Richard Rox Anderson, FAAD (born 30 October 1950), is a Boston-based dermatologist and entrepreneur.

Education and career

Anderson earned his BS degree from MIT, and then pursued his MD degree graduating

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

from the joint MIT-Harvard medical program, Health Sciences and Technology. Anderson completed his residency in dermatology and research fellowship at Harvard University. Upon completing his dermatology residency and research fellowship he became a part of the Harvard staff, where he eventually became a professor in dermatology and the director of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

. He also serves as an

adjunct Professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

of Health Sciences and Technology at MIT. Anderson's contributions include

laser hair removal Laser hair removal is the process of hair removal by means of exposure to pulses of laser light that destroy the hair follicle. It had been performed experimentally for about twenty years before becoming commercially available in 1995 and 1996. O ...

, photodynamic therapy (use of light-activated localized drugs for cancer and macular degeneration), laser treatment of port-wine stains in children, and basic research into the free electron laser for the selective destruction of lipids (i.e., fats) for possible treatment of acne, cellulite, and atherosclerosis, as well as various uses of

photothermolysis Laser hair removal is the process of hair removal by means of exposure to pulses of laser light that destroy the hair follicle. It had been performed experimentally for about twenty years before becoming commercially available in 1995 and 1996. ...

using pulsed dye lasers. Anderson and colleagues invented a crude device to noninvasively remove fat by freezing it, in a process called

cryolipolysis Fat removal procedures are used mostly in Plastic surgery#Cosmetic surgery procedures, cosmetic surgery with the intention of removing unwanted adipose tissue. The procedure may be invasive, as with liposuction, or noninvasive using laser therapy, ...

; and a startup company called Juniper Medical exclusively licensed patent filings on the invention from

when Juniper was founded; Juniper became

Zeltiq Aesthetics Zeltiq Aesthetics is a subsidiary of AbbVie based in Pleasanton, California that markets and licenses devices used for cryolipolysis procedures. The company was founded in 2005 and raised $75 million in funding before going public in 2011. It was ...

. In the mid-2000s Anderson invented a tattoo ink designed to simplify tattoo removal called "InfinitInk". The ink is encapsulated in tiny plastic beads; the encapsulated ink is stable in normal light, but under the same kind of laser light used in laser tattoo removal, the ink is released from the beads and is absorbed. Anderson co-founded a company called Freedom-2 to bring the ink to market. with assistance from Edith Mathiowitz, Joshua Reineke and A. Peter Morello of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. In 2015, he co-founded Olivo Laboratories with Daniel G. Anderson and

Robert Langer Robert Samuel Langer Jr. FREng (born August 29, 1948) is an American chemical engineer, scientist, entrepreneur, inventor and one of the twelve Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was formerly the Germesh ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, R. Rox American dermatologists Laser medicine Harvard Medical School faculty 20th-century American inventors 21st-century American inventors Living people 1950 births Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Harvard Medical School alumni