News: Advancements in the Field and University Appointments - December, 2016

Latest University Positions

Professor George Q. Daley (Robert A. Stranahan Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Medicine, and Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School), an internationally renowned researcher in stem cell biology and cancer, was appointed as the Dean of Harvard Medical School (HMS). He currently serves as the director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as a professor at Harvard Medical School. Professor Daley will begin his new position effective Jan 1st, 2017.

Recent Advancements in Industry, Academia, & Philantrhopy

AiVita Biomedical receives R01

AiVita Biomedical, an Irvine, CA based company developing stem cell technologies, received an R01 grant from the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institute of Health (NIH). AiVita will manufacture stem cell-derived transplantable retinas to cure vision loss. Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at University of California Irvine will collaborate with AitVita for testing safety and efficacy of the product in retinal degeneration models.

Poietis Parners with L'Oreal on Hair Project

Poietis, a Pessac, France based biotechnology company creating human tissues for regenerative medical purposes, made partnership with L’Oreal to bioprint functional hair fol-licles, the skin organ that grows hair. L’Oreal has dedicated itself to tissue engineering for the last 30 years and has exten- sive experience with hair biology. During this multiannual research partnership, Poietis will use its unique laser-assisted bioprinting technology with extremely high resolution for hair engineering.

Advancements in Academia

MIT Scientists Develop Wearable Second Skin

Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a wearable second skin by utilizing skin-adherent polysiloxane-based crosslinkable polymer materials with tun-able elasticity and tensile strength. This wearable crosslinked polymer layer (XPL) looked similar with healthy normal skin and exhibited enhanced skin barrier function. In a human pilot study, a tensile modulus of a prototype XPL matched well with normal skin, withstanding elongation more than 250%. The XPL second skin platform can be potentially applied for wound dressing. This research was published in Nature Materials.

Seoul National Univeristy Devlop Patch for Diabetes Monitoring

Scientists at Seoul National University have developed a skinmounted, graphene-based electrochemical patch for monitoring and treating diabetes. This wearable, stretchable patch consists of sensors that can monitor glucose level in sweat and thermoresponsive polymeric microneedles that can deliver drugs transcutaneously. When glucose concentration is high, embedded heaters are triggered to dissolve biodegradable polymeric microneedles to release drugs. This diabetes patch study was published in Nature Nanotechnology.