A Christmas Letter December 2016 Merry Christmas and

Happy Holidays everyone. Here is our third annual online Christmas letter.

Everything seems to be going online, even Alexi’s school books. I hope we are saving trees.

So where did the family go this year? Once more we had quite a few trips for pleasure and business and continued doing fun things with old friends and

making new friends. As 2015 was closing, we were in Maui, Hawaii enjoying the wonderful weather and activities and also seeing many friends who we had missed since we did not go to the US/Japan Drug Delivery meeting in 2013. Spring Break was a full 10 days at Disneyworld for Katia, Alexi and Lisa. Summer found Katia at her last session of Duke TIP at Rice and Alexi braved a trip to Buffalo Trail Scout Ranch in West Texas.

The whole family had a great week in Las Vegas and stayed at the Venetian. Lisa and Nico remember when they watched that hotel being built so long ago. We managed to see several shows. Circle du Soleil was great for the whole family and Lisa and Nico found that some of the acts were the same as 25 years ago when we first saw them. Of course we had to visit the Secret Garden and the Mirage and see the white tigers and other cats there. We had a great view from the High Roller (like the London Eye) and could really see how the city has changed since we were last there. Nico also found some time to visit an old classic, a rare performance, no more than 45 minutes long, of the Righteous Brothers at the

Harrah’s. It was magical to hear again some of the hits of the 60s from a 75-year old Bill Medley.

Then Katia and Lisa went to Comic Con San Diego and Disneyland while Alexi had a week at the Great Gluten Escape. In September the music was wonderful at ACL this year with Katia going with friends for all three days and Alexi and Lisa trying just one day. That

worked out very well. Katia and Lisa visited Carnegie Mellon in September and then went to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Disneyworld at the end of October. That is the one time all year when people over the age of 14 can wear costumes to the Magic Kingdom. Katia ate dinner in the Beast’s castle dressed as Belle and met Rapunzel as Rapunzel. Yes, that is three Disney trips in one year, beating last year’s two trips by one. At this time we do not plan on going to Disney four times next year, but we will be going at least once (D23 Convention next summer). Lots more on conventions a bit later. Nico and Alexi rounded out the family travel with a trip to San Francisco in November. For the details on those trips and all the other stuff that was happening before, after and in between, just keep reading.

Before that though, we have to introduce our new cat, Bagheera. He showed up outside on the last day of St. Stephen’s play Jungle Book last December and he’s all black, so it’s a perfect name. It turns out he was adopted by someone a few neighborhoods away as a feral “barn cat” but decided he liked our house better. He is a friend with our fox. We thought at first that he was lost and someone thought he was their cat but realized quite quickly when they got him home that they had the wrong cat. He made it back to our house within a day. He stays outside and is easily spooked but is not quite so feral anymore. We will have to see if he becomes a housecat in 2017 or not. This was the second year in a row with a lot of rain, which means that our trees and plants are very happy and our lakes and rivers are finally full. Unfortunately Bagheera does not like the rain, which is tricky for an outside cat. We enjoyed our home as much as possible with swimming, picnics and movies on the back deck. Our two foxes continue to visit regularly, something that surprises many of our friends.

Now Katia had a very, very big year. Let’s start in the middle when she turned 16 on July 1. She had spent the entire first half of the year learning and practicing driving and passed her driving test the very first time with no problems at all. She has a beautiful white Mustang that will take her wherever she would like to go. It has made things so much easier now that she doesn’t have to coordinate schedules or depend on someone else to get her to school, rehearsals, or Joann Fabrics. Back to January, Katia was awarded a Gold Key from Scholastic for her fashion/sculpture “Inner Light”. If you remember the black and white dress from last year’s letter, that was it. She also started a big project by diving into Addams Family at St. Stephen’s where she was in charge of the costumes for the show. This was the first high school show where she was actually Costume Mistress. While she was making all those costumes, she also made a contribution for Art Bra Austin, a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Resource Center here in

Austin. Hers was chosen for the auction, sold for a tidy amount and she was featured in some of the papers in town as well as on St. Stephen’s website. But back to Addams Family…the show was wonderful and was nominated for a number of awards for the Greater Austin High School Musical Theater Awards (GAHSMTA) including best costumes. And guess what?? She won!! She is officially the best costume designer in high school in Austin. Yeah!

