracts and invited talks presented.
He currently has funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense in the United States, as well as competitive support from State and University sources.