skip to Main Content
2017 Winner: Omid Farokhzad, MD, MBA

Physician-Scientist, Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Professor, Harvard Medical School

Collaborators

Ericka Bueno, PhD
Scientific Director of Plastic Surgery Transplantation, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Mitchel B. Harris, MD
Co-director, Stepping Strong Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Chief, Department of Orthopaedics, Massachusetts General Hospital

Morteza Mahmoudi, PhD
Biomedical Investigator, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Instructor, Harvard Medical School

Project

Multifunctional Scaffolds that Promote Bone Healing and Regeneration

Injuries from severe trauma accidents can cause large open bone fractures and bone defects that are prone to poor bone healing and high rates of infection following orthopaedic trauma surgery. To minimize the need for patients to have follow-up surgeries after trauma, and even to prevent amputations, 2015 Stepping Strong Innovator Award winner Omid Farokhzad, MD, MBA, in collaboration with Mitchel B. Harris, MD, and Morteza Mahmoudi, PhD, successfully developed collagen patches with nanoparticles—small, biodegradable robots—that can deliver antibiotics and other drugs to promote bone growth and wound healing in a safer, controlled, and more efficient way than current approaches. With the additional Stepping Strong funding, Farokzhad and his team plan to enhance their product, apply the patches in animal models, and then facilitate the clinical translation of the product, with commercialization anticipated in two to three years.

Biography

Omid Farokhzad, MD, MBA, established and directs the Center for Nanomedicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a faculty member of the Brigham Research Institute Cancer Research Center and the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Farokhzad and his team of scientists have developed a myriad of nanotechnologies for medical applications. He has authored more than 150 papers and is an inventor of more than 150 issued or pending patents worldwide. The technologies that Farokhzad and colleagues have developed formed the basis for the launch of five biotechnology companies: BIND Therapeutics, Selecta Biosciences, Tarveda Therapeutics, Placon Therapeutics, and Seer Biosciences. Farokhzad’s research is focused on the development of therapeutic nanoparticle technologies; most notably, he pioneered the high throughput combinatorial development and screening of multifunctional nanoparticles for medical applications.

RELATED ARTICLES:
Healing Bones with Nanodrones: An Interview with Omid Farokhzad, MD
Imagining New Ways to Heal Bone Fractures and Speed Recovery: An Interview with Omid Farokhzad, MD, and Morteza Mahmoudi, MD

Back To Top