From Drug Delivery to Tissue Engineering: Bioengineering and its Impact on Human Health

In honor of Robert Langer, Sc.D., and Alian Carpentier, M.D., Ph.D. for their extraordinary contributions to medicine and innovations in bioengineering.

Opening Remarks

Jeffrey S. Flier, MD

Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Harvard University

Presentations

Alain F. Carpentier, MD, PhD

Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hôptial Européen Georges-Pompidou

Bioengineering and Its Impact on Cardiac Surgery

Robert S. Langer Jr., ScD

David H. Koch Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Biomaterials and Biotechnology: From the Development of Controlled Drug Delivery Systems to the Foundation of Tissue Engineering

David J. Mooney, PhD

School of Applied Engineering and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University

Infection-Mimicking Polymers as a Cancer Vaccine

Sangeeta Bhatia, MD, PhD

Health Sciences and Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cancer Nanotechnology to Hepatic Tissue Engineering

William Shih, PhD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University

DNA Nanostructures as Building Blocks for Future Therapeutics

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I am deeply honored to share this prestigious Warren Alpert Foundation Prize with my two esteemed colleagues on behalf of the many creative and industrious postdoctoral fellows, trainees, and students who worked on the GLP-1 project over the many years. It is indeed a tremendous pleasure to see that the inspiration and perspiration expended by these co-workers has resulted in a useful treatment for the control of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
- Joel Habener

Joel Habener | 2020 Recipient

Joel Francis Habener, M.D. received his B.S. degree Cum Laude in 1960 from the University of Redlands, Redlands, California and in 1965 his M.D degree from the University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California.  Dr. Habener is Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, Associate Physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a former Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  He is the Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

His research interests are in the fields of obesity, diabetes, and metabolism with a focus on the interactions of growth factors and morphogens on the expression of transcription factors during development and in the regulation of hormone production by endocrine organs of the body.  He has authored over 450 research articles, books and reviews on these subjects.  He is a discoverer of the insulinotropic hormone glucagon-like peptide-1, cyclic AMP response element binding protein, the pancreas duodenal homeodomain protein, and the existence of multipotent stem cells in the pancreas. Dr. Habener holds several patents on these discoveries. Dr. Habener’s discoveries contributed to the development of glucagon-like peptide-1, currently successfully in use as a treatment for diabetes.

Dr. Habener is a member of several editorial boards of scientific journals and has served on many advisory committees of pharmaceutical companies and the National Institutes of Health.  He is the recipient of several awards, including the Edwin B. Astwood Award, Robert H. Williams Distinguished Leadership Award, and Outstanding Mentorship Lauriet Award by the Endocrine Society, and the Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine (shared) from the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Harrington Discovery Institute.

 View Past Recipients