Donald E. Ingber: Difference between revisions

Donald E. Ingber, (born May 1, 1956, East Meadow, NY) is an American cell biologist, Founding Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is a founder of the emerging field of biologically inspired engineering.

Ingber's pioneering scientific work led to the discovery that tensegrity architecture is a fundamental design principle governing the way molecules are structured into living cells and the way cells are integrated within tissues and organs during embryo formation. Tensegrity was first described by Buckminster Fuller and the sculptor Kenneth Snelson.

Ingber's insights have helped create the fields of mechanobiology, angiogenesis, tissue engineering, nanobiotechnology, and biomimetics. Through his interdisciplinary collaborations with experts in chemistry, physics, engineering, magnetics, and optics, Ingber has also helped develop multiple new experimental nano- and microtechnologies, as well as engineered tissues and angiogenesis inhibitor-based cancer therapeutics that have entered human clinical trials.

Ingber received his B.A. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale College in 1977; his M.A. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale Graduate School in 1977; his M.Phil. in cell biology from Yale Graduate School in 1981; his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine in 1984; and his Ph.D. in cell biology from Yale Graduate School in 1984. From 1984 to 1986 he completed his training as an Anna Fuller postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Judah Folkman in the Surgical Research Laboratory at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.

Ingber began his independent career in 1986 as a research instructor in pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and in surgery at Children's Hospital Boston. He progressively moved up the ranks at Harvard until he was promoted to professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School in 1999. In 2004, Ingber was named the first incumbent of the Judah Folkman Professorship of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School. In 2008, he was named a professor of bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

In 1984, Ingber became a research associate in surgery at Children's Hospital Boston and in pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In 1993, he also became a research associate in pathology at Children's Hospital, and in 2002, he became a senior associate in the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital.

Ingber maintains active laboratories in the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital Boston and at the Wyss Institute, both of which are in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area of Boston. The Ingber Laboratory at Children's Hospital addresses the fundamental problem of how cells decide whether to move, grow, contract, differentiate, or die during tissue development. The specific focus is on angiogenesis—the growth of blood capillaries—a process that is critical for the growth of cancer and many other debilitating diseases.

In addition to providing vision and leadership for the Wyss Institute, Ingber heads its biomimetic microsystems platform in which microfabrication techniques from the electronics industry are combined with living cells to create microdevices that function as living human "organs-on-chips." His most recent innovation is a complex, three-dimensional model of a breathing lung on a microchip that incorporates living human lung cells within microfluidic systems. This device mimics the complicated mechanical and biochemical behaviors of the human lung to provide information on the effects of environmental toxins, absorption of aerosolized therapeutics, and the safety and efficacy of new drugs. As an alternative to animal studies, this "lung on a chip" could accelerate the introduction of new drugs to market, while also significantly lowering research costs.^[1] Ingber is also working with other Wyss Institute faculty and staff on other organs on chips, such as a beating heart-on-a-chip and a gut-on-a-chip that undergoes peristalsis, as well as bone marrow and cancer models.

Ingber helped to bridge Harvard University, its affiliated hospitals, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through his involvement in the Center for Integration in Medicine and Innovative Technology, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. He also is a member of the Center for Nanoscale Systems and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Harvard, as well as the MIT Center for Bioengineering.

In 2009, Ingber was named Founding Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, which was launched with a $125 million gift—the largest philanthropic gift in Harvard's history—from Hansjorg Wyss.^[2] It is dedicated to the emerging field of biologically inspired engineering in which insights into the design principles used by nature are applied to the development of bioinspired materials and devices for medicine, industry, and the environment. The Institute is a partnership among Harvard University, its major affiliated hospitals (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital Boston, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital), and Boston University as it is designed to harness the innovative power of the entire Boston/Cambridge region.

Ingber was a member of the Space Studies Board of the U.S. National Research Council (NRC), which advises the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Institute of Medicine, and he chaired its Committee on Space Biology and Medicine. He has also been an external reviewer of multiple NRC reports, incluing “Plan for the International Space Station,” “Future Biotechnology Research on the International Space Station,” “Assessment of Directions in Microgravity and Physical Sciences at NASA,” and “The Astrophysical Context of Life.” In 2010, Ingber was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.^[3] He has also served on the Innovation Review Panel of the Grand Challenges in Global Health grant program for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Nanobiotechnology Committee of the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and the Board of Directors for the Eunice Kennedy Center for Mental Retardation. In addition, Ingber has served as a consultant to various governmental agencies, public companies, and private corporations, including the U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Merck & Co., Biogen Idec, Digene Corporation, Advanced Tissue Sciences, Chanel, BG Medicine, and WNYC New York Public Radio.

Because of his broad range of scientific interests and accomplishments, Ingber travels the globe sharing his work with artists, architects, and designers, as well as scientists, physicians, engineers, and the lay public. Examples of his involvement in the art/design community include his participation in the "Cellular Design" Exhibition at Le Laboratoire in Paris in 2010, the "On Growth and Form: Textiles and the Engineering of Nature" exhibition at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto in 2001, and in the "Image and Meaning" conferences at MIT in 2001 and at the Getty Center in Los Angeles in 2005. He also presented his work on tensegrity and nanobiotechnology at the Boston Museum of Science in 2002 and 2010. His scientific achievements have been highlighted in multiple episodes of Nova, CBS News Sunday Morning, National Public Radio, Studio 360, Cablevision, and Netherlands Public Broadcasting, among others.

Ingber has authored 300 publications in scientific journals, and is an inventor on more than 35 patents in fields ranging from anti-cancer therapeutics, tissue engineering, medical devices, drug delivery systems, biomimetic materials, and nanotechnologies to bioinformatics software. Among his many important clinically relevant innovations is the discovery of the first angiogenesis inhibitor compound (TNP-470) to enter clinical trials for cancer and development of a nanomagnetic blood cleaning device that could reduce deaths from sepsis in hospital patients[4] . He serves on the editorial advisory boards of numerous scientific journals, and he has cofounded two biotechnology start-ups.

Ingber's many scientific accomplishments have been recognized with numerous awards and distinctions. In 2010, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for In Vitro Biology^[4] and the Rous-Whipple Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology[6] . In 2009, he received the Pritzker Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society.^[5] In 2008, he received a Breast Cancer Innovator Award[8] from the Department of Defense. In 2002, he was named to Esquire's list of the world's "Best and Brightest." In 2000, he received the John F. and Virginia B. Taplin Award from Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Ingber has also been named to multiple Who's Who lists including: Business Leaders and Professionals—Honors Edition (2007), Medicine and Healthcare (1999), the World (1997), America (1994), and Science and Engineering (1991). From 1991 to 1996, he was the recipient of an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award.

Ingber lives with his wife, son, and cat in Boston and in Chilmark, Massachusetts. His interests and activities outside of science include art and architecture, as well as writing scripts for stage and television, drawing cartoons for postcards, and writing for the lay public.

• Donald Ingber’s webpage at the Wyss Institute website
• Donald Ingber’s lab at Children’s Hospital Boston
• Donald Ingber’s webpage at Children’s Hospital Boston
• Donald Ingber’s faculty webpage at Harvard Medical School
• Donald Ingber’s faculty webpage at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• "Tensegrity" Scholarpedia article, written by Donald Ingber

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