Martin (Maish) L. Yarmush (born October 8, 1952, in Brooklyn, New York) is a distinguished American academic, physician, engineer, and scientist, widely recognized for his pioneering contributions to biotechnology and bioengineering. His academic career began in 1984 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he served as a Principal Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and was named a Lucille P. Markey Scholar in Biomedical Science. In 1988, Dr. Yarmush joined Rutgers University[1] as a Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and a member of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (CABM). In 1995, he returned to Boston to assume the Helen Andrus Benedict Professorship of Surgery and Bioengineering in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST). That same year, he founded the Center for Engineering in Medicine—now known as the Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery (CEMS)—based at the Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals, including Massachusetts General Hospital.[2][3] In 2007, Dr. Yarmush returned to Rutgers to become the inaugural holder of the Paul and Mary Monroe Endowed Chair in Science and Engineering and a Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering. He continues to maintain active academic and clinical affiliations in Boston, serving as a Lecturer in Surgery and Bioengineering at Harvard Medical School and as a Senior Scientific Staff Member at Shriners Children’s Boston.[4] Yarmush continues to thrive in a career defined by visionary academic leadership, pioneering translational innovation, and a profound cross-disciplinary influence spanning engineering, medicine, and the life sciences.
Yarmush is the founding editor of the Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering which was first published in 1999 by the nonprofit publisher Annual Reviews.[5][6] He is also a series editor for the book series Frontiers In Nanobiomedical Research.[7] In 2015 Yarmush was elected as a member of the National Academy of Inventors,[8] and in 2017, Yarmush was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering "for pioneering advances in cellular, tissue, and organ engineering and for leadership in applying metabolic engineering to human health."[9]
Yarmush has held faculty appointments at some of the nation’s leading academic institutions, including MIT, Harvard University, and Rutgers University, and has served in adjunct roles at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Renowned for his wide-ranging scholarly contributions to biotechnology and bioengineering, Dr. Yarmush is equally celebrated for the mentorship and training of dozens of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in academia, industry, and government.[12] He is the founding director of the NIH-Rutgers Predoctoral Biotechnology Training Program, which has received uninterrupted NIH funding for over 35 years, making it one of the longest continuously supported biotechnology training programs in the country. Dr. Yarmush also established the Center for Engineering in Medicine & Surgery (CEMS) at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1995. [2] This pioneering center was formed in collaboration with faculty from Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals—including Mass General, Brigham and Women’s, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—as well as with MIT, Harvard University, and Shriners Children’s Boston, with critical early support from the Whitaker Foundation.[13][14] At the time of CEMS’s founding, Dr. Yarmush held the Helen Andrus Benedict Professorship of Surgery and Bioengineering within the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and at Harvard Medical School, underscoring his central role in bridging clinical medicine and engineering innovation.[2]
Yarmush currently holds the Paul and Mary Monroe Endowed Chair in Science and Engineering at Rutgers University, where he serves as a Distinguished Professor in both the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. [2] In addition to his leadership role at Rutgers, Dr. Yarmush is a Bioengineer at Massachusetts General Hospital, a Lecturer in Surgery and Bioengineering at Harvard Medical School, and a Senior Scientific Staff Member at Shriners Children’s Hospital in Boston. These multidisciplinary appointments reflect a career embedded at the intersection of academic excellence, translational research, and clinical innovation.
Research
Yarmush is one of the most prolific and influential figures in biomedical engineering and translational medicine. He has authored more than 580 peer-reviewed publications, which have collectively garnered over 50,000 citations, earning him an H-index of 115 (Google Scholar)—a benchmark of sustained scholarly impact. In addition to his academic output, Dr. Yarmush is a named inventor on more than 60 issued or pending patents spanning a wide array of medical and engineering innovations. His groundbreaking work has earned him election to both the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors, placing him among the elite academic innovators in the nation.[15][14]. Throughout his career, Dr. Yarmush has led paradigm-shifting research across multiple domains, including wound healing, metabolic engineering, dynamic microsystems, biomedical device design, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and cell-based therapies. His contributions include the development of non-invasive technologies to mitigate post-burn scarring, [16] as well as advanced organ preservation techniques that have extended the viable storage window for donor organs, directly enhancing the effectiveness and reach of human transplantation.[17]
Dr. Yarmush is also a pioneer in robotic and image-guided vascular access, spearheading the creation of a fully automated venipuncture robot capable of performing blood draws with minimal human oversight. This system incorporates real-time imaging and point-of-care diagnostics, promising to reduce needlestick injuries—one of the most common hospital-related hazards—and to streamline clinical decision-making by delivering immediate diagnostic results.[18][19][20] A recent first-in-human clinical trial has validated its feasibility,[21] and one of his patents in this area has recently been licensed by a global top fifteen Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company (number three in Asia).
Awards
2022, The Sackler Scholar, Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies, Tel Aviv University, Israel
2020, Daniel Gorenstein Memorial Award, Rutgers U
2018, Lady Davis Visiting Faculty Fellow and Institute Lecturer, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
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