Professor Robert Langer Presented Initial Data Regarding Motiva's SilkSurface® Technology at the Recent Beauty Through Science (BTS) Congress

Establishment Labs, manufacturers of Motiva implants and a global medical technology company focused on aesthetic technologies with a strong emphasis on product development and innovation, yesterday announced that Professor Robert Langer, Chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board, presented initial data highlighting the benefits of the company’s proprietary SilkSurface® technology at the 13th Annual Beauty Through Science (BTS) Congress held in Stockholm, Sweden on June 1-3, 2017.  Dr. Langer has been named as one of the 25 most important individuals in biotechnology in the world by Forbes Magazine (1999) and Bio World (1990).  BTS is considered one of the premier events worldwide in the field of plastic surgery.

“At Beauty Through Science, we look to bring the highest levels of science to plastic surgery, and we are honored that Professor Robert Langer accepted our invitation as keynote speaker,” said Dr. Per Héden, BTS President. “The latest advances in material sciences and biomedical engineering need to be incorporated into everything we do as plastic surgeons, and his lecture spoke to the rigorous scientific approach we must demand from ourselves and from industry. His commitment to understanding the biocompatibility of implant surfaces is of the utmost importance to our field.”

“Published studies determine macrophages to be the sole immune population necessary for inflammation and fibrosis. In our pilot study, we were able to prove that, compared to a smooth surface control, Establishment Labs’ SilkSurface decreases fibrosis-dependent-innate immune macrophages,” said Professor Langer. “We will continue to work in collaboration with the scientists at Establishment Labs to further evaluate the fibrotic response mechanism in breast implant surfaces,” he added.

With increasing concerns around Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL) linked to macro-textured breast implants, some surgeons have felt compelled to revert to the use of smooth walled implants despite the feeling that this is a step backwards.  Professor Langer's work suggests that the SilkSurface® Technology found on all Motiva implants in the UK may be a better option. 

Professor Langer’s discoveries have created meaningful advancements in the fields of engineering, science, and medicine. In addition to serving on Establishment Labs’ Scientific Advisory Board, Professor Langer is one of 13 designated Institute Professors at MIT, the highest honour awarded to a faculty member. Professor Langer also holds over 1,250 issued and pending patents which have been licensed or sublicensed to over 350 companies. Professor Langer has also previously served as a Chairman of the US Food & Drug Administration’s Science Board and has been the recipient of over 220 major awards. He is one of 4 living individuals to have received both the United States National Medal of Science (2006) and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011).  He also received the 2002 Charles Stark Draper Prize, considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers, the 2008 Millennium Prize, the world’s largest technology prize, the 2012 Priestley Medal, the highest award of the American Chemical Society, the 2013 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the 2014 Kyoto Prize.  He is also the only engineer to receive the Gairdner Foundation International Award; 82 recipients of this award have subsequently received a Nobel Prize.  In 2015, Dr. Langer received the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.  Among numerous other awards Langer has received are the Dickson Prize for Science (2002), Heinz Award for Technology, Economy and Employment (2003), the Harvey Prize (2003), the John Fritz Award (2003) (given previously to inventors such as Thomas Edison and Orville Wright), the General Motors Kettering Prize for Cancer Research (2004), the Dan David Prize in Materials Science (2005), the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2005), the largest prize in the U.S. for medical research, induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2006), the Max Planck Research Award (2008), the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research (2008), the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (2011) and the Terumo International Prize (2012).  In 1998, he received the Lemelson-MIT prize, the world’s largest prize for invention for being “one of history’s most prolific inventors in medicine.”  In 1989 Dr. Langer was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and in 1992 he was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2012 he was elected to the National Academy of Inventors.

At Belle we feel privileged to work with people such as Professor Langer and all of the members of both the medical and scientific advisory boards.