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Michael J Lysaght is the Founder and Director Emeritus of Brown University's Center for Biomedical Engineering, and a retired member of the Brown Faculty. Widely recognized for his leadership and contributions to organ replacement technology, he is Immediate Past President of the American Society of Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO) and current President of the International Federation of Artificial Organs (INFA). An enthusiastic and committed teacher, he has received Brown's Elizabeth H Leduc award for Excellence in Teaching in the Life Sciences and the class of 2003 Barrett Hazleton Citation, also for excellence in teaching. A strong proponent of University-Industry partnerships, he created the Rhode Island Center for Cellular Medicine to support the formation of local biotechnology spinoffs and startups based upon university technologies, and has received two gubernatorial citations for his contribution to the State's economy.
He received an AB from Georgetown University, a BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from MIT and, later in life, a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of South Wales. Dr. Lysaght's professional career was primarily spent in industry prior to joining the Brown faculty in 1994.
Dr. Lysaght worked at Amicon Corporation, one of the very early MIT biotech spinoffs, from 1996 to 1979. After leaving Amicon he spent three years in Europe. In 1981, he was a guest scientist in the membrane laboratory of Dr. Wolfgang Pusch at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1982-3, he directed the Nephrology Research Laboratory of Dr. Hans Gurland at the University Hospital of Munich. In 1984, Dr. Lysaght returned to the States and joined Baxter International in northern Illinois, first as Director of Membrane Science and later as Vice President for Renal Research. In 1989, he came to Providence, Rhode Island in New England to help start CytoTherapeutics, a Brown Spinoff and one of Rhode Island's first biotechnology ventures. He served as Vice President and chief technical executive at CytoTherapeutics until 1994. By the time he left, the company had initiated its first clinical trials, raised $100 million, hired 100 employees and was NASDAQ listed.
He joined the faculty of Brown University in 1995 and remained until his semi-retirement in 2008. While at Brown, Dr. Lysaght's laboratory research has focused on new therapies for End Stage Renal Disease as well as tissue engineering approaches to the treatment of diabetes and deteriorating cartilage. Much of this activity involves encapsulation of genetically-modified cells, or stem cells, in barriers which allow transport of bioactive molecules while providing protection from a potential host immune system. He has also conducted and published extensive studies on the demographic scope and economic impact of organ replacement technology and tissue engineering. For his work in this area, he was described by Barron's as one of the nation's "top medical thinkers."
Because of his background in industry, Dr. Lysaght was asked by Brown to oversee a Brown-Rhode Island partnership to encourage and support private sector development of technology originating in RI University laboratories. This resulted in the formation of the Rhode Island Center for Cellular Medicine (RICCM), which formed the cornerstone for the current Slater Center for Biomedical Technology. RICCM assisted in the formation of well over a dozen startups, which attracted tens of millions of dollars in venture capital and government or corporate funding. Dr. Lysaght served as president of RICCM until 1999 and remained active on its board until 2003.
In 2000, he assumed responsibility for formation and oversight of a Center in Biomedical Engineering at Brown. An undergraduate concentration was initiated in 2001, and a graduate program was inaugurated in 2003. Both have proven very popular with students and faculty alike. Over 100 students have received SB degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Brown, and the graduate program currently has a census of over forty PhD candidates.
During most academic years, Dr. Lysaght taught three courses with a typical aggregate enrollment of 150-200 students: Organ Replacement (BI1080), Introduction to Biotechnology Management (BI0170) and Biotechnology Management (BI0080).
Dr. Lysaght has written extensively on various aspects of organ replacement therapy. He is author/editor of three books, with a fourth in the works, and has contributed over 200 papers to the scientific literature. He holds over 25 US Patents. He has also lectured extensively on the field and has been an invited keynote speaker at meetings of virtually all major artificial organ and tissue engineering societies
Dr. Lysaght serves as a reviewer for the NIH, NSF, and DFG (Germany) as well as for funding agencies in Canada and the Netherlands. He is a founder of the International Society of Blood Purification (ISBP) and served as a Council Member or Officer continuously from 1983 to 2008. He was a Founding Fellow of the American Institute for Biology and Medicine (AIMBE) in 1992. He has been elected President of both The American (ASAIO) and International (InFA) Societies of Artificial Organs. In 1995, he was chairman of the Keystone Symposium on Encapsulated Cell Therapy. In 1997, he served as Congress President of the 11th International Congress of ISAO held in Providence; and in 1998, he hosted the 14th congress of ISBP in Newport. More recently, he organized and chaired the 2004 NIH Workshop on Immunobarriers in Islet Transportation.
He lives in East Greenwich, RI with his wife Carmen, a Clinical Nurse Specialist, with whom he shares an enthusiasm for the mountains, the ocean, and self-actualization.
Download Michael Lysaght's Curriculum Vitae in PDF Format
