Lyle Hood, Ph.D., runs the Medical Design Innovations Laboratory at UTSA. He is dedicated to helping his students learn mechanical and biomedical engineering concepts and apply themselves to innovation. In 2020 (awarded in 2022), he received UTSA’s Innovator of the Year Award for 1 patent issued, 10 patent filings and 8 new technology disclosures in 2019. At the award ceremony, he shared the spotlight with his students, who had significant numbers of inventions also. Due to his dedication to supporting student-athletes, he was selected by students for an on-field acknowledgement of his efforts during a UTSA football game in 2019. He is an Assistant Professor in UTSA’s Departments of Mechanical and Electrical/Computer Engineering. He also teaches courses within the joint UTSA – UT Health San Antonio’s Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. Program. His own research has included microfluidics, fiberoptics, nanomedicine, targeted chemotherapy, implantable drug delivery systems, and laser-tissue interaction.
He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Tech-Wake Forest, where his dissertation included teh develompent of a fiberoptic microneedle device combining the delivery of fluids and laser light to treat brain and bladder cancers. He holds a M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Tech-Wake Forest and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Houston. He is also a co-founder of Bexar Biomedical, a start-up company developing an innovative drug delivery port for intrathecal chronic pain management, and EmergenceMed, a start-up focused on the development of airway management devices.
