Dr. Leonidas Bleris
- Professor of Bioengineering
- Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Science
The legacy of Cecil H. and Ida Green at The University of Texas at Dallas was to establish in Dallas a world-class cohort of faculty and students in the new domain of integrated interdisciplinary biomedical research. The Cecil Green Estate created the professorship. Bleris was appointed in 2018.
“There are exciting new opportunities at the interface of sciences and engineering. The ability to reliably edit the human genome and apply control will radically change therapeutics in the near future. I am honored and grateful to be in the company of this selected group of endowed professors.”
A pioneer in the fields of synthetic biology and genome editing, Dr. Leonidas Bleris’ lab investigates theoretically and implements in the lab genetic circuits that process information and perform novel functions in human cells.
His group approaches complex research problems at the intersection of biology and engineering using top-down and bottom-up design and analysis strategies. A top-down strategy is a decomposition of an existing system in order to gain insight into its properties, while a bottom-up strategy is essentially the synthesis of simple components towards intricate systems with well-defined characteristics. Examples of recent breakthroughs include dissecting the role of direct and indirect connections in biological networks and inventing a new mechanism for controlled gene delivery.
Bleris’ research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, including an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. In 2014, Bleris received the Junior Faculty Research Award from the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. He has served as an independent expert with the European Commission under the Science, Economy and Society directorate.
Before joining UT Dallas, Bleris was a visiting scientist and postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University. In 2015, he was awarded the Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and served with the Board of Mathematical Sciences and Their Applications.
Bleris earned a master’s degree in control theory, electrical and computer engineering, and a PhD in electrical engineering from Lehigh University. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece.