Principal Investigator

Robert “Smitty” Oakes, PhD

(he/him/his)

Dr. Robert “Smitty” Oakes, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware. Jointly, he holds an appointment with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a Career Development Awardee (CDA-2). Dr. Oakes completed the final stage of his postdoctoral training at the University of Maryland in the laboratory of Christopher M. Jewell where he is focused on therapeutics for autoimmunity. He completed the first stage of his postdoctoral training in the Laboratories of Lonnie Shea and Jacqueline Jeruss at the University of Michigan where he focused on implantable diagnostics for monitoring cancer progression. He completed his doctoral work on neuroimmune responses to brain-machine interfaces in the Laboratory of Patrick Tresco at The University of Utah. He received a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in Theology from Lenoir-Rhyne University. In 2023, he was awarded the BioInterfaces Rising Star Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Society for Biomaterials for his research contributions in immunoengineering. His work has been supported by an NIH T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship in cancer biology and a VA CDA-2 on immunotherapy design.

His career goal is to build a diverse, inclusive, and team-based lab environment where trainees pursue transformative research and training for career and personal growth.

Outside of the lab, Smitty enjoys exploring the outdoors through hiking and mountain biking, coffee, watching baseball, coffee, listening to music, contemplating the benefits of flannel shirts, coffee, and photography.