Hunt Lecture Legacy

The WHF-TK Hunt Lectureship was developed to honor Dr Hunt’s legacy of research, mentoring and education by selecting awardees who have made major contributions or innovations to the field of science that could impact the field of wound research.

The lectureship is currently 100% endowed. Please consider helping us maintain this endowment today so Dr Hunt’s legacy will be remembered and honored by future wound researchers through this unique lecture series.

The Wound Healing Foundation established the Thomas K. Hunt Endowed Lecture in 2013 to honor the legacy of Dr. Hunt and to inspire and educate wound healing researchers on related research innovations.

The award is not limited to those who are directly involved in wound healing research, that is, consideration will be given to researchers who demonstrate the ability to bridge scientific gaps and cross boundaries through the use of basic physiology to understand healing processes in multiple organ systems.

Additional characteristics of the WHF Thomas K. Hunt Lecture awardees may include, but are not limited to:

  1. Major contributions to scientific inquiry that is likely to advance the field of wound healing
  2. Technological innovations or mechanistic insight that can quantify or improve wound healing or its research
  3. Academic achievement through mentoring across disciplines
  4. Potential impact on wound research directions or therapies

Future awardees of the Thomas K. Hunt Lectureship are selected annually by the Wound Healing Foundation.

The award will fund the travel, lodging, meeting registration and compensation. Awardees are also able to attend a special private annual luncheon with the Thomas K. Hunt lecturer. If you donate to this lecture or your company provides the endowment of this lectureship, your company may also participate in this unique activity. To help complete the endowment of this program, visit our donate page to make a donation today.

Endowed Lectures

The Foundation is raising funds to support several endowed lectures to be given at the annual meeting of the Wound Healing Society. Lectures can be given by a clinical scientist and/or a basic scientist focused on improving wound care or wound healing. The goal of this campaign is $100,000 for each lecture to be endowed.

2024 – 12th Annual Lecturer – William G. Kaelin, Jr., M.D.

2019 Nobel Laureate for the discovery of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability

Thursday, April 11, 2024, 9:40 am. at the WHF-DLS Annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Sidney Farber Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Senior Physician-Scientist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital & Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

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William Kaelin obtained his undergraduate and M.D. degrees from Duke University and completed his training in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he served as chief medical resident. He was a clinical fellow in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and later a postdoctoral fellow in David Livingston’s laboratory, during which time he was a McDonnell Scholar.

A Nobel Laureate, Dr. Kaelin received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the American College of Physicians. He previously served on the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors, the AACR Board of Trustees, and the Institute of Medicine National Cancer Policy Board. He is a recipient of the Paul Marks Prize for cancer research from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Prize from the AACR; the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist award; the 2010 Canada International Gairdner Award; ASCI’s Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award; the Scientific Grand Prix of the Foundation Lefoulon-Delalande; the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences; the Steven C. Beering Award; the AACR Princess Takamatsu Award; the ASCO Science of Oncology Award; the Helis Award; the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Prize; the Massry Prize; the Harriet P. Dustan Award for Science as Related to Medicine from the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Kaelin’s research seeks to understand how, mechanistically, mutations affecting tumor-suppressor genes cause cancer. His laboratory is currently focused on studies of the VHL, RB-1, and p53 tumor suppressor genes. His long-term goal is to lay the foundation for new anticancer therapies based on the biochemical functions of such proteins. His work on the VHL protein helped to motivate the eventual successful clinical testing of VEGF inhibitors for the treatment of kidney cancer. Moreover, this line of investigation led to new insights into how cells sense and respond to changes in oxygen, and thus has implications for diseases beyond cancer, such as anemia, myocardial infarction, and stroke. His group also showed that leukemic transformation by mutant IDH was reversible, setting the stage for the development and approval of mutant IDH inhibitors, and discovered how thalidomide-like drugs kill myeloma cells by degrading two otherwise undruggable transcription factors.


The mission of the Wound Healing Foundation is to improve the quality of life for wound healing patients and their families through support of awareness, research and education.

