10:33 a.m. Dec 9 - Due to an editing error, this story's original online headline misspelled Joseph DeSimone's name. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
This article was published in the 2009 Year in Review issue of The Daily Tar Heel.
In choosing the 2009 Tar Heel of the Year, Joseph DeSimone simply towered above everyone else in terms of the sheer global impact he’s had from his space in Caudill Laboratories.
Ironically, his revolutionary work takes place on a microscopic scale.
The particles with which DeSimone works are nano-sized. But the implications for his work reach far and wide — from curing cancer to saving the environment.
Few people, big impact
DeSimone has been at UNC for the past 20 years. When he came to interview here in the fall of 1989, academia was not where he expected to end up.
But UNC happened to be starting a polymer program, and with colleague Edward Samulski, he got the program off the ground.
DeSimone does not just analyze problems — he solves them. And in revolutionary ways.
This was the case in 2002, when DeSimone helped develop a bioabsorbable stent for cardiovascular surgery. Previously, metal stents were used to support blood vessels while they healed, but were left in the body for a lifetime.
“Why have a permanent prosthetic for a temporary healing issue?” he said.
Now people will not have to. The stent he helped develop dissolves naturally in a matter of weeks.
And three weeks ago, Abbott Vascular announced that it will use the stent DeSimone helped develop in more than 1,000 people in Europe and Australia.
“It taught me about the impact a few people could have on many people,” he said.
Latest developments
And with that world-changing outlook in mind, DeSimone is working on perhaps his greatest project yet — Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates, or PRINT.
On a recent visit to his office, DeSimone pulled out a thin iridescent film, manufactured in Research Triangle Park at Liquidia, the company he founded.
He explained that the film is made by coating a silicon plate with liquid Teflon, using light to harden it. This essentially means making a mold of the plate.
He shined a green light through the film, which refracts into a grid, revealing the innumerable particle packets that compose it.
“One particle wafer can treat 2,000 people,” he said.
And the treatment options are boundless. The packets can be filled with drugs or genetic material. Right now, they are being filled with antigens for flu and H1N1 vaccines.
DeSimone explained that he is also working on using hemoglobin to produce synthetic blood cells.
There are environmental applications as well.
“We are working on manipulating light for more energy efficient windows and roofs,” he said.
Coating surfaces with light-reflecting particle film can significantly lower energy costs for buildings.
True blue
Over the past 20 years, other institutions have tried to convince DeSimone to leave UNC.
Recognizing the value of his research and entrepreneurship, the University has been able to persuade him to stay. When asked if at this point he would ever leave, he was quite frank.
“(My family has) been in North Carolina for 20 years. We will be in North Carolina for another 20 years. I will retire in North Carolina,” he said.
With more than 100 patents, more than 100 patents pending, faculty positions at UNC and N.C. State University and a company in RTP, DeSimone has accomplished much here.
He modestly dismissed the notion that he is a prime candidate for the Nobel Prize, saying his work is too applied. But there is no mistaking the value of his research to UNC, North Carolina and the world.
Sir Isaac Newton famously said, “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
DeSimone is a giant in our own time.
