Ioannis Yannas to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
Ioannis V. Yannas, professor of polymer science and engineering in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, was recognized as one of the highest achievers in his field last week when the National Inventors Hall of Fame announced it would be inducting him at their 2015 ceremony this May. With this honor, which recognizes his invention of what has become known as "artificial skin," Yannas joins a small group of approximately 500 renowned Hall-of-Fame inventors. Until just a few decades ago, human and pig skin were often used in burn treatments, but were commonly rejected by the body’s immune system. Immune suppressants also left patients vulnerable to infection. What's more, replacement skin often suffered from dehydration; at the time, no one had yet found a way of rebuilding skin that could maintain a normal moisture level. In 1969, Yannas was studying the physics of collagen and the theory of viscoelasticity in polymers at...