Daniel A. Hammer
Alfred G. and Meta A. Ennis Professor of Bioengineering
Contact
Tel: 215-573-6761
Email: hammer@seas.upenn.edu
Research Website | Publications
About
Professor Hammer was born in Brooklyn, New York, attended Stuyvesant High School. He received his BSE in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University in 1982, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. He taught at Cornell University from 1988-1996, receiving tenure there before moving to Penn in 1996. He served as Chair of Bioengineering from 2000-2007 and was the P.I. of Penn’s Whitaker Foundation Leadership-Development Award, which partially funded the construction of Skirkanich Hall. He is the Inaugural Director of the Penn Center for Precision Engineering for Health (CPE4H). He has advised over 55 Ph.D. theses.
Research Interests
The Hammer laboratory works to understand immune cell biology from principles in colloidal science, and uses this understanding to develop synthetic materials that mimic cell biology. The laboratory is known for the development of Adhesive Dynamics, a simulator of cell adhesion which is now being used to understand CAR T cell/tumor cell interactions. Another interest is to develop a fundamental cell motility, which enables immune cells to find targets and transmit molecular information. The lab is also interested in designing protocells – synthetic cells based on the architecture of biological cells – that can be used for sensing and drug delivery. Within protocells, we make synthetic membraneless organelles from designed, self-assembling intrinsically disordered proteins. that act as amplifiers and attenuators of protocell function.
Soft Matter and Complex Fluids; Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering
Educational Background
Ph.D.: University of Pennsylvania (1987)
B.S.: Princeton University (1982)
Awards
2018 Penn Provost Award for PhD Mentoring and Advising
2006 BMES Distinguished Lecturer
1989 NSF Presidential Young Investigator