Wound Healing Foundation-Thomas K. Hunt Endowed Lecture made possible through the generous support of:

Family

Evelyn M Hunt
Christopher Hunt
Karyn Hunt Ellis
Tom Hunt, Jr., MD

Foundation Support

ScholarGiving
Wound Biotechnology Foundation
Wound Healing Foundation

Individual Donors

Dr. B. Lynn Allen-Hoffmann
Dr. Adrian Barbul
Dr. Barbara Bates-Jensen
Dr. Richard Clark
Ms. Lisa Collins
Dr. Diane Cooper
Ms. Mary Crossland
Dr. Timothy Crombleholme
Mr. David M. Davenport
Dr. Jeffrey Davidson
Dr. Bob Diegelmann
Dr. Luisa A. DiPietro

Dr. William Eaglstein
Ms Kathleen Ellis
Dr. Elof Eriksson
Dr. Vincent Falanga
Dr. William H. Goodson, III
Dr. Fred Grinnell
Ms. Margaret-Ann C. Halstead
Dr. Patricia A. Hebda
Dr. Harriet Hopf
Dr. Jay Arthur Jensen
Ms. Jane Johnston
Dr Sundeep Keswani

Dr. Kris Kieswetter
Dr. Christopher Kitchuck
Dr. Robert S. Kirsner
Dr. Hynda Kleinman
Dr. Ken Liechty
Dr. Paul Liu
Dr. Manuela Martins-Green
Dr. Thomas Mustoe
Ms. Joyce P. Nachtrieb
Ms. Laura K. S. Parnell
Mr. Jim Pinkham
Dr. Martin C. Robson

Dr. George T. Rodeheaver
Ms. Coni Rosati
Mr. & Mrs. Carl Schweinshaut
Dr. & Mrs. Gregory Schultz
Dr. Chandan K. Sen
Dr. Keith B. Siegel
Dr. Rica Tanaka
Ms. Dot Weir
Dr. Torsten & Mususa Wiesel
Dr. Traci Wilgus
Dr. Annette Wysocki
Ms. Kristin Zyga

Past WHF Thomas K Hunt Endowed Lecture Speakers are:

2023

Greg Schultz, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Florida

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Gregory Schultz, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Florida where he served as the Director of the Institute for Wound Research for 32 years. Dr Schultz graduated with BS and PhD degrees in Biochemistry from Oklahoma State University then completed Postdoctoral research in Cell Biology at Yale University. A major focus of Dr Schultz’s more recent research is on understanding the role that bacterial biofilms play in stimulating chronic inflammation that leads to highly elevated levels of proteases in wounds that impair healing in chronic wounds by destroying proteins including growth factors, receptors, and extracellular matrix proteins that are essential for healing. Dr. Schultz has co-authored over 420 scientific publications that have been cited over 26,00 times and served as President of the Wound Healing Society from 1999 to 2001, is a member of the Wound Healing Foundation Board of Directors, and served as a member of the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel from 2007 to 2010. He is a co-inventory on 36 patents and a cofounder of two successful biotechnology companies, and he was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2021.

2022

Judith Campisi, PhD
Professor, The Buck Institute for Research on Aging
Wounds that never heal: The aging, cancer and cellular senescence connection

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Judith Campisi received a PhD in biochemistry from the State University of New York Stony Brook, and postdoctoral training in cancer biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. In 1984, she joined the Boston University Medical School faculty as Assistant and Associate Professor. She joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as Senior Scientist in 1991. In 2002, she started a second laboratory at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, where she is a Professor.

At both institutions, Campisi established a broad program to understand the relationship between aging and disease, with an emphasis on the role of cellular senescence in promoting inflammation, cancer, and degenerative diseases. Her laboratory made pioneering discoveries in these areas, and continues to challenge and alter existing paradigms. She has several long-standing national and international collaborations, and she mentors many students and fellows.

Campisi received numerous awards, including MERIT awards from the National Institute on Aging, and awards from the AlliedSignal Corporation, Gerontological Society of America and American Federation for Aging Research, the Longevity prize from the IPSEN Foundation, and the first international Olav Thon Foundation prize. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association for Cancer Research, and the US National Academy of Sciences. She serves on numerous national and international editorial and scientific advisory boards.

