Lecture by Biomedical Engineering Pioneer Nicholas Peppas
Pioneering biomedical and chemical engineer Nicholas A. Peppas spoke on Thursday, April 21, 2016 at the Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility at UC Davis. The Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, Peppas spoke on “Intelligent Nanoscale Biopolymers for Recognitive and Responsive Delivery of Drugs, Peptides and Proteins.” The presentation was presented by the UC Davis College of Engineering. Video: https://youtu.be/XbuZq5VGWVg
In more than three decades of research, Peppas has been recognized as the “father of modern drug delivery” and a world authority in controlled drug delivery. Most recently, he received international media attention for his continued development of an insulin capsule to replace painful injections for people with diabetes. The same technology has been used for the transmucosal delivery of calcitonin (for treatment of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women) and interferon-alpha (for cancer therapy). It is under study for interferon-beta release to treat patients with multiple sclerosis.
Other devices he has developed, patented or commercialized include: intraocular lenses for cataract patients; improved materials for cartilage replacement; new materials for artificial heart linings; materials for vocal cord replacement/reconstruction; and biogels for epidermal release of growth factors to improve wound healing. With the help of Emergent Technologies, Inc. of Austin, Peppas has founded three biotech companies in to commercialize some of his new biomaterials and drug delivery systems.
In addition to serving as the Cockrell Family Regents Chair #6 in Engineering at Texas, Peppas serves as the Director of the Institute of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, and Regenerative Medicine, and its Laboratory of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery and Bionanotechnology with appointments in the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin. Before 2002, he was the Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University.
Peppas was educated in chemical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (D. Eng., 1971) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sc.D., 1973) under the direction of bioengineering pioneer Edward W. Merrill. Subsequently, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Arteriosclerosis Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under world biomedical leaders Clark K. Colton, Kenneth A. Smith and Robert S. Lees.
Peppas is a member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), as well as the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the Académie Nationale of France, the Academy of Athens, the Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia of Spain and the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Sciences of Texas (TAMEST). In 2012 he received the Founders Award of the National Academy of Engineering, the highest recognition of the Academy, for these contributions to the field. He is a highly cited scientist with more than 83,000 citations, and has supervised the research of more than 100 PhDs and 180 postdocs and other graduate students.
The video of the lecture is available here: https://youtu.be/XbuZq5VGWVg