Visiting Scholar Explores Revolutionary Biotechnologies

At 7:30 p.m., on Tuesday, Feb. 3, Nina Tandon, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of EpiBone, and researcher at Columbia University’s Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, will give a lecture called “Super Cells: Building with Biology” in Mabee Theater inside Sedgwick Hall. In her lecture, Tandon will explain how new research is making it possible to engineer human cells without resorting to the use of controversial embryonic stem cells.

Together with colleague Sarindr Bhumiratana, Tandon founded EpiBone, a company that employs a revolutionary method of bone reconstruction that eventually will allow patients to “grow their own bone.” Using adult stem cells to create anatomically precise, patient-specific bone tissue replacements, Tandon seeks to create a world in which people can grow their own replacement knees or hips. 

Tandon is the co-author of Super Cells: Building with Biology, which explores the new frontier of biotech. She is the author of numerous and frequently cited academic papers.  She received a Fulbright Scholarship to Tor Vergata University in Rome, where she worked on an “electric nose” designed to “smell” lung cancer. Tandon has also been profiled in Wired and was named one of Fast Company’s most creative people in business.

Tandon is a TED Senior Fellow and adjunct professor of electrical engineering at The Cooper Union. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from The Cooper Union, a master’s from MIT and a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Columbia University where she focused on electrical stimulation for cardiac tissue engineering. 

To register your attendance to this free lecture, call 816-501-4828. Parking is free in the north garage at 52nd and Troost Avenue and in campus lots. Seerockhurst.edu/mabee-map for details.