2021

Randy Schekman, PhD
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

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Dr. Randy Schekman is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He studied the enzymology of DNA replication as a graduate student with Arthur Kornberg at Stanford University. His current interest in cellular membranes developed during a postdoctoral period with S. J. Singer at the University of California, San Diego. At Berkeley, he developed a genetic and biochemical approach to the study of eukaryotic membrane traffic. Among his awards are the Gairdner International Award, the Albert Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with James Rothman and Thomas S’dhof. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, a Foreign Associate of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, a Foreign Associate of the Royal Society of London and an Honorary Academician of the Academia Sinica. In 1999, he was elected President of the American Society for Cell Biology. From 2002-2017, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Annual Reviews of Cell and Developmental Biology. From 2006 – 2011 he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of the NAS. In 2011, he founded and until 2019 served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Open Access journal, eLife, sponsored by the HHMI, Wellcome Trust and the Max Planck Society. Beginning in 2019, Schekman will lead an effort supported by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation to identify and support basic research on the mechanisms of Parkinson’s Disease initiation and progression (https://parkinsonsroadmap.org).

Schekman’s laboratory investigates the mechanism of membrane protein traffic in the secretory pathway in eukaryotic cells. His approach began with a genetic and biochemical dissection of the secretory pathway in the yeast, S.cerevisiae. His lab discovered the genes and proteins that assemble proteins into the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, package proteins into coated (COPII) transport vesicles and deliver vesicles by fusion at a target membrane. The genes and proteins his lab discovered in yeast have counterparts in all eukaryotes and have been implicated in several human genetic diseases. The evolutionary conservation of the pathway discovered in Schekman’s lab encouraged the biotechnology industry to use yeast as a platform for the production of clinically important human secreted proteins. Approximately one-third of the world supply of recombinant human insulin is made by secretion in yeast and the entire world supply of recombinant hepatitis b vaccine is made in vesicles produced in yeast. As hepatitis b infection is the major cause of liver cancer in the world, this vaccine promises to reduce the incidence of liver cancer by 90%. In recent years his lab has turned from yeast to mammalian cell culture to investigate aspects of human physiology and disease that are not readily studied in yeast.

2020

Margaret A. Liu, MD, DSchc, MDhc, FISV
Foreign Adjunct Professor at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Adjunct Full Professor at the University of California, San Francisco
CEO PAX Therapeutics

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Margaret A. Liu obtained an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, a B.A. in Chemistry, summa cum laude, from Colorado College, and passed the Epreuve pour le Dipl’me d’Enseignement,  l’unanimit (judges’ unanimous decision), in piano from the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. She completed Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine and a Fellowship in Endocrinology, all at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Previous visiting, faculty, and adjunct faculty appointments were at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Medical School, and The University of Pennsylvania, respectively. Working with Prof. Herman Eisen, known for his seminal work on antibody binding, elucidating the T cell receptor sharpened her immunological skills while a Visiting Scientist at MIT. Later while at Merck, she worked closely with Dr. Maurice Hilleman, the legendary vaccinologist who developed more than 40 vaccines.

Use of gene-based vectors for the development of preventions and treatments for infectious diseases and cancer, specifically vaccines and immunotherapeutics is Dr. Liu’s expertise. Two of the technologies that she pioneered have now been developed by companies into licensed products: bispecific antibodies for cancer therapy, and DNA vaccines for veterinary applications and which are in numerous human clinical trials for vaccines (for example, one of the first COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials), gene therapy, and immunotherapy for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and allergy.

Dr. Liu currently is CEO of PAX Therapeutics, a nascent biotech company using gene delivery of VEGF to optimize healing of ligaments and tendons after surgical repair for rupture. She also consults in the fields of vaccines and immunotherapy for companies, universities, and non-governmental, scientific governmental organizations and international agencies such as WHO, and is a director at Ipsen Pharma. Previous roles included: Senior Director at Merck Research Laboratories, Vice President of Vaccines Research and Gene Therapy at Chiron Corporation, Senior Advisor in Vaccinology at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Vice-Chairman of Transgene, and Executive Vice-Chair of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), an independent international organization with signatory countries in Seoul, Korea established by UNDP. Dr. Liu is a Foreign Adjunct Professor at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and an Adjunct Full Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the Chairman of the Board and President Emeritus of the International Society for Vaccines.

