How One Person Really Can Make a Difference
“If I had to give one piece of advice about what career path to study,
I think the most important thing is to follow your passion.
That’s probably the single most important thing I can think of.”
— Robert Langer
As the MacGillivray Freeman Films team researched Superhuman Body, we became inspired to share life-changing stories of triumph on screen—but also we discovered that there is much more happening behind the scenes. That’s why we’ve written a handful of stories that dive a bit deeper into the subjects covered in the film. Here, families facing medical challenges, students inspired to know more, young professionals curious about STEM careers, and teachers looking for content all can find more information, connect with more experts, and fall even further in love with what’s possible.
The film was created in collaboration with medical experts who have developed awe-inspiring technologies in the fields of heart health, cancer treatment, and robotics. One of our advisors is Robert Langer. If anyone can illustrate “what’s possible in STEM,” then he can.
Langer has singlehandedly changed the world. As all good team players do, he credits his colleagues and collaborators, too, but Langer is the most cited engineer in history. He has developed so many mind-bending new medical innovations that he has touched the lives of 4.7 billion people.[1] That’s half the world’s humanity. He’s written 1,500 patents, started 40 companies, and received more than 220 major awards. And he started all of this as a chemical engineer who, in the 1970s, didn’t resonate with working in traditional engineering. So he turned to medicine. That’s where he saw things differently.
“My goal is to help people. I’ve gotten a lot of satisfaction from that, helping people by teaching and thinking about research that could make a difference. And finally, inventing things and trying to bring those things to the world,” he says.[2]
Langer’s unique take on problem-solving led him into tissue engineering and drug delivery systems. The list of totally cool new ideas includes creating synthetic skin, 3D-printed organs for donor-less transplants, remote-controlled pills, tiny scaffolds that hold the cells of various organs—called “patient-on-a-chip”—which can be used to track how medications impact disease, and treatments for cancer, schizophrenia, addiction, diabetes, heart disease…and COVID. Langer is the co-founder of Moderna, the engine behind mRNA vaccines.[3]
His colorful, collaborative career is an example of what can happen when an individual allows creative thought to flourish. In today’s world of medicine, every STEM field has a place. Every thinker has a future. Every idea has promise.
“To be successful, I think you have to dream big dreams. I think you also need to recognize that you’re going to probably run into a lot of obstacles if you do that. And then, I think you have to have a lot of perseverance—whatever those obstacles are, to push through them,” Langer says.[4]
When he reflects on his early career, he admits that it was difficult to get anyone else to sign on. He felt alone. “I’ve failed far, far more than I’ve succeeded. No chemical engineering department in the country would hire me. I got my first nine grants rejected. But I believed in what I was doing, I thought it was important, so I kept trying.”[5]
We hope that these stories inspire you to keep trying, keep thinking, keep working.
Keep changing the world.
[1] Robert Langer in “Robert Langer on his unconventional approach to medicine,” Synapse Conclave YouTube interview, posted online 17 March, 2024, https://youtu.be/MT7wQndJYSs?si=ecn2GfnYK2hNiecc.
[2] Robert Langer in “Engineering Hero: Robert Langer,” This Is Engineering YouTube interview, posted online 4 March, 2022, https://youtu.be/9XZWGh2eIv8?si=dCeDZ1ijpEA9MZ2-. Quote edited slightly by Langer, July 30, 2024, via personal email.
[3] Synapse Conclave YouTube interview.
[4] This is Engineering YouTube interview.
[5] Ibid.