Mikos wins Distinguished Scientist–Isaac Schour Memorial Award
Tissue engineering research recognized by International Association for Dental Research

BY SHAWN HUTCHINS
Special to Rice News

Antonios Mikos has received the 2010 Distinguished Scientist Award–Isaac Schour Memorial Award from the International Association for Dental Research (IADR).

	ANTONIOS MIKOS

The award recognizes his outstanding scientific contributions in the anatomic sciences, including tissue engineering, tissue regeneration and stem cell research as it relates to the oral, dental and craniofacial complexes. The highest honor in the field of dental and craniofacial research, the award is given to scientists who, through research in this field, bring about significant advances in oral health.

Mikos was presented the award last month at the IADR general session and exhibition in Barcelona, Spain.

Mikos, the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, director of the John W. Cox Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering and director of the Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering at Rice, is one of the nation’s leading experts on the development of biomaterial strategies for tissue regeneration.

In recent years, his laboratory has been involved in collaborative projects with the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine to develop novel tissue-engineering strategies to treat wounded military personnel and to accelerate the translation of regenerative medical technologies from the laboratory bench to the clinic.

A key component of tissue engineering is the scaffold. Extensive investigations in the Mikos laboratory have pioneered the development and testing of many polymeric, biodegradable implants that serve as 3-D architectures for seeding cells and delivering drugs that influence cell behavior, stimulate growth and differentiation and prevent infection.

Mikos’ research over the past 20 years has resulted in 25 patents, many of which have been translated into commercial successes. The work has won several prestigious awards, and he is one of the top-published U.S. scientists in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, with more than 400 publications and 16,000 citations in his name.

Mikos is a founding editor and editor-in-chief of the journals Tissue Engineering Part A, Tissue Engineering Part B: Reviews and Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods and a member of the editorial boards of the journals Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, Cell Transplantation, Journal of Biomaterials Science Polymer Edition, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research (Part A and B) and Journal of Controlled Release. He is the editor of 14 books and the author of the award-winning textbook Biomaterials: The Intersection of Biology and Materials Science.

IADR is a nonprofit organization with more than 12,000 members worldwide. The Isaac Schour Memorial Award is one of the highest honors bestowed by IADR.

— Shawn Hutchins is a staff writer in the Department of Bioengineering.