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What if you could take a pill or a vaccine

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and, just like getting over a cold,

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you could heal your wounds faster.

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Today, if we have
an operation or an accident,

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we're in the hospital for weeks,

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and often left with scars
and painful side effects

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of our inability to regenerate
or regrow healthy, uninjured organs.

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I work to create materials

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that instruct our immune system to give us
the signals to grow new tissues.

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Just like vaccines instruct
our body to fight disease,

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we could instead instruct
our immune system

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to build tissues

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and more quickly heal wounds.

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Now, regrowing body parts out of nowhere
might seem like magic,

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but there are several organisms
that can achieve this feat.

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Some lizards can regrow their tails,

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the humble salamander
can completely regenerate their arm,

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and even us mere humans
can regrow our liver

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after losing more than half
of its original mass.

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To make this magic
a bit closer to reality,

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I'm investigating how our body
can heal wounds and build tissue

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through instructions
from the immune system.

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From a scrape on your knee
to that annoying sinus infection,

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our immune system defends
our body from danger.

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I'm an immunologist,

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and by using what I know
about our body's defense system,

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I was able to identify key players

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in our fight to build back
our cuts and bruises.

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When looking at materials
that are currently being tested

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for their abilities to help regrow muscle,

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our team noticed that after treating
an injured muscle with these materials,

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there was a large number of immune cells

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in that material and
the surrounding muscle.

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So in this case, instead of
the immune cells

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rushing off towards infection
to fight bacteria,

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they're rushing towards an injury.

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I discovered a specific
type of immune cell,

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the helper T cell,

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was present inside
that material that I implanted

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and absolutely critical for wound healing.

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Now, just like when you were a kid
and you'd break your pencil

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and try and tape it back together again,

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we can heal,

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but it might not be
in the most functional way,

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and we'll get a scar.

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So if we don't have these helper T cells,

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instead of healthy muscle,

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our muscle develops
fat cells inside of it,

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and if there's fat in our muscle,
it isn't as strong.

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Now, using our immune system,

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our body could grow back
without these scars

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and look like what it was
before we were even injured.

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I'm working to create materials

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that give us the signals
to build new tissue

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by changing the immune response.

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We know that any time a material
is implanted in our body,

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the immune system will respond to it.

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This ranges from pacemakers
to insulin pumps

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to the materials that engineers are using
to try and build new tissue.

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So when I place that material,
or scaffold, in the body,

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the immune system creates
a small environment of cells and proteins

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that can change the way
that our stem cells behave.

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Now, just like the weather
affects our daily activities,

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like going for a run

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or staying inside and binge-watching
an entire TV show on Netflix,

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the immune environment of a scaffold

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affects the way that
our stem cells grow and develop.

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If we have the wrong signals,

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say the Netflix signals,

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we get fat cells instead of muscle.

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These scaffolds are made
of a variety of different things,

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from plastics to naturally
dried materials,

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nanofibers of varying thicknesses,

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sponges that are more or less porous,

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gels of different stiffnesses.

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And researchers can even
make the materials

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release different signals over time.

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So in other words, we can orchestrate
this Broadway show of cells

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by giving them the correct
stage, cues and props,

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that can be changed for different tissues.

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Just like a producer would change the set

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for "Les Mis" versus
"Little Shop of Horrors,"

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I'm combining specific types of signals

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that mimic how our body responds to injury
to help us regenerate.

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In the future, we could see
a scar-proof band-aid,

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a moldable muscle filler,
or even a wound-healing vaccine.

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Now, we aren't going to wake up tomorrow
and be able to heal like Wolverine.

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Probably not next Tuesday either.

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But with these advances,
and working with our immune system

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to help build tissue and heal wounds,

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we could begin seeing
products on the market

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that work with our body's defense system
to help us regenerate,

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and maybe one day be able
to keep pace with a salamander.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)