Menu

Advisory Board

Dr. Garth D. Ehrlich

In Fantastic Voyage : Live Long Enough to Live Forever authored by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, the authors talked about a research team headed by Garth Ehrlich of the Allegheny Singer Research Institute in Pittsburgh that is developing MEMS-based sensor robots which can be implanted inside the body to detect infection, identify the pathogen, and then dispense the appropriate antibiotic from the device’s internal containers.
 
One application they envision is preventing bacterial infections, a major cause of hip joint replacement failure. Garth points out that today, “the only recourse for such patients is the traumatic removal of the implant, which results in additional bone loss, extensive soft tissue destruction, months of forced bed rest with intravenous antibiotics, and significant loss of quality of life due to complete loss of mobility.”
 
Dr. Garth D. Ehrlich is currently Executive Director of Center for Genomic Sciences at Allegheny-Singer Research Institute. He is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the MCP Hahnemann University School of Medicine and the Professor and Vice Chairman, Dept. of Human Genetics at the MCP Hahnemman University School of Medicine.
 
The Center for Genomic Sciences (CGS) is a comprehensive and flexible research facility designed to investigate a broad range of medically and surgically relevant problems using cutting-edge molecular genetic and bioinformatics techniques. CGS is a self-contained research unit of Allegheny-Singer Research Institute, ASRI, the research arm of Allegheny General Hospital which, in turn, serves as the tertiary care facility for the entire West Penn Allegheny Health System.
 
He is coeditor of PCR-Based Diagnostics in Infectious Disease and author or coauthor of Loss of T cell receptor V-repertoire in HIV-1 infected SCID-hu mice in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, Genomic Organization of the Human Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 2 (FGFR2) Gene and Comparative Analyses of the Human FGFR Gene Family in Gene, The prevalence of Human T-cell Leukemia Virus Types I and II in various patient populations, retroviral risk groups and healthy blood donors in American Journal of Hematology, RNA differential display of scarless wound healing in fetal rabbit indicates downregulation of a CCT chaperonin subunit and upregulation of a glycophorin-like gene transcript in Journal of Pediatric Surgery, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Displays Multiple Phenotypes during Development of a Biofilm in Journal of Bacteriology.
 
He earned his B.A. in Biology with Honors from Alfred University in 1977 and his Ph.D. in Biology from Syracuse University in 1987. He is a consultant for Teltech and is on the Scientific Advisory Board of Radvault and of Bacterin and is doing molecular diagnostic support of clinical trials for Pfizer. He enjoys Magic the Gathering.