Professor Shulamit Levenberg of the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, director of both the Technion Center for 3D Bioprinting and the Rina & Avner Schneur Center for Diabetes Research, was recently chosen as a fellow of the American National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Her nomination will be officially announced during NAI’s annual conference in North Carolina in June.
Prof. Levenberg is among a handful of Israeli women scientists who have created the most innovative technologies and has registered dozens of patents. She has founded several startups, including Aleph Farms, which creates cultivated steak using cattle cells with no harm to the animal and less negative impacts on the environment than the traditional meat industry processes.
Prof. Levenberg was also the first to engineer vascularized tissue flaps, showing that it is possible to create complex tissues, including blood vessels, in a laboratory and that these engineered tissue constructs can integrate when the host is implanted. Her team recently developed unique stem-cell engineered tissue constructs that induce the regeneration and repair of injured spinal cords and genetically engineered muscle tissue for treating type 2 diabetes.
Throughout her tenure, Prof. Levenberg has received numerous awards and accolades, including the Krill Prize for excellence in scientific research, the France-Israel Foundation Prize, the Italian Excellence for Israel Prize, the Teva Research Prize, the Rappaport Prize for Biomedical Sciences, the Medal of Distinction from the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, and more. She previously served as the president of the Israel Stem Cell Society and as the dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering. Prof. Levenberg was also nominated to be a member of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
The NAI strives to support and encourage researchers in academia whose inventions have made a significant impact on society, the economy, and human welfare. Since 2012, the NAI has inducted 757 Fellows into the organization.