University of Toronto engineering professor Michael Sefton (ChemE, IBBME) has been named the 2016 recipient of the Terumo Global Science Prize for his achievements in tissue engineering and novel biomaterials discovery.

This is only the third time the Terumo Foundation for Life Sciences and Arts has awarded the prize. Sefton joins an elite list of internationally-renowned recipients, including MIT professor of chemical engineering Robert Langer and drug delivery research pioneer Sung Wan Kim of the University of Utah.

“The award is a fantastic acknowledgement of the University’s excellence in this area and the contributions of my trainees over many years,” said Sefton. “I am particularly pleased that the Terumo Foundation specifically cited my efforts to ‘develop younger generations’ who are now promising leaders themselves.”

Sefton is a leader in the field of tissue engineering and has made significant contributions to biomaterials, biomedical engineering and regenerative medicine. He is well-known in his field for combining living cells and synthetic polymers to create tissue-like materials that could help restore lost function in humans. More recently, his lab has created biomaterials that actively promote the growth of blood vessels. Such materials accelerate wound healing and/or support the development of lab-grown tissues.