ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Laura Indolfi - Biomedical entrepreneur
Laura Indolfi is revolutionizing cancer treatment with new technologies including implantable devices for delivering drugs locally to the site of a tumor.

Why you should listen

Laura Indolfi is a biomedical entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of PanTher Therapeutics, an early stage spin-out from MIT and MGH that provides superior technologies for revolutionizing the treatment of locally advanced inoperable solid tumors. Prior to this she served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at the MGH Cancer Center and as a research associate in the Harvard-MIT Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. She was selected as a TED Fellow in 2016.

Indolfi has broad professional experiences and interests ranging from biomedical engineering to entrepreneurship and outreaching initiative to promoting science. Her scientific expertise covers a broad range of therapeutic areas (cardio, cancer, inflammation, regenerative medicine) and approaches (drug delivery, cell therapy, implanted devices). Together with her strong technical background, Laura has hands-on business and managerial know-how developed during her biomedical business training at Sloan and Harvard Business Schools and with several consulting firms. She strongly believes in the power of outreach initiatives to promote research awareness and foster the public audience's discovery of the beauty of science. In 2014 the line of clothes Cytocouture, created in collaboration with Colombian designer Carlos Villamil and inspired by her cell-therapy research, won the global competition Descience.

Indolfi holds a MS/BS degree in materials science and engineering and a PhD in biomaterials from the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. Upon graduation, she joined the Harvard-MIT Division of health, science and technology, working on several projects spanning from devices for local drug delivery to tissue engineering approaches for cell therapies.