Dr. Liu has received numerous awards and honors including an NIH Physician Scientist Award. She was invited by the Nobel Committee to lecture in the Karolinska Research Lecture series, was named one of The 50 Most Important Women in Science by Discover magazine, has multiple patents, and has been selected for numerous honorary lectureships. She has also had the conferral of two honorary doctorates, the most recent being Medical Doctor honoris causa from the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

2019

George A. Brooks, PhD
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Lactate Shuttling and Redox Signaling in Normal and Pathophysiology

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As a collegiate athlete George Brooks was very much interested in understanding physiology and biochemistry to improve is time in the 440 and 880 yard runs. In that capacity Brooks had to manage lactic acidosis on a daily basis. When his competitive days were over he earned a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology at the University of Michigan and subsequently took a post-doctoral fellowship in Muscle Biology and the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Brooks then joined the University of California Berkeley Faculty in July of 1971. At Cal Berkeley, Dr. Brooks retained an interest in understanding human performance during exercise and at high altitude, but he turned his attention his attention to studying basic metabolic processes to better understanding of human capabilities in health and disease.

In recent years, Dr. Brooks and colleagues developed two working hypotheses: “The Lactate Shuttle”, and the “Crossover Concept.” Research on the Lactate Shuttle has been to elucidate the pathways and controls of lactate (lactic acid) formation and removal before, during and after exercise. The work involved studies on animals and humans, the use of isotope tracers, muscle biopsies and cardiovascular, pulmonary and endocrine measurements. Along the way he and colleagues discovered that the body makes lactate all the time, and that endurance training develops the capacities to produce, remove and utilize lactate as a fuel energy source. Subsequently, studies of lactate shuttling have revealed three functions of lactate; lactate is a fuel energy source, the main gluconeogenic precursor, and a signaling molecule with autocrine, paracrine and endocrine functions. In fact, Dr. Brooks and colleagues demonstrated that lactate is favored as a fuel by working red muscle, heart, liver and brain. Along the way they also discovered that the muscle respiratory apparatus is comprised of a large network, a �mitochondrial reticulum� that doubles in mass in response to regular exercise because training which also increases the expression of hundred of genes.

For the last decade Dr. Brooks and others have appreciated translational value of Lactate Shuttle theory. Recent research shown that lactate is a favored brain fuel in injured as well as healthy persons and clinical trials are under way to improve outcomes in traumatic brain injury patients using lactate supplementation. Also, he and his colleagues noted similarities between metabolic responses in exercise and cancer; a feature of cancer cells being aerobic glycolysis and lactate production (i.e., the Warburg Effect) under fully aerobic conditions. Currently independent investigators and workers in pharma are attempting to control cancer cell proliferation by developing Lactate Shuttle blockers and inhibitors of MCT insertion into plasma membranes. Dr Brooks is also thought to be responsible for the aphorism “Tumors are wounds that don’t heal”. Similarly, Brooks� journey into translational research inevitably brought him in contact with Thomas K. (TK) Hunt. As such, they spent many happy and challenging hours discussing, and teaching lactate metabolism in trauma and wound healing. In his semi-historical and biographical lecture Dr. Brooks will remind and inform about Lactate Shuttle theory and encourage others to translate theory into practice.

Dr Brooks he has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and has been cited over 31,000 times. He has also served on several NIH grant review panels, and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences panel that wrote the scientific report that is the base for our current dietary guidelines. Dr. Brooks received the Honor award from the American College of Sports Medicine in 2007, and the Honor award from the Exercise and Environmental Physiology Section of the American Physiological Society in 2014.

