Robert Langer: Edison of Medicine

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Academy of Achievement

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2017

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some of Robert Langer's inventions sound like the stuff of science fiction: "smart" pills that can release medicine by remote control... organs and bone, coaxed into growing on polymer scaffolds. But these inventions are already in clinical trials, or in development at Langer's Lab at MIT, the largest bioengineering lab in the country. In this episode, Robert Langer talks about the very unconventional route he took from chemical engineer to medical pioneer, and he explains his first discovery, in the 1970's, which led to one of the primary treatments for Cancer. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2017

Transcript

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0:00.0	During your lifetime, there's a very good chance that one of Robert Langer's innovations
0:08.5	will save your life. A cancer treatment, a drug delivery system, a regenerated organ even.
0:16.1	And no, I'm not talking science fiction here.
0:19.1	Dr. Langer heads a biomedical research lab at MIT, the largest in the world. has a as many patents. Techniques he's developed are used far and wide throughout the
0:35.2	medical and pharmaceutical field, but Dr. Langer's not a medical doctor. He's a
0:41.0	chemical engineer. I've always like magic.
0:44.0	This has made me sound silly, but I always like magic.
0:46.0	You know, and I still love magic.
0:49.0	I mean, you know, I've even done some magic.
0:51.0	I'm not a great magician, but I've done like some shows and
0:54.3	magic's always sort of fascinated me. And chemistry is always very magical. I mean the kinds of things like I remember
1:00.4	when I was a little boy, you know you'd have these solutions and you could have you could take
1:04.0	one solution and mix it with another and all of a sudden it would change to it like a third
1:08.4	color and you could take mix one thing with another and it would turn like into rubber.
1:13.0	And I thought, you know, those are reactions and I thought,
1:16.0	boy, this is really neat.
1:18.0	This is what it takes a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance. And trust me, this episode is
1:26.0	definitely heavy on the perseverance. From the Academy of Achievement, I'm Alice
1:32.4	Winkler.
1:33.0	Adam Aye, this child is gifted.
1:36.0	And I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
1:39.0	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another
	...

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