More profile about the speaker
Laura Indolfi | Speaker | TED.com
TED2016

Laura Indolfi: Good news in the fight against pancreatic cancer

Laura Indolfi: Boas notícias para a luta contra o câncer pancreático

Filmed:
1,390,508 views

Quem já perdeu um ente querido para o câncer pancreático conhece a devastadora velocidade com que ele afeta uma pessoa saudável. Laura Indolfi, bolsista TED e empresária da área biomédica, está desenvolvendo uma forma revolucionária de tratar essa doença complexa e letal: um dispositivo de liberação de fármacos que age como uma gaiola ao redor do tumor, evitando que este se espalhe e liberando medicação somente onde é necessário. "Esperamos que, um dia, o câncer pancreático tenha cura", diz ela.
- Biomedical entrepreneur
Laura Indolfi is revolutionizing cancer treatment with new technologies including implantable devices for delivering drugs locally to the site of a tumor. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:14
By raising your hand,
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Levante a mão,
00:15
how many of you know
at least one person on the screen?
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quem de vocês conhece
pelo menos uma das pessoas na tela?
00:20
Wow, it's almost a full house.
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Uau, quase todos da sala.
É verdade, todos são
muito famosos em suas profissões.
00:22
It's true, they are very famous
in their fields.
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E sabem o que todos eles têm em comum?
00:24
And do you know what
all of them have in common?
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Todos morreram de câncer pancreático.
00:27
They all died of pancreatic cancer.
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Todavia, embora isso seja muito triste,
00:30
However, although it's very,
very sad this news,
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também é graças
às histórias dessas pessoas
00:33
it's also thanks to their personal stories
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que temos chamado a atenção
pública sobre a letalidade dessa doença.
00:36
that we have raised awareness
of how lethal this disease can be.
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00:40
It's become the third cause
of cancer deaths,
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É o terceiro câncer
que mais causa mortes,
e somente 8% dos pacientes
sobrevive por mais de 5 anos.
00:43
and only eight percent of the patients
will survive beyond five years.
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É uma fração muito baixa,
00:49
That's a very tiny number,
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especialmente se comparada
ao câncer de mama,
00:51
especially if you compare it
with breast cancer,
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cuja taxa de sobrevivência é de quase 90%.
00:53
where the survival rate
is almost 90 percent.
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00:57
So it doesn't really come as a surprise
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Portanto, não é de se surpreender
que receber o diagnóstico
de câncer pancreático
01:00
that being diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer
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significa encarar
sentença de morte quase certa.
01:02
means facing an almost
certain death sentence.
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Mas o que é de se espantar,
é que, nos últimos 40 anos,
01:06
What's shocking, though,
is that in the last 40 years,
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esse número não mudou nem um pouco,
01:09
this number hasn't changed a bit,
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embora se tenha progredido muito
com outros tipos de tumor.
01:12
while much more progress has been made
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01:14
with other types of tumors.
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01:16
So how can we make pancreatic cancer
treatment more effective?
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Então, como podemos tornar mais eficaz
o tratamento do câncer pancreático?
Como empresária da área biomédica,
01:20
As a biomedical entrepreneur,
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gosto de trabalhar
com problemas que pareçam impossíveis,
01:22
I like to work on problems
that seem impossible,
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entender suas limitações
01:25
understanding their limitations
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01:27
and trying to find new,
innovative solutions
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e tentar encontrar
soluções novas, inovadoras
que possam mudar os resultados.
01:30
that can change their outcome.
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01:33
The first piece of bad news
with pancreatic cancer
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A primeira das más notícias
sobre o câncer pancreático
é que o pâncreas fica,
literalmente, no meio da sua barriga.
01:35
is that your pancreas is in the middle
of your belly, literally.
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É a imagem em laranja na tela.
01:39
It's depicted in orange on the screen.
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Mas mal pode-se vê-lo
01:41
But you can barely see it
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01:43
until I remove all the other
organs in front.
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até que se remova os outros
órgãos que estão na frente.
Ele também está rodeado
por outros órgãos vitais,
01:47
It's also surrounded
by many other vital organs,
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tais como fígado, estômago,
e ducto biliar.
01:50
like the liver, the stomach,
the bile duct.
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E a capacidade do tumor
de invadir esses outros órgãos
01:53
And the ability of the tumor
to grow into those organs
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explica porque o câncer pancreático
é um dos tumores mais dolorosos.
01:56
is the reason why pancreatic cancer
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01:58
is one of the most painful tumor types.
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02:02
The hard-to-reach location
also prevents the doctor
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A dificuldade de acesso
também evita que médicos
02:05
from surgically removing it,
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façam a remoção cirúrgica,
02:07
as is routinely done
for breast cancer, for example.
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como é rotina nos casos
de câncer de mama, por exemplo.
02:10
So all of these reasons leave
chemotherapy as the only option
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Todos esses motivos tornam
a quimioterapia a única opção
02:14
for the pancreatic cancer patient.
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para o paciente com câncer pancreático.
02:16
This brings us to the second
piece of bad news.
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O que nos leva à segunda má notícia.
02:19
Pancreatic cancer tumors have
very few blood vessels.
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Tumores pancreáticos
têm poucos vasos sanguíneos.
02:23
Why should we care
about the blood vessel of a tumor?
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Por que vasos sanguíneos
de um tumor são importantes?
02:27
Let's think for a second
how chemotherapy works.
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Pensemos por um segundo
como a quimioterapia funciona.
A droga é injetada em uma veia
02:30
The drug is injected in the vein
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02:32
and it navigates throughout the body
until it reaches the tumor site.
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e percorre o corpo
até chegar ao local do tumor.
É como dirigir numa via expressa
para chegar a um lugar.
02:37
It's like driving on a highway,
trying to reach a destination.
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02:42
But what if your destination
doesn't have an exit on the highway?
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Mas e se o lugar para onde você vai
não tem saída da via expressa?
Você não conseguirá chegar lá.
02:45
You will never get there.
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E é exatamente esse o problema
02:47
And that's exactly the same problem
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02:49
for chemotherapy and pancreatic cancer.
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da quimioterapia
para o câncer pancreático.
02:53
The drugs navigate
throughout all of your body.
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As drogas percorrem
todo o corpo do paciente.
02:55
They will reach healthy organs,
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Atingem órgãos saudáveis,
02:58
resulting in high toxic effect
for the patients overall,
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causando efeitos tóxicos
para os pacientes em geral,
mas muito pouco atinge o tumor.
03:02
but very little will go to the tumor.
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Portanto, a eficácia é muito limitada.
03:04
Therefore, the efficacy is very limited.
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03:08
To me, it seems very counterintuitive
to have a whole-body treatment
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Não me parece lógico tratar o corpo todo
para curar um órgão específico.
03:13
to target a specific organ.
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Porém, nos últimos 40 anos,
03:15
However, in the last 40 years,
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03:18
a lot of money, research
and effort have gone towards
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muito dinheiro, pesquisa
e trabalho foram investidos
03:22
finding new, powerful drugs
to treat pancreatic cancer,
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na busca por novas drogas
para tratar o câncer pancreático,
03:26
but nothing has been done
in changing the way
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mas nada foi feito para mudar a forma
03:29
we deliver them to the patient.
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de administrar essas drogas ao paciente.
Então, depois de duas notícias ruins,
03:32
So after two pieces of bad news,
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vou lhes dar o que espero
ser uma boa notícia.
03:34
I'm going to give you
good news, hopefully.
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03:37
With a collaborator at MIT
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Com um colaborador do MIT
03:39
and the Massachusetts
General Hospital in Boston,
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e do Hospital Geral
de Massachusetts, Boston,
03:42
we have revolutionized
the way we treat cancer
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revolucionamos o tratamento do câncer,
tornando realidade
a administração localizada de drogas.
03:45
by making localized
drug delivery a reality.
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Basicamente, você vai
de paraquedas ao seu destino,
03:48
We are basically parachuting you
on top of your destination,
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03:52
avoiding your having to drive
all around the highway.
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evitando ter que dirigir
pela via expressa inteira.
03:55
We have embedded the drug
into devices that look like this one.
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Impregnamos a droga
em dispositivos como este aqui.
04:01
They are flexible enough
that they can be folded
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São flexíveis o bastante
para podermos dobrá-los,
04:06
to fit into the catheter,
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e caberem em um cateter,
04:08
so the doctor can implant it
directly on top of the tumor
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para que o médico os implante
diretamente no tumor,
04:12
with minimally invasive surgery.
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em cirurgia minimamente invasiva.
04:14
But they are solid enough
that once they are positioned
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Mas são compactos o suficiente
para que, quando em posição,
em cima do tumor,
funcionem como uma gaiola.
04:18
on top of the tumor,
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04:20
they will act as a cage.
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04:21
They will actually
physically prevent the tumor
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Eles irão, fisicamente, evitar que o tumor
entre em outros órgãos,
controlando a metástase.
04:25
from entering other organs,
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04:26
controlling the metastasis.
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04:30
The devices are also biodegradable.
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Os dispositivos também são biodegradáveis.
Ou seja: uma vez no corpo,
04:32
That means that once in the body,
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começam a se dissolver,
liberando a droga somente no local,
04:34
they start dissolving,
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04:36
delivering the drug only locally,
slowly and more effectively
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devagar e com mais eficácia do que é
feito com o tratamento sistêmico atual.
04:41
than what is done with the current
whole-body treatment.
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04:45
In pre-clinical study,
we have demonstrated
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Em estudos pré-clínicos, demonstramos
que essa abordagem localizada
04:48
that this localized approach
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permite uma resposta
ao tratamento 12 vezes melhor.
04:50
is able to improve by 12 times
the response to treatment.
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04:54
So we took a drug that is already known
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Então escolhemos uma droga já conhecida
04:57
and by just delivering it locally
where it's needed the most,
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e, só de administrá-la
localmente, onde é mais necessária,
05:01
we allow a response
that is 12 times more powerful,
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permitimos uma resposta
12 vezes mais poderosa,
05:05
reducing the systemic toxic effect.
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reduzindo o efeito
de toxicidade sistêmica.
05:09
We are working relentlessly to bring
this technology to the next level.
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Estamos trabalhando continuamente
para aprimorar esta tecnologia ainda mais.
05:13
We are finalizing the pre-clinical testing
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Estamos terminando os testes pré-clínicos
e o modelo em animais exigido
antes do pedido de aprovação da FDA
05:16
and the animal model required
prior to asking the FDA for approval
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para a pesquisa clínica.
05:20
for clinical trials.
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05:22
Currently, the majority of patients
will die from pancreatic cancer.
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Atualmente, a maioria dos pacientes
morrerá de câncer pancreático.
Esperamos que, um dia,
05:28
We are hoping that one day,
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possamos reduzir sua dor,
aumentar a sobrevida
05:29
we can reduce their pain,
extend their life
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e, possivelmente,
tornar o câncer pancreático
05:33
and potentially make pancreatic cancer
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05:36
a curable disease.
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uma doença que tenha cura.
05:38
By rethinking the way we deliver the drug,
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Ao repensar a forma
de administrar a droga,
não só a tornamos
mais forte e menos tóxica,
05:41
we don't only make it
more powerful and less toxic,
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05:44
we are also opening the door
to finding new innovative solutions
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mas também abrimos as portas
à busca de soluções mais inovadoras
para quase todos os outros
problemas impossíveis
05:49
for almost all other impossible problems
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para pacientes
com câncer pancreático e além.
05:52
in pancreatic cancer patients and beyond.
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Muito obrigada.
05:55
Thank you very much.
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05:56
(Applause)
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[Aplausos]
Translated by Mayra Tamada
Reviewed by Catherine Ung

