News Release

Robert S. Langer to present the 2001 Ullyot Public Affairs Lecture

Meeting Announcement

Chemical Heritage Foundation

Biomaterials and how they will change our lives

Philadelphia--Robert S. Langer, Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been chosen to deliver the 2001 Ullyot Public Affairs Lecture with a presentation titled "Biomaterials and How They Will Change Our Lives." The lecture, scheduled to take place at the Chemical Heritage Foundation on Thursday, 20 September 2001, will discuss advances in drug delivery that have revolutionized the medical industry. Since joining the MIT faculty in 1977, Langer has specialized in controlled drug delivery and tissue engineering. His discoveries are at the heart of today's multi-billion dollar controlled drug delivery industry and have provided a framework for the emerging technology of tissue engineering. Much of Langer's research has been in biomedical applications of polymers, and his groundbreaking research dispelled the belief that only some sizes of molecules could be delivered slowly.

Langer's later research has led to the development of a number of novel biodegradable polymers with medical applications. One of these resulted in a drug delivery system for the treatment of brain cancer (developed with Dr. Henry Brem of Johns Hopkins University Medical School)-the first FDA-approved treatment for brain cancer in 20 years and the first polymer-based treatment to deliver chemotherapy directly to a tumor site. This treatment has extended the lives of numerous patients and has far fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy.

Langer has received over eighty major awards. In 1996, he became the only engineer to receive the Gairdner Foundation International Award; fifty-four recipients of this award have subsequently received a Nobel Prize. He received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize, the world's largest prize for invention, in 1998 for being, "one of history's most prolific inventors in medicine," and in 1989 Langer was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

In 1992 he was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and to the National Academy of Sciences, and he is currently the only active member of all U. S. national academies. Both Forbes Magazine and BioWorld have named Langer one of the twenty-five most important individuals in biotechnology in the world.

The Ullyot Public Affairs Lecture is co-sponsored by the Philadelphia & Delaware Sections of the American Chemical Society; the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania; the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia; and the Chemical Heritage Foundation. The Chemical Heritage Foundation was founded in 1982 by the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. CHF enjoys the endorsement and support of twenty-nine professional societies and associations and is recognized as the central agency for preserving, studying, and communicating the heritage of the chemical community.

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CHF advances the heritage and public understanding of the chemical and molecular sciences by operating a historical library; discovering and disseminating information about historical resources; encouraging research, scholarship, and popular writing; publishing historical materials; conducting oral histories; creating exhibits; and taking other appropriate steps to make known the achievements of chemical and molecular scientists and engineers, and of related sciences, technologies, and industries. For more information please visit our Web site at www.chemheritage.org.

We are pleased to acknowledge ALZA Corporation, Elan Pharmaceutical Technologies, Pfizer Discovery Technology Center, and Purdue Pharma for underwriting the reception and dinner that will be held following the lecture.

ALZA Corporation, headquartered in Mountain View, California, is a research-based pharmaceutical company with leading drug delivery technologies. ALZA is a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

Elan Pharmaceutical Technologies is the division of Elan Corporation, plc, dedicated to drug delivery. Its mission is to provide superior formulation/delivery solutions to customers, to promote the creation and enhance introduction and uptake of its pharmaceutical products in the marketplace, and to extend the product life of these products.

Pfizer, with its new Discovery Technology Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has made a strategic commitment to the aggressive integration of advances in genomic and biological sciences, chemical design and synthesis, engineering, and informatics. Utilizing the emerging knowledge of gene families, the center's mission is to evolve new, more efficient paradigms for discovering drug candidates that have an increased potential to survive the rigors of drug development and to effectively treat human and animal diseases.


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