Distinguished Lecture Series
Regeneration in the Central Nervous System: Cell & Therapeutic Delivery
Molly S Shoichet, O.C., O.Ont. FRS
University Professor, Pamela & Paul Austin Professor in Precision & Regenerative Medicine
Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Donnelly Centre University of Toronto
Monday, March 24, 2025
GP1002
12:00-12:50pm
Abstract: Key challenges facing stem cell therapy include cell survival and integration with the host tissue. These challenges are further exacerbated by the central nervous system which is not easily accessed. We are pursuing exogenous cell transplantation, endogenous cell stimulation and immunomodulation to promote tissue repair after injury in the spinal cord, brain or retina at the back of the eye. Specifically, we have designed a series of innovative biomaterials, cell and protein delivery strategies to achieve success. With the complexity of the brain, more than one strategy is required to achieve success. The combination of bioengineered strategies will be described in the context of tissue and functional repair after spinal cord injury, stroke, and blindness.
Biography: Professor Molly Shoichet is a University Professor, a distinction held by less than 2% of the faculty. She is the inaugural Pamela & Paul Austin Professor in Precision and Regenerative Medicine, and Scientific Director of Precision Medicine at the University of Toronto. Shoichet served as Ontario’s first Chief Scientist in 2018 where she worked to enhance the culture of science. Dr. Shoichet has published over 850 papers, patents and abstracts and has given nearly 600 lectures worldwide. She currently leads a laboratory of 30 and has graduated 270 researchers. Her research is focused on drug and cell delivery strategies in the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord, retina) and 3D hydrogel culture systems to model cancer. Dr. Shoichet co-founded four spin-off companies, is actively engaged in translational research and science outreach. Dr. Shoichet is the recipient of many prestigious distinctions and the first (and until recently the only) person to be inducted into all three of Canada’s National Academies of Science of the Royal Society of Canada, Engineering and Health Sciences. Professor Shoichet is an Officer of the Order of Canada and holds the Order of Ontario. Dr. Shoichet is the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Laureate for North America, 2015, Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, recipient of the Killam Prize in Engineering, 2017 and Fellow to the Royal Society (UK). Dr. Shoichet is the NSERC Herzberg Gold Medal awardee, 2020 (the highest award in science/engineering in Canada) and recipient of the Margolese National Brain Disorders Prize. Dr. Shoichet is Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors. Dr. Shoichet received her SB from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1987) and her PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Polymer Science and Engineering (1992).
For a zoom link please contact Kate Harrison at kharrison@wpi.edu