Acta Materialia, Acta Biomaterialia, Scripta Materialia, Materialia Journals

Clemens van Blitterswijk

After graduating as a Cell Biologist at Leiden University in 1982 he defended his PhD thesis on artificial ceramic calcium phosphate implants at the same University in 1985. This early work was already recognized by several national and international awards and gave him insight into the mechanisms of bone bonding, biodegradation and the interactions between materials and host in an infected environment.

While initially using tissue culture of mesenchymal stem cells for biocompatibility testing, it became evident that the cultured tissue (mineralized bone tissue) may actually serve as a bone substitute by itself. This became the main focus of the research group from the early 1990’s, thus becoming one of the first movers in the field of tissue engineering in general and bone tissue engineering, specifically. The first clinical trials of bone were not as good as suggested by earlier animal experiments but they gave insights into the hurdles that needed to be overcome in order to make tissue engineering clinically applicable. In the early stages of the tissue engineering efforts, the group around Prof. van Blitterswijk was convinced that the cell was key to clinical success, much more so than the scaffold material. However, it became clear over time that the material component was at least as important. This triggered a research line on osteoinductive scaffolds that continues until today.

Nevertheless, Prof. van Blitterswijk and his coworkers, in the early 2000’s, were dissatisfied by the inefficient way in which new biomaterials were developed. In general, small series of materials would be assessed over several years in a few models to test hypotheses for better material performance. If that didn’t work it would start all over again, losing precious time. It was the groups’ vision that, in view of the complex nature of material/recipient interactions and the relatively limited fundamental knowledge on material performance in a biological setting, this process was at best suboptimal. This led to the concept of Materiomics, where millions of material surface structures would be designed as the basis of a library from which thousands would be selected to be tested in high throughput screening, using the principles of machine learning. Work which these days is still the main focus of the group.

Similar to the Materiomics approach, which embraced, rather than denied, the lack of predictability of material performance in a biological setting, the group in parallel ventured into the area of self assembly and self organization to build 3D tissues in high throughput. Again, the concept was that the currently available fundamental scientific knowledge was insufficient to efficiently and predictably guide tissue formation and that it would be beneficial to rather trigger this by having the tissues organize themselves by only few clues; clues that could be discovered by high throughput testing. This, more recently, led to the group being at the very forefront of synthetic embryo research while building complex mouse embryo like structures (blastocysts) in vitro in high throughput without the use of either sperm cells or oocytes, using the principles of self organization. This field is currently developing very fast internationally and it may well contribute to the advance of regenerative medicine in many ways.

During his career Professor Clemens van Blitterswijk has been a strong proponent of the necessity of active collaboration between university researchers and industry in order to efficiently bring technology to patients. As such, he acted as founder or cofounder of many university spin-offs and investment funds. He is very proud to have been allowed to serve as the catalyst for the scientific career of a substantial number of individuals who have successfully built groups of their own at many locations over the world and he is very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many smart young scientists.

Professor Van Blitterswijk will receive the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal at the Society for Biomaterials meeting to be held in San Diego, CA, April 19-22, 2023.

Chad Mirkin

The recipient of the 2022 Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal is Professor Chad A. Mirkin, the director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University.

“I’m delighted to receive the Gold Medal Award,” said Professor Mirkin. “We have worked for three decades to try to develop biomaterials that make a difference in many critical fields, for example, chemistry, materials science, biology and medicine. This honor is a wonderful recognition for the efforts of many talented students and postdoctoral fellows, who have expanded the frontiers of science and made discoveries that have positively impacted human-kind.”

A world-renowned expert in nanoscience and nanomedicine, Professor Mirkin is best known for the discovery and development of spherical nucleic acids, which are synthetic globular – rather than linear – forms of DNA and RNA that surround a nanoparticle core. Roughly 50 nanometers (nm) in diameter, these nanostructures possess the ability to actively enter cells for targeted treatment delivery.

SNAs have been used in paradigm-shifting approaches to anti-cancer immunotherapies, vaccine design, and high-sensitivity molecular diagnostic tools. They are the basis for more than 1,800 commercial products to date, including one of the first FDA-cleared, menu-driven, point-of-care medical diagnostic systems; platforms capable of analyzing the genetic content of single living cells; and treatment of skin disorders and cancers via gene regulation and immunomodulatory pathways. SNA-based drugs are currently in clinical trials for diseases spanning psoriasis, glioblastoma and triple negative breast cancer.

Professor Mirkin is also known for the invention of dip-pen nanolithography, a technique for patterning molecules and materials on surfaces with sub-50 nm resolution, which was recognized by National Geographic as one of the “top 100 scientific discoveries that changed the world”; and the high-area rapid printing technology, a 3D printing process that can produce hard, elastic, or ceramic parts at record-breaking throughput.

As the founding director of Northwestern’s International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN), Mirkin leads an organization that represents more than $1 billion in research, educational programs, and supporting infrastructure. The IIN brings together more than 200 chemists, engineers, biologists, physicians, and business experts to focus on society’s most perplexing problems in areas such as medicine, energy, and the environment.

With more than 1,200 issued and pending patents worldwide, Dr. Mirkin has played a significant role in translating his scientific discoveries into technologies that are changing the world. He is the founder of several successful start-up companies, including Azul 3D (print-on-demand manufacturing), Exicure (gene regulation and cancer immune-therapies), Stoicheia (AI-enabled materials discovery), and TERA-print (nanofabrication). His diagnostic inventions are the foundation of Luminex’s VerigeneTM system that is used in many of the world’s top hospitals, resulting in better patient care, reduced antibiotic resistance, and lower health care costs.

Professor Mirkin is also a Professor of Medicine at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering. He earned a B.S. from Dickinson College and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Pennsylvania State University, and was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining Northwestern.

