Renowned chemical engineer Robert Langer, a pioneer in the development of the mRNA vaccines used to help combat COVID-19, will speak Wednesday, June 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial. His talk, “From Nanotechnology to mRNA Vaccines: How Overcoming Skepticism and Barriers Led to New Cancer Treatments and Ways to Tackle a Global Health Challenge,” is free and open to the public.
The David H. Koch Institute Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the Langer Lab, Langer works at the intersection of biotechnology and materials science. He is considered the founder of the field of tissue engineering in regenerative medicine and is the pioneer of hundreds of technologies, including controlled release and transdermal drug delivery systems, which allow the non-invasive administration of drugs through the skin. In 2010, he co-founded Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech firm Moderna, and played a key role in the development of its COVID-19 vaccine, which built off his previous research on drug delivery.