2018

Elaine Fuchs, PhD
The Rockefeller University, NYC, NY
Coping with Stress: Stem Cells in Injury, Cancer and Inflammation

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Elaine Fuchs is an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Rockefeller University, where she is the Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development. Her lecture kicked off the WHS Annual Scientific Meeting at the Symposium for Advanced Wound Care on April 25, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Elaine Fuchs, PhD
Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor
Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Rockefeller University
New York, NY

Education
B.S. in chemistry, 1972
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

Ph.D. in biochemistry, 1977
Princeton University

Postdoc
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1977-1980

Positions
Assistant Professor, 1980-1985
Associate Professor, 1985-1988
Professor, 1989-2002
University of Chicago

Professor, 2002
The Rockefeller University

Associate Investigator, 1988-1993
Investigator, 1993
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Awards
White House Outstanding Scientist, 1985
Women in Cell Biology Senior Career Achievement Award, 1997
Cartwright Award, Columbia University, 2002
Novartis/Drew Award, 2003
Dickson Prize, 2004
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Award for Scientific Excellence, 2006
Bering Award, 2006
National Medal of Science, 2009
Charlotte Friend Award, 2010
L’Oral-UNESCO Award, 2010
Madison Medal, 2011
Passano Award, 2011
Albany Medical Center Prize, 2011
March of Dimes Prize, 2012
Lifetime Achievement Award, American Skin Association, 2013
Kligman-Frost Leadership Award, 2013
Pasarow Award, 2013
Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award, 2014
E.B. Wilson Medal, 2015
McEwen Award for Innovation, 2017

Memberships
National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Medicine
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Philosophical Society
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science

The largest reservoirs of adult stem cells reside in skin. They continually renew the body’s protective barrier, regenerate hair in cyclical bouts, and repair surface wounds. Dr. Fuchs studies where stem cells come from and how they make and repair tissue throughout life. She explores how stem cells communicate with immune, dermal, and other cells in their environment and how this communication malfunctions in aging and cancers.

Dr. Fuchs’ lab couples in vitro studies with classical genetics, RNAi, and CRISPR-Cas technologies in mice to study the biology of skin stem cells. Her research employs high throughput genomic analyses, live imaging, cell biology, and functional approaches to unravel the molecular pathways that determine the normal balance between stem cell maintenance and differentiation and how this goes awry in cancers. Her team is learning how stem cells establish unique chromatin landscapes and programs of gene expression and how this shifts in response to changes in their local environment. They have found that activating signals from neighboring cells instruct skin stem cells when to make hair and when to repair injuries. Conversely, inhibitory cross talk tells the stem cells when to stop making tissue and rest. This work is accelerating the development of therapeutics to enhance wound repair.

By elucidating the positive and negative signaling pathways that need to be turned on and off at the right time and place for adult skin stem cells to become activated to regenerate tissue, her group began to employ genetic methods to investigate what happens when these signals are deregulated. They learned cancer cells hijack the basic mechanisms that enable stem cells to replenish dying cells and to repair wounds.

A major focus is on squamous cell carcinomas, among the most common and life threatening of human cancers worldwide. The group first used high throughput genomics to delineate the features of so-called “cancer stem cells.” They then devised technology that permits high throughput functional screens for oncogenes and tumor suppressors in mice. By identifying mutations that selectively fuel cancer growth and showing that these alterations also occur in related human cancers, Dr. Fuchs hopes her research will lead to new therapeutics that target cancer stem cells without affecting tissue stem cells.

By studying early steps in malignancy, the group discovered that invading blood vessels and associated inflammatory cells transmit aberrant signals. Nearby tumor-initiating cells respond by reducing proliferation, invading the stroma, and resisting chemotherapy. Further away, tumor stem cells grow faster but show greater sensitivity to drugs. This leads to differences in the behavior of stem cells within the developing tumor arising from heterogeneity in the tumor microenvironment rather than variations in genetic mutations.

How do these stromal aberrations affect the transcriptional and epigenetic programs of stem cells during tumor progression? How do these changes confer drug resistance and how do they affect epithelial polarity, adhesion, and invasiveness within the tumor? Does the epigenetic heterogeneity in tumor stem cells that arises from local variations in the stroma contribute to subsequent genetic heterogeneity within cancers? What is the importance of immune cell cross talk with stem cells in wound repair versus cancer? As the group answers these questions experimentally, they will continue to uncover new links to understanding the process of wound repair, as well as tumor progression and metastasis.