He is among an elite group of scientists, engineers and medical doctors to be elected to all three branches of the U.S. National Academies – the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine. He served on President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology from 2009-16.

He has trained over 120 scientists, who are now faculty members at some of the world’s premier universities, and he has been recognized with more than 230 national and international awards, including the SCI Perkin Medal, the Friendship Award, the Nano Research Award, the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Convergence Research, the Dan David Prize, the Wilhelm Exner Medal, the RUSNANOPRIZE, the Dickson Prize in Science, the American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal, the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, the Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine, and the AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize.

He will receive the award at the Society for Biomaterials meeting April 27-30, 2022 in Baltimore MD.

Antonios G. Mikos

The recipient of the 2019 Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal is Professor Antonios G. Mikos, Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. The Award will be presented at the 2019 U.S. Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting and Exposition to be held in Seattle, WA, in April 2019.

Professor Mikos received his Dipl.Eng (1983) from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and his Ph.D. (1988) in chemical engineering from Purdue University. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Medical School before joining the Rice Faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor where he has remained since.

Professor Mikos’ research focuses on the synthesis, processing, and evaluation of new biomaterials to be used as scaffolds for tissue engineering, as carriers for controlled drug delivery, as non-viral vectors for gene therapy, and as platforms for modeling diseases. His work has led to the development of novel orthopaedic, dental, cardiovascular, neurologic, and ophthalmologic biomaterials.

Professor Mikos is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, and the Academy of Athens. He is a Founding Fellow of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, as well as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Controlled Release Society, the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering, and the National Academy of Inventors.

Professor Mikos has been recognized by various awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas, the Founders Award and the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature of the Society For Biomaterials, the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecturer Award and the Shu Chien Achievement Award of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Excellence in Surface Science Award of the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation, the Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research and the James E. Bailey Award in Biological Engineering of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Meriam/Wiley Distinguished Author Award of the American Society for Engineering Education, the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, the Marshall R. Urist Award for Excellence in Tissue Regeneration Research of the Orthopaedic Research Society, and the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award of Purdue University.

Professor Mikos is a founding editor and editor-in-chief of the journals Tissue Engineering Part A, Tissue Engineering Part B: Reviews, and Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods. He is the organizer of the continuing education course, Advances in Tissue Engineering, offered annually at Rice University since 1993. He is also the Past-President of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas and the Society For Biomaterials.

Jeffrey Hubbell

The recipient of the 11th Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal is Jeffrey Hubbell, Eugene Bell Professor in Tissue Engineering in the Institute for Molecular Engineering of the University of Chicago.

Professor Hubbell holds a BS from Kansas State University and a PhD from Rice University, both degrees being in chemical engineering. He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2010 and the National Academy of Inventors in 2014. Prior to moving to Chicago, he was on the faculty of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL, where he served as founding Director of the Institute of Bioengineering and Dean of the School of Life Sciences), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and University of Zurich, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas in Austin.

Professor Hubbell uses biomaterials and protein engineering approaches to investigate topics in regenerative medicine and immunotherapeutics. In regenerative medicine, he focuses on biomaterial matrices that mimic the extracellular matrix and on growth factor - extracellular matrix interactions, working in a variety of animal models of regenerative medicine. In immunotherapeutics, he focuses on nanomaterials in vaccines that target lymphoid-resident antigen presenting cells and on protein engineering approaches to deliver antigen to the spleen and liver for inverse vaccines to induce tolerance to protein drugs and in autoimmunity. His interests are both basic and translational, having founded or co-founded several biomedical companies based on his technology, including Focal, in Boston, acquired by Genzyme; Kuros Biosciences, in Zurich, in the domain of regenerative medicine; Anokion and Kanyos Bio, in Boston, both in the domain of immunological tolerance; and Clostra Bio, in Chicago, in the domain of food allergy.

The Gold Medal will be presented to Professor Hubbell at the 2018 Meeting of the Society for Biomaterials in Atlanta, GA.

Jack Lemons

Dr. Jack Lemons received his PhD from the University of Florida in 1968 and completed his National Institute of Health-sponsored Fellowship in Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 1973. He currently serves as a university professor in the Department of Prosthodontics and Biomaterials at UAB’s School of Dentistry, where his academic responsibilities include dental prosthodontics, medical orthopaedic surgery and biomedical engineering. He also serves as Professor of the Joint Materials Science Program at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and is an adjunct professor of prosthodontics at the University of Pittsburg School of Dental Medicine. He is a member of numerous organizations including the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery, the International Association for Dental Research, the American Board of Forensic Examiners and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to name just a few. He presides over lectures for local study clubs and continuing education classes and has contributed over 40 years of education, research and service focused on the biocompatibility of synthetic origin bio- and dentalmaterials. He has sat on the editorial board of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research and has been a section editor at the Journal of Clinical Implantology. His publications and abstracts exceed 600 titles in various peer-reviewed journals.

See more at: http://www.deardoctor.com/authors/dr-jacklemons/#sthash.W6X0vu8A.dpuf

Larry Hench

Larry Hench, University Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Florida Institute of Technology College of Engineering, has been awarded the highly acclaimed international 2014 Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal Award. The award recognizes excellence in research and development in the field of biomaterials. Professor Hench, who is also director of the Florida Tech Center for Medical Materials and Photonics, specializes in bio-ceramics and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Born in Ohio in 1938, Dr. Hench received his bachelor’s degree in 1964 in ceramic engineering from The Ohio State University. After 32 years on the faculty, Hench retired from the University of Florida as Emeritus Professor to join the Imperial College, University of London, as chair of ceramic materials. There, he co-founded and co-directed the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Centre for 10 years.