Dr. Lahann’s focus centers on the intersection of chemistry, biology and medicine. In true interdisciplinary nature, much of his works stems from understanding what doctors need to treat their patients, then creating the bioengineering technologies—particles, surfaces and structures—from the molecular level to accomplish the task.
Dr. Lahann has worked with doctors to design two technologies on a path revolutionizing translational cancer research—a synthetic polymer surface that grows stem cells into new cells and a weblike scaffolding that allows researchers to grow a patient’s cancer cells into a sample large enough to test treatments on. Dr. Lahann is now working with the NeuroNetwork for Emerging Therapies to use pluripotent stem cells and grow brain organoids, or “mini-brains,” complete with cerebral spinal fluid to study the effectiveness of ALS treatments.