David Mooney, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies, which is one of the highest honors in the field of medicine in the United States.

The IOM is an organization with more than 1,900 members and foreign associates that recognizes individuals who have made seminal contributions to medicine, healthcare, and public health. Its members serve on committees and boards that advise government agencies, policy makers, and professionals on healthcare issues. Mooney joins 70 new members and ten foreign associates elected this year.

Mooney is being honored for his pioneering work in the tissue-engineering field, and his substantial contributions to the fields of biomaterials, drug delivery, and mechanotransduction. In addition, his recent work in therapeutic cancer vaccines could transform the treatment of cancer. Mooney leads the Programmable Nanomaterials Platform at the Wyss Institute. Scientists in that platform create therapeutic biomaterials that seek out injury sites, deliver drugs, and promote tissue repair.

"I’m deeply honored to be elected to this illustrious organization and join such an extraordinary group of medical scientists and physicians," Mooney said.