Dr. Michael Louis Shuler, a leading authority on modern biochemical engineering, delivered the spring’s first Distinguished Lindsay Lecture at the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Shuler, the James M. and Marsha McCormick Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Samule B. Eckert Professor of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University, joined the list of internationally recognized researchers who have been invited to discuss groundbreaking ideas with students and faculty.
Shuler, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, presented his speech, “Building a Body-on-a-Chip”: Applications to Drug Development.”
He discussed the development of a human-based in vitro system that could possibly eliminate dependency of animal testing and make better predictions of human response to drugs.
“With a combination of cell cultures and microfabrication, a human surrogate can be constructed,” said Shuler. “These devices have been referred to as body-on-a-chip systems. Such chips should be relatively low cost to contract and have the potential for broad application in drug development and potentially to evaluate the toxicity of chemicals.”
Schuler’s research has helped lay the foundation of modern biochemical engineering and has led to commercial processes for production of the anticancer agent, Taxol, in addition to tools to produce proteins from recombinant systems.
The J.D. Lindsay Lecture Series enables outstanding speakers from industry and academia to visit Texas A&M and the Department of Chemical Engineering to exchange ideas on teaching and research with students and faculty.