Dr. Millis is Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences at the University at Albany. He received the Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), received postdoctoral training at the University of Washington School of Medicine (Seattle), and was a Senior Scientist in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Renato Dulbecco at the Salk Institute (La Jolla). Dr. Millis is a founder of the University at Albany's Center for Comparative Functional Genomics and has served as a consultant for the NIH-National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

Dr. Millis' research is focused on investigations of gene expression and gene regulation in cells of the cardiovascular wall and other tissues. Specifically, he is studying genes whose expression is critical to the process of angiogenesis (i.e., the growth of new blood vessels), cardiovascular development and the pathogenesis of vascular diseases (i.e., restenosis, vascular occlusion disorders). He was awarded the 2002 Inventor of the Year by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association. His work exploits the latest genomic and proteomics data provided by large-scale human and mouse international gene sequencing projects to identify genes whose expression profile may be predictive for disease. A specific goal of his research is the creation of specific therapeutic reagents designed to block the process of vascular cell migration that contributes to occlusive vascular disease and other diseases.

In addition, he has served on more than 50 pre-doctoral thesis boards and has trained 18 pre- and post-doctoral students in Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Pathology many of who now hold leadership positions in academia, industry, and government.