Manu Omar Platt (born 1980) is an American biomedical engineer who is a professor at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. He serves as Diversity Director of the Center on Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems.

Early life and education

Platt is the son of a veteran of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...

. He spent his high school years in

Dover, Delaware Dover () is the capital and second-largest city of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County and the principal city of the Dover, DE, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County and is part o ...

. As a high school student, Platt took part in science enrichment programmes at

Delaware State University Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The university encompasses four col ...

. He earned his undergraduate degree at

Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliation ...

, where he studied biology as an ARCS Foundation scholar. At Morehouse, Platt was mentored by

Robert M. Nerem Robert M. Nerem, often referred to as Bob Nerem, a member of the U. S. National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, held the Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine and Institute Professor Emeritus at the ...

, and he took part in the Morehouse SPACE scholar programme. On Nerem's advice Platt moved to the

for his graduate studies, where he worked with Hanjoong Jo on endothelial cell biology. His doctoral research was performed in collaboration with

Emory University School of Medicine The Emory University School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of Emory University and a component of Emory’s Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center. Before it was established as the Emory School of Medicine in 1915, the school fi ...

, as one of the first students to be part of the newly established biomedical engineering program. After earning his doctoral degree he joined

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

(MIT).

Research and career

In 2009 Platt was appointed to the faculty of the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, where he investigates the proteolytic mechanisms of disease, with a focus on conditions that impact Black communities. He has concentrated on reducing the occurrence of stroke in patients with

sickle cell disease Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red b ...

. Platt has investigated how scientific discoveries have impacted the governmental response to

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

. He studied the various bills introduced by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

, and found that whilst the number of bills was related to breakthroughs in scientific research, it did not impact the passage of laws. Platt is the founding director of ''Engaging New Generations at Georgia Tech through Engineering and Science'' (ENGAGES), a biotechnology and engineering research scheme for

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

high school students. He delivered the 2017 Biomedical Engineering Society lecture, where he spoke about being from an underrepresented group in science, “Often, if you are the first or the only of a particular demographic category, the path is neither well paved, nor well lit,”. He remarked that scientists can feel like they are waiting for the “perfect time,” to be impactful in promoting diversity and inclusion. In 2019 he was selected as a Keystone Symposia Fellow. In response to the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...

, universities released statements that called out racism within their research institutions. Platt wrote a perspective piece for '' Nature Reviews Materials'' on racism within academia, in which he wrote, “It is said that science is a meritocracy; however, that only holds true if Black professors’ existence is accepted,”.

Presentations

Danger of Waiting for 'Perfect Time' to Promote Diversity and Inclusion
" Lecture presented to the University of Arkansas, Biomedical Engineering Seminar, September 13, 2018.

Awards and honours

* NIH/International AIDS Society Scholarship *

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U ...

Director's New Innovator Award * Georgia Tech Biomedical Engineering Society Diversity Award * Georgia Distinguished Cancer Scientist Award * Emerging Scholar, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine

Selected publications

* * *

Personal life

Platt is one of six sons, including political science researcher Matthew B. Platt. He is a master of origami.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Platt, Manu American biomedical engineers 1980 births Living people Georgia Tech alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Georgia Tech faculty African-American engineers 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people