August 1, 2001

Dr. Robert Langer to Present 2001 Kreshover Lecture

Dr. Robert Langer, internationally known for his work in the fields of biotechnology and materials science, will present the 2001 NIDCR Seymour J. Kreshover Lecture, Monday, September 24 at 3:30 p.m. in the Masur Auditorium on the campus of the National Institutes of Health. The title of his lecture is "Biomaterials and How They Will Change Our Lives." Dr. Langer is the Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Named by both Forbes Magazine and BioWorld as one of the 25 most important individuals in the world in the field of biotechnology, Langer was one of the first researchers to apply engineering principles to medical problems. He received his training in the early 1970's in the laboratory of Dr. Judah Folkman at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston. Langer pioneered the encapsulation of protein therapeutics in polymer matrices for controlled-release drug delivery. Not only did he prove the feasibility of the idea, but he went on to become the founder of an entire field of research based on controlled-release of drugs from devices made of biodegradable polymers.

Most recently, Dr. Langer was part of a team that developed a new microchip that can provide controlled release of single or multiple chemical substances on demand, as reported in Nature in January 1999. This is the first device of its kind to enable compounds in solid, liquid, or gel form to be stored inside a microchip, with the release of the compounds achieved on demand and with no moving parts.

Dr. Langer has written 680 articles and holds 382 patents. He has received over 80 awards for his invention of novel polymers and medical applications that include the use of polymers as a scaffold for growing tissue. His patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 80 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology, and medical device companies; a number of these companies were launched on the basis of these patent licenses. Dr. Langer is the only active member of all three U.S. national academies: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. He also serves as chairman of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) SCIENCE Board, the FDA's highest advisory board. 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.

The Kreshover Lecture series was started in 1983 by the NIDCR and is open to all interested members of the scientific community.