Biomaterials Award Announcement 2023

Biomaterials Global Impact Award and Biomaterials Award for Young Investigator

Biomaterial is pleased to announce the winners of Biomaterials Global Impact Award and Biomaterials Award for Young Investigator for 2023.

The Biomaterials Global Impact Award aims to recognize distinguished research and development accomplishments in the field of biomaterials. This year, the award will be shared by two equally preeminent winners: Professor Kazunori Kataoka of Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, and Professor Benzhong Tang of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

Prof. Kazunori Kataoka is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo, and the Founding Center Director of the Innovation Center of NanoMedicine (iCONM), Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion. Over the past 40 years, Prof. Kataoka has made significant contributions to the field of biomaterials, particularly in drug delivery/drug targeting, non-viral gene delivery, and nanomedicine. He has published more than 600 peer-reviewed articles with more than 96,000 citations (h-index of 161). He also has over 600 issued patents and founded five start-ups. Awards include the Clemson Award (the Society for Biomaterials), the Founder’s Award (Controlled Release Society), the Humboldt Research Award (2012), the Leo Esaki Prize (2012), and Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund Prize (2017). He has been elected to the Engineering Academy of Japan (2011), the US National Academy of Engineering (2017), and the US National Academy of Inventors (2017). Currently, under his direction, the iCONM has effectively promoted a series of strong academia-industry partnerships, leading to the formation of 7 start-ups in the last years.

Ben Zhong Tang is a Presidential Chair Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering. His research team is working on the development of novel luminogenic materials and the exploration of their optoelectronic, chemosensing and bioimaing applications. Tang coined the concept of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and is spearheading the AIE research in the world. The AIE luminogens (AIEgens) are diametrically opposed to the conventional luminophores with aggregation-caused quenching effect. The AIE study has changed people’s way of thinking about luminescence in the aggregate or solid state. The AIEgens have been developed into a group of practically useful tools for bioscience research. Tang has successfully built a new framework for the design of conceptually new luminogens and for the development of innovative theranostic systems.

The Biomaterials Award for Young Investigator recognizes and encourages early career researchers in biomaterials science with outstanding contributions to the field. The recipients of the award in 2023 are Dr. Akhilesh K Gaharwar of Texas A&M University and Dr. Bingyang Shi of Macquarie Medical School.

After receiving Ph.D. in Adelaide University in 2014, Dr. Bingyang Shi was awarded Macquarie University Research Fellowship and joined Macquarie Medical School to build an independent Brain Drug Delivery Research Group in 2015. Supported by numbers of CIA competitive grants (e.g., NHMRC Leadership Fellowship, NHMRC-ARC Dementia Fellowship, ARC Discovery and NHMRC project grants), his group has been growing to be a Joint Centre for Biomedical Innovation.

His research ambition is to address a major challenge in the treatment of brain diseases – which is the successful delivery of therapeutic agents across the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) – the BBB acts as a cellular barrier that prevents toxins and other dangerous molecules from entering the brain, however, also stops therapeutic molecules from entering the brain. To overcome this, he has developed several core patented brain delivery technologies (e.g: Bio-NPs and Glu-NPs) and made close connections with industry and hospital partners, towards practical solutions.

Dr. Akhilesh K. Gaharwar, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University and a Presidential Impact Fellow, received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University. He then went on to complete his postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. The goal of his lab is to design new biomaterials for regenerative medicine and biomanufacturing, utilizing principles from materials science, cell biology, additive biomanufacturing, and high-throughput genomics to create smart and responsive biomaterials with a wide range of applications in bioengineering. His research, supported by NIH, NSF, and DoD, has resulted in the publication of over 135 peer-reviewed journal articles, receiving over 14,000 citations and an h-index of 66. Dr. Gaharwar has received numerous national and international awards, including the NIH New Innovator Award (DP2), in recognition of his research accomplishments. He is also a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and an Associate Editor of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

An Award Ceremony will be held during the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition , which will take place from 19th April to 22nd April, 2023 in San Diego, California, the USA. Winners will present their recent works at the ceremony session.  

Congratulations to all the winners of the awards in 2023.

Editorial Team of Biomaterials