While conventional nanoparticles have revolutionized medicine including to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of numerous diseases from cancer to infection, traditional nanoparticles are made with toxic catalysts. As a way to both improve human health and do less harm to the environment, this presentation will cover how nanoparticles can be made via cells. Bacteria, mammalian cells, and cancer cells can be programmed to make nanoparticles out of a wide range of chemistries and sizes without using toxic catalysts. This presentation will highlight such synthesis techniques as well as in vitro and in vivo assays using such nanoparticles to selectively kill cancer cells, inhibit bacteria function, and grow tissues. It will also present a clinical study where over 30,000 patients have been helped through nanotextured spinal implants in which no implant failures have been reported to date (over the past 5 years where the conventional failure rate is 5 – 10%). This presentation will also provide future directions for how environmentally-friendly nanoparticles can continue to revolutionize medicine.

Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 125; Google Scholar) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has served as a professor at Purdue (2000-2005), Brown (2005-2012), and Northeastern (2012-2021; serving as Chemical Engineering Department Chair from 2012 - 2019) Universities and has formed over a dozen companies who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health in over 20,000 patients.  His technology is also being used in commercial products to improve sustainability and renewable energy. He is currently helping those companies and serves as a professor at Brown University, Saveetha University, Vellore Institute of Technology, UFPI, and others.  Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology); 2022, Best Materials Science Scientist by Citations (Research.com); and is a fellow of over 8 societies.  Prof. Webster is a former President of the U.S. Society For Biomaterials and has over 1,350 publications to his credit with over 55,000 citations. He was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Prof. Webster also recently formed a fund to support Nigerian student research opportunities in the U.S.