2017

Napoleone Ferrara, MD
University of California, San Diego
Anti-Angiogenic Therapy: From Bench To Clinic

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Dr. Ferrara earned his M.D. degree in 1981 from the University of Catania Medical School in Italy. After completing his postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco, he joined Genentech Inc. in 1988. It is there where he spent nearly 25 years working on the isolation, molecular cloning and biological characterization of VEGF-A which resulted in the development of bevacizumab, the first anti-angiogenic agent to be approved by the FDA for cancer therapy. His research also led to the development of ranibizumab, which has been FDA-approved for the treatment of multiple intraocular neovascular disorders. In December 2012, Dr. Ferrara joined the University of California, San Diego as a Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology & Pharmacology, and Senior Deputy Director for Basic Science of the Moores Cancer Center. He plans to continue his research focusing on the biology of angiogenesis and the identification of its regulators.

Dr. Ferrara has authored over 300 scientific publications, which have been cited over 130,000 times according to Google Scholar. He is also the recipient of numerous scientific awards, including the AACR Cain Memorial Award, the Lefoulon-Delalande-Institut de France Prize, the Passano Award, the General Motors Cancer Research Award, the ASCO Science of Oncology Award, the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award, the Lasker-deBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Janssen Award for Biomedical Research, the Economist Innovation Award, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award and the Gairdner Foundation International Award. Dr. Ferrara has been an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA since 2006 and most recently became an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.

This lecture was held at the WHS meeting on Wednesday, April 5, 2017 from 8:15-9:15AM at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Dr. Ferrara’s scientific and intellectual contributions on the biology and regulation of angiogenesis were stimulating for meeting attendees and thus positively impacted future wound healing research.

2016

Robert Langer, Sc.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Biomaterials and biotechnology: From the discovery of the first angiogenesis inhibitors to the development of controlled drug delivery systems and the foundation of tissue engineering

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Robert Langer, Sc.D. from MIT has accepted the Foundation’s invitation to be the 2016 WHF-Thomas K. Hunt Endowed Lecture Speaker. Dr Langer is one of only 13 Institute Professors at MIT; the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. His h-index of 211 is the highest of any engineer in history and he has over 1,080 issued and pending patents worldwide. His patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 300 companies. He served as Chairman of the FDA’s highest advisory Science Board from 1999-2002. Dr. Langer is also one of very few individuals ever elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. He is one of four living individuals to have receive both the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation. In 2015, Dr. Langer received the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. He has also received the Charles Stark Draper Prize (considered the engineering Nobel Prize), Albany Medical Center Prize, the Wolf Prize for Chemistry, the Millennium Technology Prize, the Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), the Gairdner Prize, the Kyoto Prize and the Lemelson-MIT prize, for being “one of history’s most prolific inventors in medicine.” He holds 25 honorary doctorates including honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale.

This lecture was held at the Wound Healing Society meeting on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 from 11:45-12:45PM at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Langer’s scientific and intellectual contributions on innovative research to develop new drugs, devices, biomaterials and delivery systems proved to be stimulating for meeting attendees and thus positively impacted future wound healing research.

WHF President Laura K. S. Parnell, 2016 WHF-TK Hunt Honorary Lecturer Robert Langer, and WHS President Andrew Baird.

WHF sponsored luncheon for 2016 WHF-TK Hunt Honorary Lecturer Robert Langer and WHF Fellows.

2015

Leroy Hood, MD, PhD.
Institute for Systems Biology
Proactive P4 Medicine: Catalyzing a Revolution in Healthcare through a Longitudinal, Digital-Age 100,000 Person Wellness Project

