AIChE Awards Its 2024 Langer Prize to Ashish Kulkarni of the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Ashish Kulkarni

October 3, 2024

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) will present its 2024 Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence to Ashish Kulkarni, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The fellowship - which is endowed by the AIChE Foundation - is named for biomedical pioneer Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Langer Prize awards an unrestricted grant of up to $100,000 to enable creative researchers and engineering entrepreneurs in their early careers to pursue potentially game-changing innovations with transformative societal impact.

Dr. Kulkarni ­­- whose research uses principles of immuno-oncology to detect early-stage ovarian cancer - will receive the Langer Prize and present an associated lecture on October 28 during the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting, taking place October 27-31 in San Diego, California.

In describing the objectives of his research, Kulkarni writes that metastasis and drug resistance are the two major causes of cancer mortality, and remain a final frontier in the search for a cure. "Understanding the processes that lead to resistance and metastasis is therefore an urgent need," Kulkarni said. "Development of novel platforms could help accelerate our understanding of these processes."

Ovarian cancer typically does not cause noticeable symptoms in its early stages. As a result, it is often diagnosed at advanced stages, making it more difficult to treat effectively. However, when ovarian cancer is detected early, the chances of successful treatment and long-term survival significantly increase.

In preclinical studies, Kulkarni's research has identified a biomarker that is overexpressed in the blood of patients with early-stage ovarian cancer. The discovery could offer a new approach for detection and screening, with improvements over existing techniques.

Kulkarni's research group works at the interface of engineering and immunobiology to develop innovative technologies for achieving the precise level of immune activation to treat diseases and improve human health. By bridging diverse disciplines including nanotechnology, organic synthesis, computational chemistry, molecular imaging, mathematical modeling, and immunology, his team is creating "ImmunoTheranostic" (therapeutic + diagnostic) tools and platforms to address questions in human diseases, with a goal of developing paradigm shifting immunotherapy strategies.

He is a chemical engineering alumnus of the University of Mumbai's Institute of Chemical Technology. He earned his PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Cincinnati and performed postdoctoral work in biomedical engineering at the Harvard Medical School's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

As a Langer Prize recipient, Kulkarni joins a network of Langer Fellows including Albert Keung (2023), Tae Seok Moon (2022), Aditya Kunjapur (2021), María Eugenia Inda (2020), and César de la Fuente (2019), and he will have access to, and support from, some of the industry's foremost innovators and entrepreneurs.

Information about the Langer Prize and the application process, is available at www.aiche.org/langerprizes. The deadline for 2025 fellowship applications is February 15, 2025.

To learn about the endowment campaign for the Langer Prize, contact Natalie Krauser at [email protected].

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About AIChE: AIChE is a professional society of more than 60,000 members in more than 110 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontier of chemical engineering research in such areas as nanotechnology, sustainability, hydrogen fuels, biological and environmental engineering, and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org.