Dr. Robert Langer is widely recognized as one of the most prolific inventors in medical history and is frequently referred to as the father of controlled drug release systems. He holds the distinguished position of Institute Professor at MIT, the highest honor awarded to any faculty member at the institution. After completing an Sc.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1974 under the guidance of Professor Clark Colton, he began his groundbreaking career at MIT in 1978 as Assistant Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry. Initially uncertain about the impact of his research direction, he persevered to develop transformative approaches at the intersection of engineering, medicine, and materials science.
Dr. Langer's laboratory pioneered innovative polymer-based systems for controlled drug delivery that can release medications precisely to targeted sites in the body, revolutionizing treatment approaches for countless conditions. His team invented three-dimensional synthetic-polymer scaffolding techniques that enable the growth of skin, muscle, bone, and blood vessels, establishing the foundation for modern regenerative medicine that has produced artificial skin for burn victims and patients with severe skin ulcers. With more than 1,600 scientific articles and over 1,500 issued and pending patents worldwide, his work has been cited more than 457,000 times, giving him the highest h-index of any engineer in history. The FDA's 1996 approval of his controlled-release drug delivery system for brain cancer treatment marked a major milestone that validated his innovative approach to targeted therapy.
Dr. Langer established a groundbreaking model for research commercialization, encouraging students who have worked with a technology for five or more years to start new companies to develop promising discoveries, resulting in numerous successful ventures including Moderna, which leveraged his foundational work on mRNA delivery for the highly effective COVID-19 vaccine. His patents have been licensed to over 400 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology, and medical device companies worldwide, creating new treatments for cancer, heart disease, and other deadly ailments while providing employment to thousands. Among his numerous accolades, he is one of only three living individuals to have received both the United States National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, alongside the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. Currently, Dr. Langer continues to advance the frontiers of biomedical engineering through his MIT laboratory, mentoring the next generation of scientist-entrepreneurs while driving innovations in personalized medicine and novel therapeutic delivery systems.
