Pittcon 2025: Keynote Coulter Lecture Highlights Work in Regenerative Engineering

Pittcon is underway here in Boston, and numerous guest speakers are lined up to give important and insightful talks. Pittcon is taking place from March 1^st to 5^th, 2025, and it is being held in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center.

Yesterday, at 5:00 pm in Ballroom East, the Wallace H. Coulter Lecture took place, followed by the Welcome Reception. This year, the 2025 Coulter Lecture was delivered by Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD, who is well-known as a scientist and entrepreneur with an extensive career in regenerative engineering, which is defined as an amalgamation of materials science, stem cell research, clinical translation, and biology, for regenerating organs and complex tissues (1).

Cato T. Laurencin (standing at podium) delivering his Wallace H. Coulter keynote lecture at Pittcon in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 2nd, 2025. Photo Credit: © LCGC International.

Laurencin holds multiple professorships at the University of Connecticut (UConn), where he also serves as CEO of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering (1). Laurencin earned his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton, his M.D. from Harvard Medical School (Magna Cum Laude), and his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1).

During his career, Laurencin has advanced the use of polymeric biomaterials to treat musculoskeletal conditions, bridging basic science and clinical applications (1). His innovations have led to products designed to improve human health, earning him the Spingarn Medal and the establishment of the Cato T. Laurencin Regenerative Engineering Founder’s Award by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (1).

Laurencin is also the first surgeon elected to the National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, and National Academy of Inventors. He is also the first to receive both the Walsh McDermott Medal (NAM) and Simon Ramo Founder’s Award (NAE) (1). His contributions to science were recognized with the Philip Hauge Abelson Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (1).

Honored as Inventor of the Year by the Intellectual Property Owners Educational Foundation, Laurencin received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest U.S. award for technological achievement, presented by President Barack Obama at the White House.

Laurencin’s talk, titled, “Regenerative Engineering: The Frontier is Here,” highlights some of his innovations that have led to advancements in clinical applications. He started his talk by describing what regenerative engineering is.

“Regenerative engineering can be thought of as a convergence of a number of different areas––advanced material science, stem cell science, physics, developmental biology, and clinical translation, for the regeneration of complex tissues organs and organ systems,” Laurencin said in his talk (2).

The idea behind regenerative engineering is that all the insights and approaches from these various fields are integrated with one another, so that they can expand the capabilities of tissue engineering (2,3).

Laurencin highlighted several regeneration engineering project areas that spotlight the work he and his team are doing that are having a substantial impact on human health, but the main one discussed in his talk was about how he and his team are applying regenerative engineering to rotator cuff injuries. Laurencin highlighted that this project is important because rotator cuff injuries “have an extremely high” incidence rate and in “90% of these cases, people are not able to lift their arms” (2).

Laurencin explained how he is working with several different systems using pulmonary material chemistry and science to be able to create systems for regeneration of rotator cuffs. First, he and his team created rotator narrow fiber systems for regeneration to be able to reinforce and regenerate the rotator cuff (2). Second, Laurencin and his team worked on a “transition zone,” which existed between the tendon and the bone, because this area is where rotator cuff injuries normally occur (2). Third, Laurencin discussed how they looked at biologics and how they can apply it in regenerating rotator cuffs (2). Fourth, Laurencin and his team are engineering stem cell initiatives that help create electro-inductive matrices that can regenerate attendance and regenerate the muscle to prevent atrophy (2).

As part of the testing and research process, Laurencin and his team used rats, because their shoulders are “similar to humans” (2).

“We actually created a rotator cuff tear in the rats and then we repaired them,” Laurencin said in his talk (2). “We have three different groups we could repair--we can repair with our matrix on top or we can prepare with our matrix and with our stem cells.”

There were also numerous memorable personal anecdotes in Laurencin’s lecture, particularly his interactions with famous world leaders. Two of these interactions with well-known public figures came after Laurencin was honored by the creation of the Cato T. Laurencin Founders’ Award Medal, which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to convergence research as applied to regenerative engineering (4). Laurencin talked about how he gave the first two iterations of the award to St. Lucia Prime Minister Phillip J. Pierre and to Pope Francis, which were two of the highlights in his career (2). He also reminisced on his experience being bestowed the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2016 by President Barack Obama, commenting that it was one of the “most memorable experiences in his life” (2).

Laurencin’s talk covered his research published in PLOS One, which is in the literature (5). Laurencin’s talk also highlighted how many scientific disciplines are being integrated and are blending to drive meaningful progress in clinical applications. Regenerative engineering is just a major sign that innovations in thinking and technology will continue to propel new ideas forward that can improve patient outcomes.

References

1. Pittcon, Keynote Lecture. Available at: https://pittcon.org/conference/coulter-lecture/ (accessed 2025-03-02).
2. Laurencin, C. T. Regenerative Engineering: The Frontier is Here. Presented at the 76^th Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, Boston, Massachusetts, March 2, 2025.
3. Esdaille, C. J.; Washington, K. S.; Laurencin, C. T. Regenerative Engineering: A Review of Recent Advances and Future Directions. Regen. Med. 2021, 16 (5), 495–512. DOI: 10.2217/rme-2021-0016
4. Davis, J. I. Dr. Cato T. Laurencin Meets with St. Lucia Prime Minister. UCONN.edu. Available at: https://health.uconn.edu/regenerative-engineering-institute/2023/01/26/dr-cato-t-laurencin-meets-with-st-lucia-prime-minister-to-review-progress-of-uconn-st-lucia-cooperation-agreement/# (accessed 2025-03-02).
5. Peach, M. S.; Ramos, D. M.; James, R.; et al. Engineered Stem Cell Niche Matrices for Rotator Cuff Tendon Regenerative Engineering. PLOS One 2017, 12 (4), e0174789. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174789