David Mooney discusses "Biomaterials to Reconstitute T Cell Immunity" at the 2019 IIN Symposium

David J. Mooney is the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering in the Harvard School
of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. He is a leader in the fields of biomaterials, mechanotransduction, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and immune engineering. Mooney received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School. Professor Mooney is interested in understanding how cells sense signals in their environment and how this alters cell behavior. His laboratory develops biomaterials that exploit these signals to regulate specific cells and their functions. They were the first to demonstrate in a 3-D culture that the mechanical properties of a substrate regulated stem cell fate. His lab also developed the first implantable biomaterial cancer vaccine that contained biochemical cues to recruit and re-educate the immune system to destroy cancer cells. Mooney’s goal is to use our knowledge of cell biology in conjunction with materials to boost therapeutic effects. He is a member of several national academies and
has won numerous awards for his research and his mentorship/teaching. He has published over 400 articles and has been issued numerous patents, several of which have been licensed to companies, resulting in successful commercial products. He is also an active member of major engineering professional societies, an editorial advisor to multiple journals, and serves on several industrial and governmental advisory boards.