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Dr. Luiz E. Bertassoni is the founding director of the Knight Cancer Precision Biofabrication Hub and Professor in the Division of Oncological Sciences at the Knight Cancer Institute, where he is also co-section head for Discovery and Translational Oncology. He is also faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research (CEDAR) Center, and the Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) School of Dentistry. Luiz is co-founder of 2 biotech spin-off companies which resulted from his work on cancer research and regenerative medicine: he is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of HuMarrow and Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of RegendoDent. Luiz was awarded his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Parana in Brazil. Afterwards, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco. He then enrolled in a graduate program and received his PhD in Biomaterials from the University of Sydney. Next he accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in Harvard Medical School and MIT’s joint program in Health Sciences and Technology. He served on the faculty at the University of Sydney before joining the faculty at OHSU in 2015. His work on vascular bioprinting was listed in the top 100 research discoveries by Discover Magazine, and he has received over 30 national and international research awards, including the Medical Research Foundation New Investigator award, the Silver Family Faculty Innovation award, and many others. In this interview, Luiz shares more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:46)
Luiz is a big fan of surfing, and he enjoyed frequent trips to the beach while completing his PhD in Sydney, Australia, and a postdoctoral fellowship in San Francisco, California. In addition to spending time in the water, Luiz loves music. He is a singer-songwriter who plays various instruments, including guitar, drums, bass, and piano.
The Scientific Side (5:24)
In his research, Luiz applies engineering tools to biology to build human tissues in the lab. The goal of Luiz’s lab is to create new models to better understand cancers and develop methods to regenerate lost or damaged tissues.
A Dose of Motivation (6:16)
Use the adversities in your life as fuel to go above and beyond. Push through the challenges to achieve what you set out to achieve.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:50)
Luiz grew up in an academic household where his father was a university professor, and his mom worked as a principal in his high school before transitioning to teaching in a university. On his way home from school, Luiz remembers stopping by the university and sitting in the back of his dad’s classroom listening to his lectures until he was done for the day. When deciding on his own career, Luiz was drawn to innovation and doing things differently. As he prepared to enter dental school, he started making lists of problems in the field that didn’t have ideal solutions and contemplating his own solutions. These were his first forays in developing research questions. Luiz continued asking questions of his professors in dental school, and his research interests continued to grow and evolve. An opportunity arose to complete research training in the United States while Luiz was in dental school, and he worked full-time for six months in a research lab at UCSF. He returned to UCSF for a postdoc position after finishing his dental school program, and Luiz has continued to answer interesting questions and tackle difficult research problems ever since.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (20:17)
In addition to the major challenges that you encounter when you’re trying to break new ground and innovate in science, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get funding for scientific research. New and important research can’t happen without funding, and Luiz has had to get creative about how to get support for his research. It’s also critical to remember that to do good research, you have to have good people working in the lab. For Luiz, creating and maintaining an environment that allows people to do their best work is a priority. People need to feel appreciated and accepted, and the group needs to work together towards the same goal even if each individual is having their own struggles. This can be difficult as a leader because every individual has their own unique background, expectations, skills, cultures, and way of communicating.
A Shining Success! (25:50)
After graduating from dental school in Brazil, Luiz felt like there wasn’t an expectation that he would be working at the highest level with some of the best biomedical engineers in the world. Attending his first few meetings as a postdoc at Harvard and MIT, Luiz was happy to discover that he could make important contributions and that people appreciated what he was bringing to the table, even though he didn’t have the same background or training. Luiz also overcame many hurdles in publishing their first paper in the prestigious journal Nature. That was a big win for his group. Perseverance and hard work paid off.
More recently, Luiz has brought together a tremendous amount of support and close to 20 investigators from multiple institutions and cities to create the Knight Cancer Precision Biofabrication Hub, a relatively new research center for which he is the founding Director. It has been exciting to see this grow from its humble beginnings to the point where they have demonstrated that they are doing valuable work and have something unique to offer the field. The work has the potential to really make a difference and help patients, and they have created an important new research infrastructure for the entire university and the state. This has been a major victory that brings Luiz a lot of pride.
Book Recommendations (29:48)
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
Most Treasured Travel (33:07)
Shortly before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Luiz was invited to give a presentation at a conference in Australia. Their flight had a stopover in Fiji, and Luiz, his wife, and their daughter enjoyed some time in Fiji before heading to Australia for the conference. It was a fantastic trip, and they were able to visit old friends in Australia as well. The timing of the trip was perfect too since they were able to get away for a while before travel was suspended due to the pandemic. Luiz is also really looking forward to an upcoming trip to Greece in July. His wife and daughter will be accompanying him on this trip as well, and it will be particularly meaningful because this was the place his wife said she wanted to go to most in the world when she was first diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. Now that she is healthy again, Luiz is excited to make this dream trip a reality.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (35:54)
Luiz once attended a small conference that was held at a beautiful winter resort in Canada. There were a lot of big names in the field attending the event to talk about their research. After the conference events concluded on one of the evenings, there was a celebration, and a prominent scientist in the field came out wearing a dinosaur costume and started dancing. It was an unexpected and hilarious turn of events that showcased the sense of humor and fun, even at the highest levels of science.
Advice For Us All (40:57)
Persevere against all odds. You have to have hope and grit, and you have to believe you can do it. Work really hard, and let your results do the talking. Life can be challenging, but try to stay positive and care for those around you. Science is a group effort, and it’s a lot more fun to work together as a group. Stay on course, keep your head down, and get the work done. Once you’re finished, raise your head up high, and be proud of your achievements.
Guest Bio
Luiz leads a multidisciplinary research group working on various aspects of cancer and regenerative medicine, with a focus on advanced biofabrication methods, including 3D bioprinting, organs on-a-chip, and organoids. Early on, Luiz’s research focused on the nanoscale structure and function of mineralized tissues and biomaterials development. From there, he began working in the area of regenerative medicine and cancer. In one area of his work, Luiz and his team develop new biomaterials and use 3D bioprinting and other approaches for biofabrication of healhty tissues and tumor models. They have also gotten involved in organ-on-a-chip research, which combines tissue engineering and microfluidics to make miniaturized versions of systemic organs and cancer to understand how they behave on a micro scale. Overall, his goal is to develop models that provide a better understanding of cancer, and new regenerative materials that take into account all of the nanoscale complexity of the tissues they want to regenerate. Outside of the lab, Luiz enjoys surfing and music. He sings and plays a variety of instruments, including the guitar, and he records and releases his songs online.
Support for this episode of People Behind the Science was provided by Innovative Research, Inc.
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