2025 Marble Center Distinguished Seminar

Monday September 15th
4-5pm EST

Modulating the controlled-release properties of airway mucus to treat respiratory diseases worsened by the breathing of a warming atmosphere

David A. Edwards, PhD

David A. Edwards is a biophysicist, founder, and CEO of Sensory Cloud Inc., a Boston-based startup company aimed at deactivation of mechano-sensitive channels for the treatment of respiratory disease. Prior to joining the company, David was on the faculty of Engineering & Applied Sciences at Harvard University (2002-2019), after having co-founded and sold his first startup company, Advanced Inhalation Research (AIR) to Alkermes. The AIR technology led to the FDA-approved Inbrija, inhaled L-Dopa for the treatment of Parkinson’s. While at Harvard, David pursued large porous particle technology underlying AIR to develop the first inhaled dry powder BCG for mucosal vaccination against tuberculosis (PNAS 2007, 2008).  Since his 2004 PNAS publication, David’s research has increasingly focused on the respiratory health benefits of the inhalation of monovalent and divalent salt cations, leading to the startup of Sensory Cloud Inc.  David founded other startups while at Harvard, including Foodberry, pioneering new food forms based on the natural model of the grape. David is currently Adjunct professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, the French National Academy of Engineering (Académie des technologies), and the US National Academy of Inventors. For his work in the creative arts and nonfiction/fiction writing in French & English, David was made a Chevalier of arts and letters by the French Ministry of Culture in 2008.