By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

I was honored to give the prestigious Two Genes Lecture at the Northwestern University School of Engineering. The lectureship is named after two past distinguished biomaterials scientists at Northwestern, Eugene W. Skinner and Eugene P. Lautenschlager. I discussed the work currently going on at the Institute for Regenerative Engineering including our newest initiative, the Hartford Engineering a Limb (HEAL) project. As a visiting professor at Northwestern, I had the opportunity to spend time with my longtime colleagues and friends, Professor Guillermo Ameer and Professor Sam Stupp. Both are great leaders in Biomedical Engineering. It was particularly gratifying for me to meet the graduate students at Northwestern. They are a highly skilled and dedicated group. I am grateful in particular to Professor Evan Scott, a young star in biomedical engineering whom I’ve met at national scientific meetings. He helped host me and provided a gracious introduction to my lecture.