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HomeNewsNobel Prize Winning Scientist Joins InVivo Therapeutics Team

Nobel Prize Winning Scientist Joins InVivo Therapeutics Team

| Source: businesswire.com

Richard Roberts, PhD, to advise on molecular biology of traumatic spinal cord injury

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–InVivo Therapeutics Corporation, a medical device company focused on restoring function in individuals paralyzed by traumatic spinal cord injury, today announced that Richard Roberts, PhD, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, has joined the firm’s scientific advisory board.

Roberts is Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs, Inc., a world leader in the production and supply of reagents for the life science industry, located in Beverly, MA.

Frank Reynolds, InVivo founder and Chief Executive Officer, said: “I am delighted to welcome Dr. Roberts to our scientific advisory board. His demonstrated expertise in molecular biology will bring a valuable new perspective to InVivo’s work.”

Educated in England, Roberts completed postdoctoral research at Harvard University and later worked with James D. Watson, PhD, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, in New York State. Roberts is known for his work in molecular and computational biology—and especially for his pioneering use of computer methods and databases for studying DNA and its component structures.

In 1993, he won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that a given gene could be present in DNA as several, well-separated segments. The discovery of “split genes” has been of great importance to basic biological and more medically-oriented research.

InVivo was founded in 2005 to develop cellular therapies for spinal cord injuries, based on work initiated in the laboratories of Robert Langer, PhD, and Yang (Ted) Teng, MD, PhD. Langer is Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Teng is associate professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. Both are InVivo founders and members of the company’s scientific advisory board.

Langer said: “I am very pleased that Dr. Roberts will be joining InVivo’s scientific advisory board. I look forward to working with such a distinguished scientist.”

Roberts said: “What I’ve seen so far looks absolutely fascinating. I believe this work holds great promise for the future. It is crucial that such work move from the laboratory to the clinic because there is a desperate need to help people with spinal cord injuries.”

Every year, more than 170 thousand people worldwide are left paralyzed by traumatic spinal cord injuries, according to US government statistics. Although it is not currently possible to repair such injuries, the InVivo team believes that by minimizing additional injury to surrounding tissue and promoting new tissue growth, it will be able to improve function in spinal cord injury patients, Reynolds said.

InVivo Therapeutics Corporation is a Cambridge, MA medical device company focused on combining polymers and stem cells to restore function in individuals paralyzed as a result of traumatic spinal cord injury. The company was founded in 2005 on the basis of research initiated in the laboratories of Robert Langer, PhD, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. and Yang (Ted) Teng, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School.
Contacts

InVivo Therapeutics Corporation
Frank Reynolds 617-583-1315
or
Anita Harris 617-576-0906

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