The Department of Bioengineering is pleased to host Dr. Farshid Guilak, Mildred B. Simon Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University, Director of Research for the St. Louis Shriners Hospitals for Children, and co-director of the Washington University Center of Regenerative Medicine.

Please join us Monday, March 16, from 1:00 - 2:00 pm in the Knight Campus Beetham Seminar Room, followed by a brief networking reception. Dr. Guilak's talk is titled “Reprogramming stem cells with synthetic gene circuits: It’s about time!” 

Dr. Farshid Guilak is the Mildred B. Simon Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University, Director of Research for the St. Louis Shriners Hospitals for Children, and co-director of the Washington University Center of Regenerative Medicine. His laboratory focuses on multidisciplinary approaches that combine biology and bioengineering to study arthritis, with the goal of developing new stem cell therapies or pharmacologic treatments for arthritis. He has published over 440 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has co-edited four books. He has won numerous national and international awards, including seven honors for excellence in mentoring, most recently the renaming of the Orthopaedic Research Society’s mentoring award to the “Farshid GuilakExcellence in Mentoring Award”. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors for advances in the fields of regenerative medicine and mechanobiology, including the applications of synthetic biology to these fields. He is also the founder of several biotechnology startup companies.

Reprogramming stem cells with synthetic gene circuits: It’s about time! Arthritis represents a painful and debilitating family of joint diseases that is characterized by progressive degeneration of the articular cartilage and other joint tissues; however, there are currently few disease-modifying treatments available. Using several methods for genome engineering, we have reprogrammed pluripotent stem cells to create living tissue replacements that possess intrinsic capabilities for biologic drug delivery with tunable, inducible, or feedback-controlled, auto-regulated biological responses. Using this approach, we have developed synthetic gene circuits that respond to inflammatory pathways by secreting anti-inflammatory biologic drugs. We have also created “mechanogenetic” gene circuits that express therapeutic transgenes in response to defined mechanical signals, and synthetic “chronogenetic” gene circuits that delivery drugs on a prescribed timed basis. Such “smart” cells and living implants can provide controlled drug delivery and immunomodulatory responses for a wide variety of conditions. —LT

Join us for a special tenth anniversary edition of the Knight Campus' free public science talk to explore how research advances society.

ABOUT THE EVENT

Our 2026 Science Knight Out lecture, "A Decade of Building Oregon's Future," celebrates a decade of progress at the Knight Campus. Hear from bioengineering faculty--including 3D printing pioneer Paul Dalton andn electrical engineer Keat Ghee Ong -- and students who are turning cutting-edge research into life-changing products. Knight Campus Executive Director Bob Guldberg will highlight the ways Knight Campus innovators are growing Oregon's biotech economy through the creation of startup companies like Penderia and VivoTex, and training tomorrow's STEM workforce. There will be a community networking opportunity at 5:00pm before the lecture begins at 6:00pm.

When: Thursday, April 30, 2026

• 5:00 - 6:00 pm Community Networking (Nill Club Room)
• 6:00 - 7:30 pm Science Knight Out lecture - Featuring Bob Guldberg, Paul Dalton, Keat Ghee Ong, Iman von Briesen, Kylie Williams (Jaqua Concert Hall)

Location: The John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts (868 High Street, Eugene, OR 97401)