Monday, April 16
Reception at 3 p.m.: Knowledge Rooms at the Elson S. Floyd Cultural Center
Seminar at 4:10 p.m.: Living Room at the Elson S. Floyd Cultural Center
The Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering presents the 2018 Hohenschuh Lectureship featuring Kyriacos A. Athanasiou, Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Director of DELTA
Kyriacos A. Athanasiou is a Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Director of DELTAi (Driving Engineering & Life-science Translational Advances @ Irvine), at the University of California, Irvine. He obtained his PhD in Bioengineering (Mechanical Engineering) from Columbia University in 1989. He has published 330 peer-reviewed papers, 20 books, and multiple patents. He has also served as president of the Biomedical Engineering Society. Additionally, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Biomedical Engineering, the flagship journal of BMES. His list of awards includes the Nemitsas Prize (Cyprus’ largest award presented by the President of Cyprus), HR Lissner Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Distinguished Service Award from BMES, Wall Street Journal’s 2008 Innovation Award, Thomas A. Edison Patent Award from ASME, Hershel Rich Outstanding Invention Award, Marshal Urist Award for Excellence in Tissue Regeneration Research from the Orthopaedic Research Society, and the Van Mow Medal from ASME. He is a Fellow of BMES, AAAS, AIMBE, and ASME; he was also elected to the National Academy of Inventors. In addition to his academic interests, he has been involved with effecting the translation of devices and instruments into clinical use and commercialization.
Toward bioengineering translation
This presentation will cover three different areas: Articular cartilage healing, technology translation, and my own pathway. Articular cartilage is arguably the tissue most pivotal for motion and overall function. This soft, white tissue that covers the ends of our long bones cannot heal by itself often progressing to osteoarthritis following injury. The demanding biomechanical milieu of a joint, plus cartilage’s relative lack of cells and blood supply, renders this tissue almost unique in its inability to repair adequately. This presentation will describe our group’s efforts toward helping joint cartilages, such as hyaline tissue, knee meniscus, and the TMJ disc, repair themselves via tissue engineering approaches. Central to our efforts is the understanding the biomechanical relationships at multiple dimensional levels. Also shown will be some of our latest results using various stem cell sources that indicate that cartilage regeneration is inexorably becoming a tractable problem. The second part of the presentation will be allocated on efforts to commercialize outcomes of our academe-based research. Specific examples and results will be presented to illustrate a specific pathway of commercializing research outcomes. The third part of the talk will be more philosophical by describing my personal pathway and lessons learned in the process.
