Jeffrey Alan Hubbell is an American molecular engineer. During his early career, Hubbell founded three companies based on his academic research and was the holder of 88 U.S. patents.

Early life and education

Hubbell was born to father Ron Hubbell in

Overland Park, Kansas Overland Park ( ) is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in Johnson County, Kansas, it is one of four principal cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the most populous suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. A ...

. He received his bachelor's degree from

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public insti ...

and his PhD from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universit ...

in chemical engineering.

Career

Upon completing his PhD, Hubbell joined the faculty at Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where he served as the founding director of the Institute of Bioengineering. In 1995, Hubbell was elected a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering for his "fundamental and clinically-applied contributions to biomaterials." During his early career, he founded three companies based on his academic research and was the holder of 88 U.S. patents. Hubbell remained in Switzerland until 2014 when he accepted a position at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

faculty of engineering as their Barry L. MacLean Professor for Molecular Engineering Innovation and Enterprise. He was also elected a fellow of the

National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 2010 ...

. Upon joining the University of Chicago, Hubbell collaborated with Cathryn Nagler to establish the ClostraBio, a company to develop drugs. By 2017, Hubbel was the recipient of the Society for Biomaterials’ Founders Award for his "long-term, landmark contributions to the discipline of biomaterials." He was specifically recognized for designing materials to assemble and function so they could stimulate the immune system to fight infection or malignancy and coining the term "immuno-modulatory materials." In the same year, Hubbel was awarded the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal and appointed the inaugural Bell Professor in Tissue Engineering at the University of Chicago. In 2018, Hubbell was also elected a Member of the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

for his work "pioneering the development of cell responsive (bioactive) materials and inventing biomaterials that are now widely utilized in regenerative medicine." Following this, he helped develop a new system for delivering a malaria vaccine. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, Hubbell and

Melody Swartz Melody A. Swartz (born April 1969) is William B. Ogden Professor in Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. She was previously a professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. She won a 2012 MacArthur Fellowship and a 2002 ...

co-launched the Chicago Immunoengineering Innovation Center to develop new technologies to treat diseases, including cancer, autoimmune disorders, and

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

. Throughout the pandemic, the researchers at the center began developing computational and experimental approaches to new vaccines and vaccine delivery methods. In April 2020, Hubbell, Swartz, and Jun Ishihara co-published their research on an immunotherapy delivery system that finds tumors by seeking out and binding to the tumors’ collagen. Following this development, he helped design a new therapy to assist those with multiple sclerosis by fusing a cytokine to a blood protein. Later, in 2021, Hubbell was one of eight University of Chicago faculty members elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

Personal life

Hubbell married speech pathologist Juliet Boege in 1983.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbell, Jeffrey Living people Engineers from Kansas University of Chicago faculty Kansas State University alumni Rice University alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors People from Overland Park, Kansas Year of birth missing (living people) Presidents of Society for Biomaterials 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers