Ashutosh Chilkoti, Theo Pilkington Professor of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Materials Systems at Duke University, will present the 2013 Pritzker Distinguished Lecture “Solving Drug Delivery Problems by Genetically Engineered Polypeptides” on Friday, March 1 at 1:50 pm in IIT’s Wishnick Hall Auditorium.

This talk will highlight two orthogonal designs—nanoparticles and gels—of genetically engineered thermally sensitive polypeptides for drug delivery in two widely different therapeutic arenas: cancer and type-2 diabetes.

Ashutosh Chilkoti was presented with a CAREER award by the National Science Foundation in 1998, the 3M non-tenured faculty award in 2002 and the Distinguished Research Award from the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University in 2003 and in 2005. He was awarded a senior researcher award by the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation in 2010, the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature by the Society for Biomaterials in 2011 and the 2013 Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecture award by the Biomedical Engineering Society.

Chilkoti’s areas of research include biomolecular engineering with a focus on stimulus responsive biopolymers, and biointerface science, with a focus on the development of clinical diagnostics and plasmonic biosensors.

The Pritzker Institute awards outstanding researchers in the field of biomedical engineering on an annual basis at the Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting, and invites the recipient to visit the Illinois Institute of Technology campus to present his/her work to our community.

A reception will follow the lecture. Please contact Emilia Clayton at the Pritzker Institute with any questions.