Physician Profile

Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed the Vice President for Health Affairs at the University of Connecticut and the seventh dean of the UConn School of Medicine in 2008. He holds the Van Dusen Endowed Chair in Academic Medicine.

Prior to his arrival at the UConn Health Center, Dr. Laurencin was the Lillian T. Pratt Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Virginia, as well as the Orthopaedic Surgeon-in-Chief at the University of Virginia Health System. In addition, he was designated as a University Professor at the University of Virginia, one of the university’s most prestigious titles, and held professorships in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Laurencin is an expert in shoulder and knee surgery and an international leader in tissue engineering research. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Orthopaedic Surgeons, is widely published in scholarly journals and holds more than 20 U.S. patents. Among Dr. Laurencin’s numerous awards and accolades, he was recently honored by Scientific American Magazine as one of the top 50 innovators for his groundbreaking technological work in the regeneration of knee tissue.

Among his many national responsibilities, Dr. Laurencin has served as Speaker of the House of the National Medical Association, and currently serves as Chair of the Board of the National Medical Association’s W. Montague Cobb Health Institute. He has been a member of the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Council for Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Science Advisory Board for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He currently sits on the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Directorate Advisory Committee.

Appointment

• Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, UConn Health Center
• New England Musculoskeletal Institute

Specialty

• Orthopaedic Surgery

Subspecialty

• Shoulder Surgery
• Knee Surgery

Certifications
American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery

Education
B.S.E., Princeton University
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.D., Harvard Medical School

State Licensure
Connecticut
Virginia

Residency
Surgical House Office, The Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia
Orthopaedic Surgery Resident, Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Surgery Program
Chief Resident, Orthopaedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Hospital

Fellowship
Cornell University Medical Center/The Hospital for Special Surgery: Sports Medicine and Shoulder Surgery

Awards
Selected

• 2008, One of the Top 50 Innovators (Scientific American)
• 2007, Who’s Who in Engineering Higher Education (Academic Keys
• 2007, Robert A. Bland Award, College of Engineering, University of Virginia
• 2006, Nicolas Andry Award by the American Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons for Significant Achievements in Orthopaedic Surgery
• 2006, America’s Top Surgeons
• 2005, 2004, Americas’ Top Doctors
• 2004, Elected to National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine
• 2004, Who’s Who in America
• 2002, William Grimes Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• 2002, Distinguished Professor Designation Bestowed, Drexel University
• 1998, Distinguished Alumni Award, Princeton University
• 1997, Elected Fellow, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
• 1992, Who’s Who in Engineering and Science
• 1987, Robinson Memorial Prize for Surgery
• 1984-1987, Hugh Hampton Young Memorial Prize, MIT

Selected Publications
Kumbar S.G., James R., Nukavarapu S.P., Laurencin C.T. Electrospun nanofiber scaffolds: engineering soft tissues. Biomed Mater. 2008 Sep;3(3):034002.

Jabbarzadeh E., Starnes T., Khan Y.M., Jiang T., Wirtel A.J., Deng M., Lv Q., Nair L.S., Doty S.B., Laurencin C.T. Induction of angiogenesis in tissue-engineered scaffolds designed for bone repair: a combined gene therapy-cell transplantation approach. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Aug 12;105(32):11099-104.

Kumbar S.G., Nukavarapu S.P., James R., Nair L.S., Laurencin C.T. Electrospun poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) scaffolds for skin tissue engineering. Biomaterials. 2008 Oct;29(30):4100-7.

Feng G., Wan Y., Balian G., Laurencin C.T., Li X. Adenovirus-mediated expression of growth and differentiation factor-5 promotes chondrogenesis of adipose stem cells. Growth Factors. 2008 Jun;26(3):132-42.

Laurencin C.T., Nair L. The FDA and safety--beyond the heparin crisis. Nat Biotechnol. 2008 Jun;26(6):621-3.

Nukavarapu S.P., Kumbar S.G., Brown J.L., Krogman N.R., Weikel A.L., Hindenlang M.D., Nair L.S., Allcock H.R., Laurencin C.T. Polyphosphazene/nano-hydroxyapatite composite microsphere scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Biomacromolecules. 2008 Jul;9(7):1818-25.

Greish Y.E., Sturgeon J.L., Singh A., Krogman N.R., Touny A.H., Sethuraman S., Nair L.S., Laurencin C.T., Allcock H.R., Brown P.W. Formation and properties of composites comprised of calcium-deficient hydroxyapatites and ethyl alanate polyphosphazenes. J Mater Sci Mater Med. 2008 Sep;19(9):3153-60.

Jiang T., Kumbar S.G., Nair L.S., Laurencin C.T. Biologically active chitosan systems for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Curr Top Med Chem. 2008;8(4):354-64.

Khan Y., Laurencin C.T. Fracture repair with ultrasound: clinical and cell-based evaluation. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2008 Feb;90 Suppl 1:138-44.

Nair L.S., Laurencin C.T. Nanofibers and nanoparticles for orthopaedic surgery applications. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2008 Feb;90 Suppl 1:128-31.

Khan Y., Yaszemski M.J, Mikos A.G., Laurencin C.T. Tissue engineering of bone: material and matrix considerations. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2008 Feb;90 Suppl 1:36-42.

Laurencin C.T., Einhorn T.A., Lyons K. Fracture repair: challenges and opportunities. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2008 Feb;90 Suppl 1:1-2.

Laurencin C.T, Christensen D.M., Taylor E.D. HIV/AIDS and the African-American community: a state of emergency. J Natl Med Assoc. 2008 Jan;100(1):35-43.

Einhorn T.A., Laurencin C.T., Lyons K. An AAOS-NIH symposium. Fracture repair: challenges, opportunities, and directions for future research. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2008 Feb;90(2):438-42.

Laurencin C.T., El-Amin S.F. Xenotransplantation in orthopaedic surgery. J Am Acad Orthop Surg. 2008 Jan;16(1):4-8.

Brown J.L., Nair L.S., Laurencin C.T. Solvent/non-solvent sintering: a novel route to create porous microsphere scaffolds for tissue regeneration. J Biomed Mater Res B Appl Biomater. 2008 Aug;86B(2):396-406.

Wan Y., Feng G., Shen F.H., Laurencin C.T., Li X. Biphasic scaffold for annulus fibrosus tissue regeneration. Biomaterials. 2008 Feb;29(6):643-52.

View more publications, see Pubmed listing.

Research Interests

Clinical Research

• Regeneration of knee tissue.
• Musculoskeletal regeneration.
   

Basic Science Research

• Tissue engineering.