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.