Kelly Stevens's Biography

Kelly Stevens, Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Kelly Stevens is a Research Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia at MIT. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Washington and completed postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her work bridges several facets of regenerative medicine, including pluripotent stem cell biology, transplantation, tissue engineering, and micro/nanofabrication. In particular, she has made several seminal contributions in the development of complex multicellular tissues, with increasing focus on enhancing tissue function, microvascularization, and organization. Some examples include the construction of functional scaffold-free cardiac tissue from pluripotent stem cells, the subsequent ‘pre-vascularization’ of these tissues using the intrinsic capacity of microvascular cells to self-organize, and the geometric control of multicellular patterning for optimal parenchymal function and microvascular ingrowth following implantation.

Engineering Synthetic Tissues for Treatment of Chronic Liver Disease

Tuesday, 10 February 2015 at 16:30

Add to Calendar ▼2015-02-10 14:30:002015-02-10 15:30:00Europe/LondonEngineering Synthetic Tissues for Treatment of Chronic Liver DiseaseTissue Engineering and Bioprinting: Research to Commercialization in Boston, USABoston, USASELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Cell-based therapies for organ regeneration have recently emerged as a potential alternative to whole-organ transplantation. Unfortunately, orthotopic cell-based therapy may not be feasible or effective in all diseased organs. For example, in end-stage liver disease, the inhospitable fibrotic microenvironment in cirrhotic liver is likely to limit cellular engraftment. Our goal is to build functionally stabilized engineered tissues that can be implanted ectopically and ultimately used to contribute to host liver functions. To create functionally stable engineered liver tissue, we have developed versatile microtissue molding and bioprinting-based methods that enables rapid, scalable, and multicompartmental cellular placement in various patterns and material systems across tissue sizes relevant for in vitro, pre-clinical, and clinical biologic studies. We have used these methods to identify multicellular architectural tissue configurations that best support parenchymal primary human or induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS)-derived hepatocyte survival and function in vitro and in vivo. Ongoing work seeks to extend these findings for application liver repair and regeneration using canonical liver injury model systems.

Add to Calendar ▼2015-02-09 00:00:002015-02-10 00:00:00Europe/LondonTissue Engineering and Bioprinting: Research to CommercializationTissue Engineering and Bioprinting: Research to Commercialization in Boston, USABoston, USASELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

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