David A. Edwards | |
---|---|
Born | David A. Edwards April 6, 1961 |
Alma mater | Michigan Technological University, BS Illinois Institute of Technology, PhD |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Biomedical engineering |
Institutions | Harvard University |
Website | davidideas |
David A. Edwards (born April 6, 1961) is an American biomedical engineer, and the founder of Sensory Cloud. [1] [2] He was the Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering at Harvard University. [3] [4]
Edwards designs inhalable medicines, vaccines and victuals. [5] [6] [7]
In 2001, Edwards was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for transfer of scientific principles of engineering to industry, including invention and commercial development of a novel, generic aerosol drug-delivery system.
Edwards studied chemical engineering, receiving a BS from Michigan Technological University in the field in 1983, and a PhD in 1987 from the Illinois Institute of Technology. [8] [9]
Between 1987 and 1995, Edwards held a postdoctoral and lectureship at the Technion in Israel and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [10] [11] While at MIT, Robert Langer, a professor at MIT, encouraged Edwards to develop an efficient way for inhalers to deliver medicine to the lungs. [12] Edwards joined the Pennsylvania State University faculty as an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1995, where he continued to research ways to make medicine inhalable. [13] [14] In 1997, Science published his study on a new type of inhalable aerosol that efficiently delivered drugs to the lungs. [15] [16] Edwards left academia in 1998 when he and Langer founded Advanced Inhalation Research (AIR); the startup was purchased a year later by Alkermes for $114 million. [17] [18] He returned to academia in 2002, joining the Harvard faculty. [19]
Edwards' scientific work in biomedical engineering concerns the research and development of drug delivery platforms for treating infectious diseases in the developing world.[ citation needed ] He was a founder of Advanced Inhalation Research, now part of Alkermes, Inc.,[ citation needed ] of Pulmatrix,[ citation needed ] and of Medicine in Need, an international non-governmental organization aimed at developing new drugs and vaccines for diseases of poverty, such as tuberculosis. [20] [21]
In 2020, Edwards founded the company Sensory Cloud. Sensory Cloud released a nasal inhalable product intended to reduce infected air droplets from viruses like SARS-CoV-2, a strain of coronavirus known to cause COVID-19. [22] [23]
In a February 2021 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , Edwards and his colleagues posited that "exhaled aerosol increases with COVID-19 infection, age, and obesity". [24] [25]
In 2007, Edwards opened "Le Lab" as a space for artists, designers, scientists, and the general public to meet for exhibitions, performances, and discussions in Paris, [26] [27] and then he moved it to 650 East Kendall Street in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2014. [28] [29] [30] Major exhibitions by artists such as Mark Dion [31] [32] and artist/engineer Chuck Hoberman [33] [34] were shown, as well as innovations developed by Edwards, his associates, and his students. Some of his food-related inventions were available for purchase at Cafe ArtScience, an innovative restaurant associated with Le Laboratoire Cambridge. [35] In December 2019, it was announced that Cafe ArtScience was closing after 5 years of operation, and would be replaced by a new restaurant, called "Senses". [36]
However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted these plans, and as of 2022 [update] , both the restaurant and Le Laboratoire Cambridge appear to be inactive or closed, either temporarily or permanently.
Edwards, his wife and three children have lived alternately in Boston and Paris. [37]
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