2014 Darsh Wasan lecture
Join IIT and Armour College of Engineering for the 2014 Darsh T. Wasan Lecture. This year’s lecture, entitled Biomaterials and Biotechnology: Controlled Drug Delivery Systems and Tissue Engineering, will be in celebration of the 50 years Dr. Wasan has spent with IIT. Dr. Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will deliver this year's lecture.
Lecture: 3:15 p.m. | Reception: 4:30 p.m
Abstract
Advanced drug delivery systems are having an enormous impact on human health. We start by discussing our early research on developing the first controlled release systems for macromolecules and the isolation of angiogenesis inhibitors and how these led to numerous new therapies. For example, new drug delivery technologies including nanoparticles and nanotechnology are now being studied for use treating cancer and other illnesses. We then discuss ways of developing novel microchips for drug delivery. Approaches for creating new biomaterials are then evaluated and examples where such materials are used in brain cancer and shape memory applications are discussed. Finally, by combining mammalian cells, including stem cells, with synthetic polymers, new approaches for engineering tissues are being developed that may someday help in various disease. Examples in the areas of cartilage, skin, blood vessels and spinal cord repair are discussed.
Business attire recommended.
Complimentary parking will be available in lot A4 located directly north of The McCormick
Tribune Campus Center on State Street. NOTE: all vehicles must display a parking pass on their dashboard.
RSVP by Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Direct any questions to: Melissa Gurule at 312.567.3001 or mgurule@iit.edu
About the Speaker
Robert S. Langer is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Langer has written over 1,250 articles. He also has nearly 1,050 patents worldwide. Dr. Langer’s patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 250 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He is the most cited engineer in history.
Dr. Langer has received over 220 major awards. He is one of 7 individuals to have received both the United States National Medal of Science (2006) and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011). He also received the 2002 Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering, the 2008 Millennium Prize, the world’s largest technology prize, the 2012 Priestley Medal, the highest award of the American Chemical Society, the 2013 Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. He is the also the only engineer to receive the Gairdner Foundation International Award. Among numerous other awards Langer has received are the Dickson Prize for Science (2002), Heinz Award for Technology, Economy and Employment (2003), the Harvey Prize (2003), the John Fritz Award (2003) (given previously to inventors such as Thomas Edison and Orville Wright), the General Motors Kettering Prize for Cancer Research (2004), the Dan David Prize in Materials Science (2005), the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2005), the largest prize in the U.S. for medical research, induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2006), the Max Planck Research Award (2008), the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research (2008), the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (2011) and the Terumo International Prize (2012). In 1998, he received the Lemelson-MIT prize, the world’s largest prize for invention for being “one of history’s most prolific inventors in medicine.” In 1989 Dr. Langer was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1992 he was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2012 he was elected to the National Academy of Inventors.Forbes Magazine (1999) and Bio World (1990) have named Dr. Langer as one of the 25 most important individuals in biotechnology in the world.
Forbes Magazine (2002) selected Dr. Langer as one of the 15 innovators world wide who will reinvent our future. Time Magazine and CNN (2001) named Dr. Langer as one of the 100 most important people in America and one of the 18 top people in science or medicine in America (America’s Best). Parade Magazine (2004) selected Dr. Langer as one of 6 “Heroes whose research may save your life.” Dr. Langer has received honorary doctorates from universities in both the U.S. and abroad. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Cornell University in 1970 and his Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974, both in Chemical Engineering.