Gold Insignia award to Robert S. Langer

Visit of Prof. Robert S. Langer to the University of Santiago de Compostela

Prof. Langer will receive the "Gold Insignia" of the University of Santiago de Compostela awarded to ?personalities who stand out for services provided to the institution, both for their longevity and for their special relevance?.

The ceremony will be held at the Salón Noble Colegio Fonseca Palace. He will be introduced by PI María José Alonso and will pronounce a speech entitled: ?The struggles and dreams of a chemical engineer: From micro and nano particles to anti-cancer treatments and mRNA vaccines?

The ceremony will end with a cocktail reception in the Fonseca Palace.

Biosketch:

Professor Langer is the David H. Koch Institute Professor (there are 11 Institute Professors at MIT). He has been recognised as the most outstanding scientist in the world in the field of Biomaterials and Biomedicine. His extraordinary contribution to the field of drug delivery has gone from the discovery of new biomaterials to the delivery of complex drugs such as proteins and RNA molecules. Robert Langer discovered the first approaches for delivering biomolecules from tiny particles in the early 70?s. The studies performed by him and his fellows have laid the foundation for the development of delivery systems for RNA therapies.  This was dramatically shown in the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID vaccines.  Langer?s early studies had changed everyone?s thinking about what was possible in drug delivery to the extent that today every company developing mRNA therapies - such as Moderna (co-founded by Langer), and others - use nanoparticles to protect the mRNA and deliver it to the body.  Because of his discoveries as well as his mentoring and entrepreneurial activities, Professor Langer has had a dramatic impact on the next generation of innovators and academic scientists.

Prof. Langer's lab: https://langerlab.mit.edu/

More info about Prof. Langer: https://youtu.be/9XZWGh2eIv8