UConn professors Lakshmi Nair, Ph.D. and Yusuf Khan, Ph.D., in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, believe they are on the cusp of a breakthrough pain-reduction treatment that is both highly effective and safe. Nair has been working to significantly extend the duration of local anesthetics, enabling patients to be pain-free, mobile, and benefit from medications that have been safely used for decades. The pain medication would be delivered by injection.

Their pharmaceutical company, Soleia Biosciences, has been identified as one of five extremely promising UConn-affiliated startups. They will be pitching in the Wolff New Venture Competition on Oct. 1 in Downtown Hartford.

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UConn’s Dr. Cato T. Laurencin, University Professor and Albert and Wilda van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, delivered a lecture on regenerative engineering as Elsevier’s MRC Distinguished Lecturer of the Year.

Elsevier is an academic publishing company that specializes in scientific, technical, and medical works. Laurencin created the field of regenerative engineering and defines it as a field that converges advanced materials sciences, stem cell sciences, physics, developmental biology, and clinical translation to foster scientific innovation. The Distinguished Lecture for 2024 was sponsored by Elsevier and The Mechanics Research Communications journal. It was hosted by its editor-in-chief, Dr. Anthony Rosato.

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Professor Cato T. Laurencin, University Professor and Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, was the W. Montague Cobb Distinguished Lecturer for the W. Montague Cobb/National Medical Association Health Institute (Cobb Institute) at the National Medical Association’s Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly. Laurencin was honored at the opening ceremonies of the National Medical Association 2024 Meeting in being named to the Lectureship Award.

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Scholars, trustees, friends of UConn, and more gathered this week at the University of Connecticut School of Law to honor the members of the University community who have been honored with election to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The event at the Starr Library on Aug. 27 included presentations from the scholars as well as remarks from senior administrators. Dr. Laurencin was among those who gave their remarks.

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On Aug. 23 UConn School of Medicine celebrated its incoming medical students in the Class of 2028 with the traditional annual White Coat Ceremony.

The Class of 2028 has 112 new students selected from over 4,600 applications.  Eighty-one percent of the students are from Connecticut, and 32% earned their undergraduate degrees at the University of Connecticut.

The excitement of the incoming class beginning their four-year medical school journey at UConn Health was in the air and upon the smiling faces of these future doctors-to-be, along with their families, and the School of Medicine faculty set to train them.

One of our own students, Marc Merriman Jr., says “My white coat feels amazing […] I am looking forward to my first interactions with patients. UConn puts a lot of focus on the importance of medical students early-exposure to patient care experiences.” For the last two years before medical school, he’s served as a scholar in the Young Innovative Investigator Program (YIIP). It is a unique and intensive 2-year program of the Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering.

“I like research,” says Merriman who had the exciting opportunity to assist Laurencin and his lab in its major limb regeneration research underway in the Hartford Engineering a Limb Project (HEAL).

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Named in honor of a distinguished member of the Society for Biomaterials, the Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D. Travel Fellowship supports underrepresented undergraduate students studying the field of biomaterials.  The Fellowship provides the resources needed to attend the annual meeting of the Society for Biomaterials, and to become a member of the Biomaterials Society. The goal of this initiative is to stimulate/encourage recipients to pursue a career in biomaterials.

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At the World Biomaterials Congress, Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., united with Royal Academy of Engineering fellows Serena Best, Ph.D., Dame Molly Stevens, Ph.D., and Dame Elizabeth Tanner, D.Phil., Ph.D., while in Daegu, South Korea. An accomplished group, these four have made immense contributions to the field of engineering in Biomedical Materials and Engineering.

The Royal Academy of Engineering, originally called the Fellowship of Engineering, was founded in 1976 and has since then championed excellence in all fields of engineering and honoring the most distinguished engineers within the United Kingdom and around the world.

At the World Biomaterials Congress in Daegu, South Korea, Springer Nature hosted their own exhibition booth to promote various journals and publications, including Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine, where Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., is editor-in-chief.

As a promotional event for the RETM Journal, Springer Nature held a Meet and Greet reception where guests were able to speak with Dr. Laurencin and ask questions about his work.