Driving practice ate up most of her free time for the rest of the Spring and we discovered all the nearby Starbucks that were open until at least 9:00 for the night driving part. Summer finally came and Katia headed to Rice University for her fourth and final year at Duke TIP. She was back in architecture again and was so happy to see all of her friends from 2014. She managed to take every architecture class that Duke TIP offers and is now trying to figure out what to do next summer. We are looking for programs that can also help her on her portfolio for college applications but that don’t take six weeks. That’s half the summer! After she got back from Rice, she finished her first original cosplay costume, Warrior Blastoise, to be able to wear to Comic Con in San Diego. She had always wanted to go and this year

we tried and actually got tickets! They are not easy to get. Here she is with an “Ash” at Comic Con. Then since Disneyland is so close to San Diego (relative to Texas of course) Katia and Lisa spent a few days there for their first trip to Disneyland. Katia went to two local conventions as well this summer and won a judge’s choice award for Blastoise at Anime Overload. But the

panels at Comic Con San Diego really got her thinking and she is working on a Warrior Angel (from Lilo and Stitch) and has finished Ashe (League of Legends) and Roadhog (Overwatch). Other people have realized how talented she is and she now has her own business making costumes for people all over the country. As I write this she is working on sketches for the costumes for St. Stephen’s 2017 musical Pippin (where she is Costume Mistress again) and just finished being Ariel with Glitter Princess Entertainment in the Bastrop

Christmas Parade this weekend. And I forgot two more costumes, Rey from Star Wars and Deadpool. She made Rey in a couple of hours for the Wizard World Convention here in Austin and was asked to appear as Rey for a STEM fundraiser (Space Cowboy Gala) and at the opening of The Force Awakens at Alamo Drafthouse. Deadpool she made in 8 hours motivated by a “heroes and villains” day at school and it is just stunning.

Alexi started off the year back at Bridge Point…teaching a Science Day class instead of taking one. One of his favorite classes was “Siege the Day with Catapults” and the guys who do the class were ready to graduate from Westlake so Alexi is taking over the class. For 2017 he will be in charge. He and Grandpa Tony are working on a catapult to launch cutie oranges the full length of the soccer field. Also in January Alexi started building his gaming computer. Based on recommendations from friends, he got a digital storm PC (gulp says Lisa, not a Mac!!) with lighted gaming keyboard and mouse. Later in the year came a second screen and the DX Racer gaming chair completed the setup for his birthday. Getting him out of his study is harder than ever!

Alexi finished off his first year at Hill Country Middle School where he continued playing percussion through May, participating in various performances with the Middle School Band, playing the chimes, marimba, glockenspiel, and snare drum. He has been very active in Boy Scouts this year, progressing to “Life Scout”, serving as historian for the Troop and attending many campouts including backpacking (in January when it is pretty

cold to be sleeping outdoors, even in Texas) and a trip to West Texas for a week this summer. That was a real adventure with flash floods and a blown tire in the middle of nowhere at midnight. Scouting is supposed to prepare you for challenges in life and they are certainly getting lots of practice and getting tons of life skills training. Among others, he earned his music, plumbing and electricity merit badges all in one week.

Spring Break was spent entirely at Disneyworld this year and I think we know the place inside and out by now. Alexi and Lisa took some time to relax and not be at the parks until midnight every day (Katia was there almost every moment they were open). This summer Alexi went to Pokémon camp (again), Camp Half Blood (where he won the sword championship) and the Great Gluten Escape. The GGE is an overnight camp for a week with just gluten-free food and all the usual wonderful things about camp. It is in Gilmer Texas (about a 5 hour drive) and Nicholas did all of the driving dropping off and picking up but it was worth it. Alexi loves it and hopes it works into the summer schedule for many years to come. Alexi also learned a little bit of guitar this summer

and, when school started again, jumped back into piano instead of percussion. We are all so glad that he did. That year off helped him to realize how much he likes to play piano and he went back, with a different teacher, with the goal of finding music that he really loved to play. His concert last Saturday was awesome! Seventh grade brought something new to Alexi, electives. Since he isn’t doing band he has time to take two each semester. He has both animation and gaming as well as technical design this semester. Next semester is track and technical theater.

In November, Nicholas was celebrating 40 years of research with a full day of special sessions at the AIChE meeting in San Francisco. Alexi went with him and the boys had a great time seeing the city and shopping in addition to the usual and special sessions at the meeting.

Lisa is doing her best to keep the place running smoothly. She rejoined the gym this year and is in much better shape now than she was at this time last year. Her pile of things to do and things to read is much, much smaller. She finally installed the pull-out spice cabinet that was sitting in the garage for almost two years. She keeps trying to help Katia with some of her costuming projects but she does not have the patience or the vision that Katia does. However she can do her best to keep the supplies and tools mind-numbingly organized! She is talking to Emancipet, Austin Pets Alive and Lifeworks to see how she can take some of her extra time and help animals or tutor

homeless or at-risk kids to pass their GED High School Equivalency test. Nico continued being active in research, education and other activities this year. This was a great year of research both in the Laboratories and the Institute he directs. In October he and his collaborators announced the first successful studies of treatment of Hemophilia B using new systems of oral delivery of Hematological factor IX. A major pharmaceutical company is planning to sign with UT on the commercialization of this work. Also this year saw the announcement of new methods to imprint proteins on thin polymer films and have them be recognized by those polymers. This was the year that a new National Institutes of Health grant of almost $2M was approved on the early detection of Sjögren’s disease, a disease affecting many children. Also this year his group made major improvements on the development of new scaffolds for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering in work done in collaboration with the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal. Several trips to Portugal were arranged and several researchers visited Portugal. Also significant developments were announced in the oral delivery of small interference RNA for the treatment of Crohn’s disease and Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome. Twelve US patents were filled or issued this year, a record for the lab.