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Laura Indolfi - Biomedical entrepreneur
Laura Indolfi is revolutionizing cancer treatment with new technologies including implantable devices for delivering drugs locally to the site of a tumor.

Why you should listen

Laura Indolfi is a biomedical entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of PanTher Therapeutics, an early stage spin-out from MIT and MGH that provides superior technologies for revolutionizing the treatment of locally advanced inoperable solid tumors. Prior to this she served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at the MGH Cancer Center and as a research associate in the Harvard-MIT Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. She was selected as a TED Fellow in 2016.

Indolfi has broad professional experiences and interests ranging from biomedical engineering to entrepreneurship and outreaching initiative to promoting science. Her scientific expertise covers a broad range of therapeutic areas (cardio, cancer, inflammation, regenerative medicine) and approaches (drug delivery, cell therapy, implanted devices). Together with her strong technical background, Laura has hands-on business and managerial know-how developed during her biomedical business training at Sloan and Harvard Business Schools and with several consulting firms. She strongly believes in the power of outreach initiatives to promote research awareness and foster the public audience's discovery of the beauty of science. In 2014 the line of clothes Cytocouture, created in collaboration with Colombian designer Carlos Villamil and inspired by her cell-therapy research, won the global competition Descience.

Indolfi holds a MS/BS degree in materials science and engineering and a PhD in biomaterials from the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. Upon graduation, she joined the Harvard-MIT Division of health, science and technology, working on several projects spanning from devices for local drug delivery to tissue engineering approaches for cell therapies.

More profile about the speaker
Laura Indolfi | Speaker | TED.com