KAVLI / Sir Hans Krebs Prize Lecture 2025: Advances in Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering: Towards Oral Insulin and Artificial Pancreas

KAVLI / Sir Hans Krebs Prize Lecture 2025

DATE: 24 June 2025 at 16:00, followed by a drink’s reception

Hosted by

Professor David Paterson, Professor Dame Carol Robinson and Professor Dame Molly Stevens

Lecture Venue: Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, Blakemore Lecture Theatre, Sherrington Road

Drinks Reception Venue: Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building, Sherrington Road

This event is for Oxford University staff and students only – entry is on presentation of University/Bodleian card

Presenter: Professor Robert S. Langer, FREng, Sc.D (MIT)

Title: Advances in Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering: Towards Oral Insulin and Artificial Pancreas

Abstract:

Long-term strategies in biomedical technologies: priorities and challenges—From the discovery of the first angiogenesis inhibitors to the development of controlled drug delivery systems and the foundation of tissue engineering.

Advanced drug delivery systems are having an enormous impact on human health. We start by discussing our early research on developing the first controlled release systems for macromolecules and the isolation of angiogenesis inhibitors and how these led to numerous new therapies including treatments for diabetic retinol. This early research then led to new drug delivery technologies including nanoparticles and nanotechnology that are now being studied for use treating cancer, other illnesses and in vaccine delivery (including the Covid-19 vaccine). We are also developing oral systems that can deliver insulin and other macromolecules. Finally, by combining mammalian cells, including stem cells, with synthetic polymers, new approaches for engineering tissues are being developed that may someday help in various diseases. Examples in the areas of pancreas mcartilage, skin, blood vessels and heart tissue are discussed.

Speaker Biography:

Robert Langer is one of nine Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIT’s highest faculty honour. His pioneering work, which has benefited millions worldwide, includes isolating the first angiogenesis inhibitors (with Dr Judah Folkman) leading to new treatments for cancer and blindness. He also created the first nanoparticles and microparticles for delivering large molecules, including nucleic acids and helped establish the field of tissue engineering which enabled artificial skin for burn victims and organ-on-a-chip technology. Despite initial scepticism—his first nine grants were rejected, and no engineering department would hire him—Langer has authored more than 1,600 papers, cited more than 446,690 times. With an h-index of 331, Langer is the most cited engineer in history. His patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 400 companies and he has co-founded more than 40 ventures, including Moderna.

Langer chaired the FDA’s Science Board from 1999–2002 and has received over 220 awards, including the U.S. National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (one of only three living individuals to receive both). His accolades include the Draper Prize (considered engineering’s Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Centre Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize, Millennium Technology Prize, and the Kavli Prize. He holds 44 honorary doctorates from institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Oxford and has been elected to the National Academies of Medicine, Engineering and Sciences, as well as the National Academy of Inventors.

See also: https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/996f2bb1-cefb-481a-83b7-86ee2cf14a27/