Through his special Facebook and other groups he has been able to reconnect with many undergraduate school friends (National Technical University of Athens), high school and even primary school friends. During his summer visit to Greece he participated (in the same week!) in the 45th graduation reunion of his NTU Athens class (that is, their 50th year since they entered College), the 50th reunion of his High School class (the legendary 10th High School for Men of Athens) and even a smaller (56th) reunion of his primary school with many friends from that period, in the Athenian suburb of Holargos. During this Greek trip, Nico was also able to give an invited talk at the Chemical Engineering Department of the National Technical University of Athens (EMP), the first time that he was invited by his alma mater. A month later, he received the great news that the faculty and the University had selected him for an Honorary Doctorate, his seventh (third Greek after the University Athens and the University of Patras). This new investiture will take place on March 16, 2017, two days after his good friend Tony Mikos will be welcomed to the Academy of Athens as its newest Academician. Another great celebration in the spring! Also, in that same trip in June 2016, Nico had the rare opportunity to be in Porto Heli for “relaxation” and a scientific meeting. NB: Nico is clueless about Greek vacation sites. He invited also his sister Louiza, who was very happy with the short vacation.

Nico traveled a little bit more than necessary this year. He added more than 170,000 real United Airlines miles including three trips to China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Haiku, Chengdu), two to Greece (one of them for just one day, arriving at noon, going to the Academy of Athens for a friend of his and returning the next morning), one to Turkey, two to Portugal, and eight to Washington, DC. The DC trips are necessary because Nico is now both the Chair of the Engineering Section of the National Academy of Medicine and the Chair of the Bioengineering Section of the National Academy of Engineering, which means that he has many important meetings to run and decisions to make. In addition, this was his first year in the National Materials and Manufacturing Board of the USA.

On his personal health side, atrial fibrillation is under control now and Nico is in “sinus rhythm” mostly due to successful ablation procedures conducted by his great arrhythmia doctors, Andrea Natale and Rodney Horton of St. David, who are also his colleagues in BME as Adjunct Professors of his department.

But in a different medical front, this was a very special year for Nico’s interactions with the Dell Medical School. He was appointed to the Pediatrics Department (joint appointment) and in the Surgery Department (courtesy appointment). He presented a talk to the MD students and he started collaborating with a number of medical investigators and clinicians. And with his friend Ali Khademhosseini of Harvard he wrote a very important commentary on biomaterials that appeared in Nature on December 15.

This year, Nico travelled to some truly wonderful places. Four of these trips had special meaning for him. First a trip to Greece in June that was “filled” with three reunions and with meetings with so many classmates from primary, middle, high school, undergraduate college and even from his years at MIT as a graduate student. Second a meeting in October in Minneapolis when he gave the Pritzker Lecture, the highest recognition of the Biomedical Engineering Society. Then, a special meeting in Beijing, China where he was one of the invited speakers, among 14 Nobel laureates, and he had the opportunity to speak with most of them and have a memorable dinner with 8 Nobel laureates as a guest of the President of the Chinese Academy of Medicine Dr. Cao. And finally, a big event at the AIChE meeting in San Francisco where his former students and many of his friends had organized a symposium and dinner in his honor for 40 years of independent research (he started as a Professor at Purdue on July 31, 1976). It was noted that 930 students/researchers have passed through his labs in these 40 years… It was a memorable occasion and brought many memories and tears to Nico.

A sad note this year was that we lost Pepper. Katia got her (and Coco who we lost a few years ago) in 1st grade. She was almost 10 when she died which is a very long life for a rabbit. Although she did not really want them inside her play area, she was a good friend to all of our cats. She and Artemis (both black and white) used to lie back-to-back with the fence between them for hours. When Mittens came in Pepper would carefully move her toys away from the fence since Mittens often tried to take

them. And she really loved Melody. Melody spent a lot of time in Pepper’s room when she was a kitten and learned to hop over the fence to go in with Pepper. Pepper would play with her for a bit and then clearly let her know when it was time to leave. Melody always obeyed, even when she outweighed Pepper 2:1.

We hope that this Season finds you enjoying special times with family and friends.

Merry Christmas

Lisa, Nico, Katia, Alexi, Artemis, Mittens, Melody, Bagheera

(and the fish)