The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced yesterday that David Schaffer, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, of bioengineering, and of neuroscience, has been elected to its ranks.
Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering practice, research or education. This includes the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, development/implementation of innovative approaches to engineering education, or engineering leadership.
Professor Schaffer’s accolade is in recognition of the application of fundamental molecular and cellular engineering principles to enable the clinical success of gene and cell therapies. He holds a joint appointment with the College of Engineering, and he serves as director of QB3 and director of Bakar Labs.
“We have been engineering harmless viruses to become better vehicles to deliver therapeutic DNA cargoes for treating human disease,” said Schaffer of his research work. “Our viral vehicles are currently being used in human clinical trials for wet AMD, cystic fibrosis, diabetic macular edema, retinitis pigments, and other conditions.”
The Academy elected a total of 128 members and 22 international members, which also included other UC Berkeley professors and alumni. Among them, notably, is Kristala Prather, Arthur D. Little Professor and department head, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Prather is recognized for the development of innovative approaches to regulate metabolic flux in engineered microorganisms with applications to specialty chemicals production. She earned her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1999, working under the supervision of Professor Jay Keasling on the development of expression vectors for metabolic engineering.