John Bischof, NSF ATP-Bio Director and Gloria Elliott, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Program Manager will discuss Gloria’s career path, emphasizing the continuous thread of disruptive innovation in human health that has defined her work. Prior to joining the ARPA-H in the Scalable Solutions Office, Gloria served as a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Sciences at UNC Charlotte, where she also directed the Biostability Lab. There, she investigated the underlying science of cryo and lyopreservation and developed new technologies to enable both stabilization approaches—work that continues to inform her efforts today.
Featured Speakers:
- Gloria Elliott, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)
- John Bischof, University of Minnesota
This session is part of the Biopreservation Technologies Track.
Presentation Details
John Bischof, PhD
Director, Institute for Engineering in Medicine
Director, ATP-Bio NSF ERC
Medtronic-Bakken Endowed Chair for Engineering in Medicine
Distinguished McKnight University Professor
University of Minnesota
Bio: Bischof works in the area of thermal bioengineering with a focus on biopreservation. He has been a faculty in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota since 1993. Bischof is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Departments of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, and the Medtronic-Bakken Endowed Chair and Director of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, and Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center ATP-Bio.
Gloria Elliott, PhD
Program Manager
Scalable Solutions Office
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)
Bio: Dr. Gloria Elliott joined the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as a Program Manager in the Scalable Solutions Office in January 2025 from the Organ Preservation Alliance where she served as president and Chief Science Officer. Prior to that, Elliott was the founding Chief Science Officer of Humanity Bio, a small biotechnology research company focused on human tissue preservation.
Dr. Elliott is a professor emerita at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her expertise is in cryobiology and biopreservation technology, especially non-refrigerated methods. She received her doctorate in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University and completed post-doctoral work at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine.