Dr. VanEpps is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan.  He is also Associate Director of the Max Henry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation.  He received bachelors’ degrees from the University of Pittsburgh in Molecular Biology and Chemical Engineering in 2001.  He then entered the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh and obtained his MD as well as his PhD in Bioengineering in 2009.  He completed his residency in Emergency Medicine in 2013, research fellowship in 2015, and has been on faculty at the University of Michigan since. 

In addition to caring for patients in the Adult Emergency Department and the Emergency Critical Care Center (the nation’s first ICU based in an emergency department) at Michigan Medicine, he leads a translational research program that seeks to revolutionize detection and treatment of bacterial infections, including reducing the morbidity and mortality of sepsis and medical device infections. His innovative approaches have the potential to transform acute infectious disease management in emergency medicine and healthcare at large. This effort aligns with institutional, national, and international initiatives to improve sepsis care, reduce healthcare associated infections, and combat antibiotic resistance. 

He is an accomplished research scientist in 3 distinct but complementary areas. Specifically, he has unique expertise in engineering antimicrobial nanoparticles to function as “drug-like” antibiotics and immune modulators; in situ treatment strategies for medical device-associated infections to expand approaches beyond surgical excision of the infected implant; and rapid diagnostic assays for detecting and characterizing bacterial infections and sepsis. He has authored peer-reviewed publications in high impact journals including, ACS Nano, Advanced Materials, Advanced Material Interfaces, RSC Nanoscale, Matter, and Nature Computational Science. His research has been highlighted on eight different journal covers including the very high impact journal, Advanced Materials multiple times. His group has received funding from 5 different institutes at the NIH, the American Heart Association, the Department of Defense, the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine, the Emergency Medicine Foundation, the American Thoracic Society. He is also a serial innovator with multiple inventions/patents and is the co-founder of two biomedical device start-up companies.

Complementing achievements as a scientist, he has demonstrated exceptional teaching and mentorship at all levels including, 3 junior faculty members (1 T32 awardee and 1 K08 awardee), 7 doctoral graduate students, 4 post-doctoral researchers, a pediatric critical care fellow, 3 residents, a medical student, and 6 undergraduate students. He was applauded for clinical teaching in 2014 and 2020 with the Golden Apple teaching award, a departmental recognition from residents for exemplary clinical teaching.