Mikos receives Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal

Rice University bioengineer honored for biomaterials research

Rice University Professor Antonios Mikos (center) and students at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Advances in Tissue Engineering short course

Rice University bioengineer honored for biomaterials research

Antonios G. Mikos has been selected for the 2019 Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal for his outstanding leadership in the field of science and engineering of biomaterials.

Acta Biomaterialia, one of four peer-reviewed scientific journals published on behalf of Acta Materialia, Inc. by Elsevier, is an international journal for biomaterials science, including the interrelationship of biomaterial structure and function from macroscale to nanoscale.

Mikos is the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and a professor of chemistry, materials science and nanoengineering. Last spring he became director of the National Institutes of Health Center for Engineering Complex Tissues (CECT) at Rice, which is part of a biomedical technology resource collaboration between Rice, the University of Maryland and Wake Forest University.

The CECT aims to grow the 3-D printing and bioprinting community through a variety of educational, training and research programs. The research topics range from the 3-D printing of complex scaffolds for tissue regeneration to designing bioreactors for dynamic cell culturing and bioprinting cell-laden tissues. Training and educational activities include student exchanges, workshops and short courses. An integral part of the CECT is the Biomaterials Lab, which includes a variety of fabrication and characterization equipment available to all interested researchers within Rice and the surrounding Texas Medical Center community.

The Mikos group at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative specializes in the synthesis, processing and evaluation of new biomaterials for use as scaffolds for tissue engineering, as carriers for controlled drug delivery, and as non-viral vectors for gene therapy. The work has led to the development of novel orthopedic, dental, cardiovascular, neurologic and ophthalmologic biomaterials.

New projects in the Mikos group include a five-year research collaboration with the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine to advance developments in the fabrication and manufacture of clinically relevant biomaterials. A key aim of this research is to create universal bioinks that can enable the 3-D printing of multiple tissue types.

Mikos has been a long-term advocate for the transfer of scientific knowledge through education and training. The Biomaterials Lab hosts an annual Biofabrication Workshop for researchers interested in applying bioprinting techniques in their research. The Biomaterials Lab also hosts smaller workshops and individual or group training for a variety of instruments and techniques related to biomaterials research.

In addition, Mikos has organized the continuing education course Advances in Tissue Engineering annually at Rice University since 1993. This year’s 26th Annual Short Course will be Aug. 8-11, 2018 at the BioScience Research Collaborative auditorium. It will feature a day on bioprinting presentations and hands-on demonstrations offered in conjunction with the Biomaterials Lab.

The Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal Award consists of a gold medal, an inscribed certificate, and a cash prize of $10,000. The award will be presented at a symposium honoring Mikos at a conference of his choice.

Shawn Hutchins, Bioengineering Communications