Prof. Elazer R. Edelman has been awarded the 2018 Natta Medal

Natta Medal is an award that the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano assigns every year to an eminent Professor, who has distinguished himself/herself in the world for his/her original studies and researches, and has reached outstanding achievements in the main areas of interest for the CMIC Department.

This award was established for the first time in 2013 to celebrate the 50ths of the Nobel prize to Giulio Natta. It implies a Lectio Magistralis and the assignment of a medal.

Lectio Magistralis

Materials Science, Biomechanics and Medicine: Synergistic Innovation

Abstract: Modern medicine is marked by the synergistic forces of scientific insight and technological innovation – they fuel each other, generating analytic skills and methodological resources at unparalleled rates. The explosive coupling of innovation with investigation requires ever-more sophisticated methods to visualize structure and function, novel control of intercession, and illumination of impact and unintended effects. We can now fabricate composite devices with dynamic materials that selectively adhere to specific elements of tissues, deliver drugs with defined release kinetics and house cells that serve as local biosensors and bioreactors. Material modifications allow for simultaneous, real time and sequential imaging of implants, their release products and the resulting cellular reactions. We must define, map and analyze the universe affected by diseases and interventions across the spectrum.
Material science offers the promise of realizing these goals — the visualization and control of structures at unprecedented scale, driving insight and fueling innovation beyond our imagination. The more than six-fold reduction in cardiovascular mortality over the past forty years is the direct result of this synergy – the future holds still greater potential.

Elazer Edelman

Elazer R. Edelman, M.D., Ph.D., is the Edward J. Poitras Professor in Medical Engineering and Science at MIT, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Attending Physician in the coronary care unit at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He and his laboratory have pioneered basic findings in vascular biology and the development and assessment of biotechnology. Dr. Edelman directs MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and Clinical Research Center (CRC) as well as the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center (BMEC) – all dedicated to applying the rigors of the physical sciences to elucidate fundamental biologic processes and mechanisms of disease.
More info: Edelman Lab