Robert Lanza was born on February 11, 1956, in Boston, Massachusetts. He is an American medical doctor and scientist. He currently serves as the head of Astellas Global Regenerative Medicine and as the Chief Scientific Officer of the Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He also teaches as an Adjunct Professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Early life and education

Lanza was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Stoughton, Massachusetts, which is south of Boston. He changed the genes of chickens in his basement, and this work caught the attention of researchers from Harvard Medical School when he shared his findings at the university. Over the next ten years, he was guided by notable figures such as Jonas Salk, B. F. Skinner, and Christiaan Barnard. Lanza studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor's degree and a medical degree. During his time there, he was named a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and a University Scholar. He also received the title of Fulbright Scholar. Lanza now lives in Clinton, Massachusetts.

Career

Lanza was part of the team that created the world's first early-stage human embryos through cloning. He was also the first to successfully make stem cells from adult cells using a method called somatic-cell nuclear transfer, which is sometimes called therapeutic cloning.

Lanza showed that techniques used in preimplantation genetic diagnosis could be used to create embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos.

In 2001, he cloned an endangered species called a Gaur. In 2003, he cloned another endangered animal, a Banteng, using frozen skin cells from an animal that had died at the San Diego Zoo nearly 25 years earlier.

Lanza and his colleagues proved that a process called nuclear transplantation could help certain cells live longer and create tissues that match a person's immune system. They also made the first laboratory-grown organ using cloned cells.

Lanza showed that it is possible to make functional red blood cells that carry oxygen from human embryonic stem cells. These cells could be used to create "universal" blood for medical use.

His team discovered how to make functional hemangioblasts, which are cells that help repair blood vessel damage. In animals, these cells reduced the death rate after heart attacks and restored blood flow to limbs that might otherwise need amputation.

In 2012, Lanza and a team led by Kwang-Soo Kim at Harvard University developed a method to create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells by using proteins, instead of changing the cells' genes to make more of those proteins.

Lanza's team at Advanced Cell Technology made retinal pigmented epithelium cells from stem cells. Later studies showed these cells could help restore vision in animals with a type of eye disease called macular degeneration. This technology might one day help treat certain types of blindness.

In 2010, Advanced Cell Technology received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to test a stem cell-based treatment for eye diseases in humans. In 2011, the company received approval in the UK to study its treatment, which was the first such approval in Europe. The first human received an embryonic stem cell treatment in the UK in 2012.

The results of the first two clinical trials were published in the Lancet in 2012, with a follow-up report in 2014. These reports described the first published information about the long-term safety and possible effects of pluripotent stem cell treatments in humans.

In 2001, Lanza wrote a letter to President George W. Bush, asking him not to block federal funding for research on human embryo cells. The letter was signed by 80 Nobel Prize winners and sent to the White House by fax three weeks before a deadline for applying for stem cell research grants. This was in response to plans to change the Clinton administration's decision to support stem cell research.

In 2007, Lanza wrote an article titled "A New Theory of the Universe" for The American Scholar. The article introduced his idea of a biocentric universe, which suggests that biology and consciousness are central to understanding the universe. He later wrote a book called Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the Universe in 2009, co-written with Bob Berman.

Lanza's biocentric theory received mixed reactions. Some scientists praised it as a thoughtful exploration of science and philosophy, while others said it did not offer new scientific insights.

Lanza later wrote more books about biocentrism, including Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death in 2016 and The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality in 2020, co-written with Bob Berman and physicist Matej Pavšič.

In January 2023, Lanza published a novel called Observer with science fiction author Nancy Kress. In an interview, Lanza said he wanted to explain biocentrism through a story that shows how space, time, and the nature of life and death depend on the observer within us.

Awards and public commentary

Lanza has received many awards and honors, including:

• 2006: named "Mass High Tech All Star" at the 11th annual awards event
• 2010: BioWorld (a publication) called Lanza a "stem cell pioneer" and recognized him as one of twenty-eight "movers and shakers" who will influence biotechnology in the future
• 2010: received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Opportunity Award for research on using basic science discoveries to create new and better treatments
• 2013: nominated for the Italian Heritage and Culture Committee of the Bronx and Westchester "Il Leone di San Marco Award in Medicine"
• 2014: listed in Time magazine's Time 100 list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World"
• 2015: included in Prospect magazine's list of the "Top 50 World Thinkers"