Emmanuel (Manolis) Tzanakakis is a Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Tufts University. He is also a faculty member of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of the Tufts Medical Center. Professor Tzanakakis earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota (UMN) and received post-doctoral training at the UMN Stem Cell Institute and the Diabetes Center of the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF). Research in his group focuses on stem cell engineering and bioprocessing with emphasis on the development of cellular therapies. Optogenetic approaches are employed for the generation of stem cell-derived tissue equivalents amenable to functional regulation with light. The laboratory also has a long-standing interest in the expression and function of regenerating islet-derived (Reg) proteins in the context of pancreatic pathophysiology. He is the recipient of the James D. Watson Investigator Award and of fellowships from the National Institutes of Health and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation while research by the Tzanakakis group has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Defense.