Congratulations to Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD (Pediatrics) as the winner of the Innovation for Impact Award!
Read excerpts from the nomination letter below.
Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD
Department of Pediatrics
"His career trajectory is nothing short of explosive and impactful. He has an active laboratory devoted to “translating the micro/nanotechnologies” towards clinical care as “novel diagnostics and therapeutics for blood disease.”"
"Dr. Lam is the model of a faculty member who has utilized innovation to drive scholarly research and impact patient outcomes. As a physician scientist and engineer, Dr. Lam has built an internationally recognized research program employing the emerging fields of nanomechanics and microfluidics to study cellular processes and disease mechanisms, uniquely bridging hematology and biomedical engineering. He is also an innovative entrepreneur, dedicated to applying engineering solutions to clinical problems and ensuring their wide availability through commercialization. "
"One of Dr. Lam’s pioneering achievements is the development of a novel microfluidic technique to culture endothelial cells in microvascular-sized microchannels to enable the in vitro study of cell-cell interactions among blood cells and the endothelium under tightly controlled physiologic flow conditions. These unique research-enabling systems function as in vitro models of numerous blood disorders and are particularly important for studying sickle cell disease and microvascular thrombosis."
"Most recently and importantly, the NIH awarded his ACME-POCT a one-year, $31 million supplement as part of their Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, in order to systemically assess, validate, and determine which COVID-19 diagnostic tests can be implemented by the fall. As such, Dr. Lam and his colleagues are currently evaluating thousands of tests and whittling them down to 10 to 20 meritorious projects. The ACME Center will then help shepherd these towards manufacturing and scaling-up to ensure the American population can safely return to work, school, and public places as soon as possible."
