Research Areas
Establish self-assembled monolayers as a tool for creating compatible biological/non-biological interfaces; integration of biological and neuronal-based systems with MEMS devices, primarily microelectronic devices. Utilization of human-on-a-chip systems for preclinical drug discovery, toxicology investigations and artificial intelligence research.

Dr. Hickman published the first serum-free, defined culture system for neuronal systems and extended this from rat to mouse, both embryonic and adult, as well as to human. These defined in vitro systems have now been extended to cardiac, muscle, endothelial, hepatocyte, cancer, kidney and epithelial cells as well as multiple combinations of different cell types. He has 165 publications and 20 book chapters, in addition to 32 issued patents out of 49 total patent applications. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biomedical Engineers (2004), the American Vacuum Society (2007) International Academy of Nanobiotechnology (2019) and the National Academy of Inventors (2020). He was awarded the BioFlorida Researcher of the Year in 2022.