Nicholas (Nikolaos) A. Peppas (Greek: Νικόλαος Α. Πέππας; born August 25, 1948, in Athens, Greece) is a chemical and biomedical engineer whose leadership in biomaterials science and engineering, drug delivery, bionanotechnology, pharmaceutical sciences, chemical and polymer engineering has provided seminal foundations based on the physics and mathematical theories of nanoscale, macromolecular processes and drug/protein transport and has led to numerous biomedical products or devices.

[1] Subsequently, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Arteriosclerosis Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under world biomedical leaders Clark K. Colton,[2] Kenneth A. Smith[3] and Robert S.

He has been at the University of Texas at Austin since December 2002 and is serving as the director of the Institute of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, and Regenerative Medicine,[5] and its Laboratory of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery and Bionanotechnology[6] with appointments in the department of chemical engineering,[7] the Department of Biomedical Engineering[8] and the College of Pharmacy[9] at the University of Texas at Austin.

The multidisciplinary approach of his research in bionanotechnology and biomolecular engineering blends modern molecular and cellular biology with engineering to generate the next-generation of medical systems and devices, including bioMEMS with enhanced applicability, reliability, functionality, and longevity.

[11] Very few chemical engineers are members of both NAE and IOM (including Frances Arnold, Mark Davis, David Mooney of Harvard, and David A. Tirrell of the California Institute of Technology, Rakesh Jain of Harvard, Robert Langer of MIT, and his former students Antonios Mikos Archived 2017-05-02 at the Wayback Machine of Rice University and Kristi Anseth of the University of Colorado).

He has helped to set the fundamentals and rational design of drug delivery systems and biomaterials over the past 39 years.

[31] Peppas and his students originated the novel muco- and bioadhesive systems that interact molecularly with the mucus and tissue and have been able to prolong bioavailability of proteins and peptides in the blood.

[41][42] The same technology has been used for the transmucosal (oral, buccal) delivery of calcitonin (for treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women)[43] and interferon-alpha (for cancer therapy), and is being investigated for interferon-beta release for multiple sclerotic patients.

Using intelligent polymers[45][46] as early as 1980, Peppas and his group were the first to use such pH-sensitive and temperature-sensitive systems for modulated release of streptokinase and other fibrinolytic enzymes.

Peppas has founded three companies: Mimetic Solutions, Appian Labs and CoraDyn Biosystems for the commercialization of various pharmaceutical products and medical devices.

Peppas has supervised more than 875 researchers, visiting scientists and graduate students including 100 PhDs, of which 54 are now professors in other universities.

Nicholas Peppas is married to Lisa Brannon-Peppas,[74] whom he met at Purdue University, where she was doing her Ph.D. in chemical engineering.

[79] He has also written numerous biographies on Greek opera singers including the tenor of La Scala Nicola Filacuridi (1924-2009), the soprano of the Paris Opera Elen Dosia (1913-2002), the celebrated Greek tenor Michael Theodore (1939- ) who had a radio and record career in Germany, the lyric tenor Antonios Delendas (1902-1966), the celebrated Greek soprano of the Scala di Milano Rena Gary Falachi, (Rena Garyfallaki, 1920- ), the bass Petros Hoidas (1914-1977), the tenor of the Vienna State Opera Petros Baxevanos (1904-1982), the tenor of the Lyric Opera of Athens Nikos Hatzinikolaou (1929- ), the internationally known Greek singers Nicola Zaccaria (1923-2007), Nicola Moscona (1907-1975), Kostas Paskalis (1929-2007), Efthymios Mihalopoulos (1937- ), and Pavlos Raptis (1938- ) and many others.