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Damage to nerve tissue can have a devastating impact on the quality of life for individuals suffering from traumatic injuries. Dr. Schmidt’s research is focused on analyzing and designing natural-based biomaterials that can interface with neurons and specifically stimulate and guide nerves to regenerate. These biomaterials can ultimately be used for facial and hand reconstruction or in trauma cases, and potentially could be used to aid the regeneration of damaged spinal cord as well. This presentation will focus first on peripheral nerve applications and one key success that is the foundation for the Avance Nerve Graft from Axogen (Alachua, FL). In addition, along the way to uncovering strategies for nerve regeneration, Dr. Schmidt and her team also discovered a biomaterial processing approach that led to a separate application of protecting tissues after surgery, resulting in VersaWrap from Alafair Biosciences, a start-up company in Austin, Texas. Both clinical successes stemmed from academic research while Dr. Schmidt was a faculty member at the University of Texas. Since being at the University of Florida for the past decade, her research has focused predominantly on spinal cord injury (SCI) applications. She and her team are engineering injectable biomaterials for less invasive applications in crush injuries, which are the most prominent form of SCI. To date they show that these injectable materials serve as effective therapeutic agents for SCI in rats and are promising delivery agents for cell transplantation applications. Dr. Schmidt’s goal is to one day translate these technologies for SCI patients.

Dr. Schmidt is a Distinguished Professor, the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Endowed Chair, and former Department Chair for the University of Florida J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering. Prior to joining UF, Dr. Schmidt was the B.F. Goodrich Endowed Professor at the University of Texas at Austin in both Biomedical Engineering (founding member) and Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Schmidt is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and a Fellow of AIMBE, the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the American Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE), and the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE/IUSBSE). She is an inductee into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame and a member of the Florida Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida. Dr. Schmidt has received other prominent recognitions, including AIMBE’s prestigious Pierre Galletti Award, the BMES Diversity Award (UF BME Representative), the TERMIS-AM Commercialization/Innovation Award, the Clemson Award for Applied Research from Society For Biomaterials, the American Competitiveness and Innovation Fellowship from the National Science Foundation, and the Chairmen's Distinguished Life Sciences Award from Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

*Refreshments will be provided plus a chance to talk with the speaker after their seminar till 5pm.