University Professor Cato T. Laurencin, representing the Galien USA, was a speaker for a panel that focused on the role of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in addressing the climate and environmental crisis in Africa at the Galien Forum in Dakar, Senegal. The overarching theme of the Galien Forum centered on health and community actions under the crisis, and attendees participated in panels on how to address and prepare for it.
Fifty-two faculty members from the UConn College of Engineering have been recognized among the world’s top 2% of scientists in 2024, according to Stanford/Elsevier’s Top 2% Scientist Rankings. This annual ranking highlights the most widely cited researchers across diverse scientific disciplines, underscoring their significant contributions to research and their global impact. Dr. Cato T. Laurencin is among these 52.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) held their annual fall conference in Denver. The Division of Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering highlighted the Regenerative Engineering Society which was founded by Dr. Cato T. Laurencin. The mission of the Regenerative Engineering Society (RES) is to promote and advance regenerative engineering, a field defined as the convergence of Advanced Materials Sciences, Stem Cell Science, Physics, Developmental Biology, and Clinical Translation for the regeneration of complex tissues and organ systems.
UConn Professor Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., was one of the main speakers at the Dreyfus Foundation’s Teacher-Scholar Symposium, titled Research Frontiers in the Chemical Sciences. He gave a lecture on regenerative engineering, a field that he pioneered through his expertise in medicine, biomaterials, and chemistry.
The 2024 Cato T. Laurencin Lifetime Research Award was given to Dr. Selwyn M. Vickers during the opening ceremony of the National Medical Association’s Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly. The award, named after Professor Cato T. Laurencin of the University of Connecticut, was given by Laurencin himself and is considered one of the highest honors of the W. Montague Cobb/National Medical Association Health Institute and the National Medical Association.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).