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Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D. from the Institute for Systems Biology has accepted the Foundation’s invitation to be the WHF-Thomas K. Hunt Endowed Lecture Speaker in 2015. Dr. Hood is a pioneer in the systems approach to biology and medicine. His research has focused on the study of molecular immunology, biotechnology and genomics. Dr. Hood’s professional career began at Caltech, where he and his colleagues developed the DNA gene sequencer and synthesizer and the protein synthesizer and sequencer four instruments that paved the way for the successful mapping of the human genome. A pillar in the biotechnology field, Dr. Hood has played a role in founding more than fourteen biotechnology companies, including Amgen, The Accelerator, Rosetta, and Integrated Diagnostics. He has coauthored numerous textbooks, including a book on the human genome project, The Code of Codes. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lasker Award for Studies of Immune Diversity, the Kyoto Prize in advanced technology, the NAE 2011 Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize and most recently, the 2011 National Medal of Science (awarded in 2013). In addition to having received 17 honorary degrees from prestigious universities in the US and abroad, Dr. Hood has published more than 750 peer reviewed papers. Hood is now pioneering new approaches to P4 medicine predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory, and most recently, has embarked on creating a P4 pilot project on 100,000 well individuals, that is transforming healthcare. To learn more about Dr Hood, please visit http://www.systemsbiology.org/leroy-hood.

This lecture was the opening session of the Wound Healing Foundation meeting on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 from 8:15-9:15 AM at The Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. The Foundation believes Dr. Hood’s scientific and intellectual contributions on the systems approach to biology and medicine was stimulating for meeting attendees and thus positively impacted future wound healing research.

WHS President Lisa J. Gould, 2015 WHF-TK Hunt Endowed Lecture Speaker Leroy Hood and WHF President Laura K. S. Parnell. Photo courtesy of Paul Y Liu.

WHF Sponsored luncheon for 2015 WHF-TK Hunt Endowed Lecture Speaker Leroy Hood and Foundation Fellows. Photo courtesy of Paul Y. Liu.

2014

Robert A. Weinberg, Ph.D., presented by Jordan A. Krall, Ph.D.
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Tumor stromal interactions and malignant progression

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Robert A. Weinberg, Ph.D. from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research has accepted the Foundation’s invitation to be the WHF-Thomas K. Hunt Endowed Lecture Speaker in 2014. Dr. Weinberg is a pioneer in cancer research focusing on epithelial and stromal cells as well as invasion and metastasis. He is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute and has numerous accolades including the prestigious National Medal of Science (1997), Wolf Prize in Medicine (2004) and many others. To learn more about Dr Weinberg, please visit http://wi.mit.edu/people/faculty/weinberg.

This lecture was the opening session of the Wound Healing Foundation meeting on Wednesday, April 23, 2014 from 8:30-9:30 AM at The Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Weinberg’s scientific and intellectual contributions of bridging cancer and wound healing was stimulating and fascinating for meeting attendees and positively impacted their research upon returning to their labs and clinics.

WHS President Paul Y. Liu, Jordan A. Krall presenter for 2014 WHF-TK Hunt Endowed Lecture Speaker Robert A. Weinberg and WHF President Laura K. S. Parnell. Photo courtesy of Laura K. S. Parnell.

2013

Thomas K Hunt, MD
Professor Emeritus, University of California San Francisco
Lactate, Oxygen and Wound Healing

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Dr. Thomas K. Hunt, the first President of the Wound Healing Foundation, is a highly regarded clinician, scientist, and mentor who made major contributions to the field of wound healing. His seminal contributions have largely focused on the importance of tissue oxygen perfusion and its measurement along with a host of other clinical and laboratory studies directed at improving wound healing for individuals. His reputation as a clinician, scientist, and mentor spring from his clinical acumen, insightful discoveries, and passion for developing the next generation of clinicians and scientists. The book “Fundamentals of Wound Management” written by Dr. Hunt and Dr. J. E. Dunphy is known to generations of wound healing clinicians and scientists. Dr. Hunt has over 400 published papers but perhaps his proudest accomplishment is the mentoring of numerous clinicians and scientists in his laboratory at the University of California San Francisco.

Dr. Hunt received his B. S. in Biochemistry from Harvard University in 1952 and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1956. He completed his internship at Boston City Hospital; followed by service as a captain in the Medical Corps; and then completed his surgical residency at the University of Oregon Medical School. It was during a fellowship at the University of Glasgow that he began to investigate the role of oxygen in wound healing. Then in 1965, he joined the Department of Surgery at the University of California San Francisco where he remained for his entire career becoming a Professor Emeritus in 2001.

Thomas K. Hunt receiving a gift from WHF representative H. Paul Ehrlich following the inaugural Thomas K. Hunt Endowed Lecture. Photo courtesy of Bob Diegelmann.