Medscape 2050: Robert Langer
Smart cells, artificial hearts, microneedles, a brain on a chip: These are just a few of the advances in biomedical engineering that Robert Langer, ScD, director of the Langer Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), envisions in the future.
Langer's work blends biotechnology and materials science, and he is known for developing pioneering tech in the areas of drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Langer finds inspiration in the natural world, from geckos' feet to porcupine quills, as well as what he calls just 'basic research,' pursuing the burning question of 'how things work' with a mind open to discovery.
Dream big, Langer says. 'If you could make a kidney from scratch, you wouldn't have to do a kidney transplant.' Or a heart, for that matter. But there are other fascinating avenues of study that can impact disease. By 2050, smart materials might sense blood sugar levels in a diabetes patient. Smart cells might seek out cancer cells and destroy them. Pills could shoot out tiny needles to deliver drugs to the stomach or intestine.
'The value of AI,' Langer predicts, 'will be pervasive' in making these leaps forward, analyzing chemical structures and histology or collecting data from inside the body. But the goal is collaboration across a range of disciplines. Take 'artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, immunology, materials science and put them together,' Langer recommends. This is how we change patients' lives.
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