Seminars

Thursday, October 5th, 3:00-5:00pm

LOCATION: BME Seminar Room

BIO: 

Nicholas A. Peppas is a professor in Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Pediatrics, Surgery and Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin. Over 47 ½  years his group has set the fundamentals of molecular structures of networks and hydrogels, analyzed the solute transport in complex networks, studied molecular recognition in complex biological fluids,  and developed new intelligent biomaterials, nanodevices, therapeutic agent delivery systems for oral, buccal, sublingual, and gastrointestinal delivery of drugs, peptides, and proteins. 1,800 publications,   H=202 (192,000 citations). Numerous US patents issued or pending, 3 start-up companies. Awards include NAE Founders Award, NAM Adam Yarmolinsky Award, AAPS Pharmaceutical Global Leader, Elsevier Biomaterials Global Leader. Peppas is a member of eighteen Academies including NAE, NAM, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, Academia Europaea, International Academy of BME, Canadian Academy of Engineering, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Korean Academy of Science and Technology, National Academy of France, Royal Academy of Spain, Academy of Athens, Greece, Romanian Academy of Scientists & Academy of Texas. He is the Editor-in-Chief of “Regenerative Biomaterials” (Oxford). He holds a Dipl. Eng. from NTU of Athens (1971), a Sc.D. from MIT (1973) and is the recipient of fifteen honorary doctorates and professorships from the Universities of Ghent, Parma, Santiago de Compostela, Ljubljana, Bucharest, Tel Aviv, four Greek Universities in Athens, Patras, Thessaloniki, the National Technical University of Athens and four Chinese Universities. He has been honored by the Giulio Natta Medal from Italy, the APV Medal from Germany and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the USA.

ABSTRACT: 

The speaker will reflect on a career that started with a strong interest in archaeology, changed to classical chemical engineering in 1966, but was then shaken and shaped by a unique event that took place in December 1967, i.e., the first heart transplant to a patient by Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur in Cape Town. He will discuss how this event changed his way of thinking about working on solutions of problems that would help patients and how this led to his studying BME in the very early days of the field (1971-75) when it was not popular to study BME. After 25 years at Purdue, the family moved to Austin where he is now active on his 22^nd year here, investigating new methods to treat autoimmune diseases and  glioblastoma, “fighting” BBB, and using molecular recognition to come up with the next generation of “smart” therapies. And all these efforts are done  in an environment that is characterized by convergence of approaches and diversity of opinions.

More specifically, engineering the molecular design of intelligent biomaterials for advanced properties by controlling structure, recognition and specificity, is the first step in coordinating and duplicating complex biological and physiological interactions associated with molecular recognition and targeting.  We reexamine and further develop molecular models that establish the importance of molecular weight, degree of branching, swelling characteristics, thermodynamic compatibility  and presence of “free” binding agents on the development of improved recognitive and targeting characteristics. Studies with thermodynamically intelligent biomaterials, branched structures, multi-arm polymers and gels indicate the importance of various molecular structures in biomedical applications for treatment of autoimmune diseases.