On July 12th Dr. Laurencin attended the 34th Annual MD/PhD National Student Conference as a keynote speaker in Copper, Colorado. As the first keynote speaker of the 3-day event, he engaged the crowd with a powerful presentation on Regenerative Engineering: Convergence in Action.
Each year, the University of Colorado Medical Scientist Training Program sponsors and coordinates the National MD/PhD Student Conference. Organized by the 3rd year MSTP students, the conference provides an opportunity for MD/PhD students around the country to present their work and interact with other students and prominent scientific investigators. What began as a small meeting in 1986 has grown into a gathering of over 200 students, faculty, and alumni from over 60 academic institutions in the United States and Canada.
Throughout the event, Dr. Laurencin had a chance to meet with hundreds of impressive students along with 2018 Nobel Prize winner Jim Allison. Ph.D. Allison is the Chair of Immunology and Executive Director of the Immunotherapy Platform at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for launching an effective new way to attack cancer by treating the immune system rather than the tumor. Allison is the first MD Anderson scientist to receive the world’s most preeminent award for outstanding discoveries in the fields of life sciences and medicine.