Date: Feb 21, 2008 Author: Jade Boyd Source: Rice University (
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Rice University bioengineer Kyriacos Athanasiou has been awarded the prestigious Marshall R. Urist Award for Excellence in Tissue Regeneration Research by the Orthopaedic Research Society.
Athanasiou is the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Bioengineering and director of Rice's Musculoskeletal Bioengineering Laboratory.
Established in 1996, the Urist Award is given annually to one researcher who has established a reputation as a cutting-edge researcher in tissue regeneration. It includes a $5,000 prize. Athanasiou will receive the award at the society's annual meeting next month in San Francisco.
"It is through the tremendous talent of faculty like Kyriacos Athanasiou that Rice University has gained a pre-eminent reputation in tissue engineering," said Sallie Keller-McNulty, dean of engineering. "Athanasiou focuses on deep research, looking for solutions that can change the quality of lives."
Tissue engineering, or regenerative medicine, combines the newest techniques in bioengineering, cell biology, biochemistry, immunology and materials science in an effort to grow replacement tissues outside the body that can be transplanted with little or no risk of rejection.
Athanasiou, who joined Rice in 2000, specializes in growing cartilage, the only tissue in the human body that lacks any innate ability to repair itself. There are a number of distinct types of cartilage in the body, and Athanasiou's group has pioneered many of the processes used to grow them in the lab. His group has focused not just on articular cartilage, which accounts for about half of all cartilage in the body, but also on specialized tissues like the knee meniscus and the disks found in the temporomandibular joint.
In 2002, Athanasiou was elected president of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), an international professional organization representing more than 3,000 bioengineers and biomedical engineers. He was also elected to the inaugural class of BMES Fellows in 2005.
Athanasiou's success is not merely academic. Four U.S. companies have been founded on discoveries within his group and now produce widely used medical products. For example, OsteoBiologics, which was acquired recently by Smith & Nephew, was founded based on Athanasiou's patents for biodegradable scaffolds for articular cartilage repair and arthroscopic biomechanical evaluation. Xilas Medical was founded based on Athanasiou's work to alleviate shear stress at the bottom of diabetic feet and to provide an expedient means for measuring thermal change in diabetic feet. VidaCare was formed based on Athanasiou's patents for intraosseous infusion. VidaCare's technologies have now resulted in one product approved by the Food and Drug Administration that is used in emergency medicine and featured in the television program "ER." The fourth company, Ariston Medical, is in the research-and-development stage. In total, these companies have developed 13 FDA-approved products.
Athanasiou's many honors include the inaugural 2005 Van C. Mow Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Rice's 2006 Presidential Award for Mentoring and the 2003 Presidential Award from BMES.
"Undoubtedly, I am delighted to receive this award, as Marshall Urist is a true legend in tissue engineering," Athanasiou said. "Going against dogma, in the mid-1960s, Dr. Urist insisted that bone regeneration was possible through the use of demineralized bone matrix. Indeed, his singularly important work revealed factors, called bone morphogenic proteins, that are now used routinely to heal all kinds of tissues and injuries, such as hip bones and spine fractures."
Last September, Athanasiou's team unveiled a novel approach for producing cartilage-like cells from human embryonic stem cells. It showed, for the first time, how such cells could be used to engineer cartilage tissues with specific functional properties.
Founded in 1954, the 2,200-member Orthopaedic Research Society is dedicated to improving patient care through research and education in orthopaedic surgery, musculoskeletal diseases, musculoskeletal injuries and related disciplines.
