Matt Tucker - Lead Advisor

Matt is no stranger to innovation and technology. Coming from a high-tech family, Matt was exposed to the cutting edge of technology from a very early age. “I can remember my father when I was very young, probably 6 or 7, using scrap fiber optics to explain light transport. I didn’t understand 90% of the words he said, but I understood that the fiber transported the light! From there, I was hooked - I think that was what developed my curiosity for science and technology.”

Staying true to his scientific roots, Matt attended North Carolina State University, where he graduated as Valedictorian with a BS in Biochemistry and as a member of both Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi. “My time at NCSU was my introduction to real, meaningful research. Instead of dissecting owl pellets or frogs, I had the chance to contribute to consequential research targeting numerous maladies.” Desiring to see his work through in the laboratory, he continued with the same research team and completed a Masters degree in Biochemistry at North Carolina State. His thesis, “Purification, Crystallization, and Structural Determination of Wild Type Zebrafish Caspase-3 and the Utilization of a Novel M13 Bacteriophage System to Determine Substrate Specificity for Zebrafish Caspase-3,” will ultimately will allow clinicians to identify potential drug targets to treat both cancer and neurodegenerative disease.

After graduation, Matt accepted a research assistantship at Duke University to pursue a PhD in Mechanical Engineering as part of the Brain Tool Laboratory. In his time at the Brain Tool Laboratory, Matt researched and developed novel tools and technologies to improve modern neurosurgery. Matt’s dissertation entitled, “Creation of an Autonomous, Fluorescence-Based Tissue Diagnostic and Ablation Device for use in Brain Tumor Resection” represents a major advancement in the neurosurgical community. His device enables more accurate and precise ablation of tumors and has the potential to increase the extent of tumor resection. Along with his PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Matt also completed an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Duke University. His MS studies concentrated on data analytics and machine learning.

Matt is a co-patent holder on 5 pending patents relating to his translational medicine research. He has also been published in a variety of journals ranging from The Proceedings on the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America to Clinical and Translational Neurophotonics. During his time at Duke University, Matt worked with NASA at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. Matt was part of the team that developed state estimation and control software for the Mars 2020 rover (Group 347E). In his spare time, he and his wife, Celina, enjoy cooking and training their rescue greyhound. Matt also enjoys reading, woodworking, and taking the fun out of fantasy football with machine learning and statistical analyses.