Elazer Edelman, M.D., Ph.D., a pioneer in the application of engineering and physical sciences to understand fundamental biological processes and the mechanisms of disease, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, Nov. 5.
Edelman is the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, director of the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center and a member of the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering.
His lecture, entitled “Pushing Innovation at the Cusp of Engineering, Biology and Medicine,” is sponsored by the Vanderbilt Medical Scientist Training Program, and will begin at 4 p.m. in room 208 Light Hall.
Edelman received Bachelor of Science degrees in Bioelectrical Engineering and Applied Biology, a Masters of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, and a Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from MIT. He earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
After internal medicine training and a clinical fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Edelman spent six years as a research fellow in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School working on the biology of vascular repair.
Edelman and his students were among the first to validate that proliferative vascular diseases are the sum of effects from endogenous growth promoters and suppressors.
His lab uses elements of continuum mechanics, digital signal processing, molecular biology and polymeric controlled release technology to examine the cellular and molecular mechanisms that transform stable coronary-artery disease to unstable coronary syndromes.
Tissue-generated cells, for example, deliver growth factors and growth inhibitors for the study and potential treatment of accelerated arterial disease following angioplasty and bypass surgery. Edelman’s laboratory holds patents for drug-delivery devices, tissue-engineered implants, and new drug formulations.
For a complete schedule of Flexner Discovery Lectures and archived video of previous lectures, visit www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/discoveryseries.
