Professor Carlos Rinaldi was recently selected to receive the International Journal of Nanomedicine Early Career Award. This annual award is presented to a scientist in the early stage of his/her career (less than 10 years after receiving Ph.D.) who has made significant contributions to the field of nanomedicine.

Professor Rinaldi accepted this award late last month at the First International Translational Nanomedicine Conference (ITNANO2013), which was held at Northeastern University in Boston. In it’s first year, more than 150 students, researchers and industry experts from around the world convened to discuss the challenges of successfully translating nanomedicine research into commercial products.

During his acceptance speech, Professor Rinaldi challenged the current paradigm that heat delivered by magnetic nanoparticles is only effective at killing cancer cells above a certain temperature. Rinaldi showed that thermal energy delivered by magnetic nanoparticles could induce changes in thermoresponsive polymers without a bulk temperature rise and that these effects could also be harnessed to kill cancer cells and destroy cell organelles without the need for a macroscopic temperature rise. Professor Rinaldi also discussed the possibility of magnetically mediated delivery of energy, both in the form of heat and of mechanical work, as a way to control the fate of cells.

Congratulations to Professor Rinaldi on this prestigious award!