Organ-on-chip pioneer to deliver 2014 Graeme Clark Oration

The 2014 Graeme Clark Oration, hosted by the ICT for Life Sciences Forum at the Melbourne Convention Centre, will be presented on 5 June by Dr Don Ingber, Wyss Institute’s founding director. The public lecture celebrates game-changing medical technologies and advances made possible by breaking down the barriers between scientific disciplines.

Dr Don Ingber, Wyss Institute founding director.

At the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, based at Harvard University, academia interfaces directly with industry in a translation-focused model of collaboration that is developing bio-inspired devices and materials at a much faster pace than is possible in the traditional academic setting. Dr Ingber’s address, titled ‘The Next Technology Wave: Biologically Inspired Engineering’, will highlight many of these technologies, including his pioneering work on organs-on-chips.

Organs-on-chips are microfluidic devices fabricated using microchip manufacturing techniques that contain hollow chambers lined by living human cells which recapitulate organ-level structure and functions. Dr Ingber’s team recently created bone-marrow-on-a-chip and is now in the process of integrating about 10 organ chips into a ‘human body-on-a-chip’.

Dr Ingber will highlight his pioneering work on organs-on-chips - microfluidic devices that contain hollow chambers lined by living human cells and recapitulate organ-level structure and functions.

The Graeme Clark Oration was established in 2008 to honour Laureate Professor Emeritus Graeme Clark AC, inventor of the bionic ear. This year’s oration is expected to draw more than 1200 attendees, including the Governor of Victoria, the Hon Alex Chernov AC QC. Dr Ingber will also deliver a special talk for secondary school students prior to the oration.

“It is wonderful to have someone of Dr Ingber’s reputation and inspired leadership deliver this year’s oration,” Dr Clark said. “It is exciting and timely to have the critical role of convergence in delivering new breakthroughs discussed and better understood. While challenges remain, I believe the future is very bright for scientific research aimed at improving human health and wellbeing.”

To register for the Graeme Clark Oration, click here.

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