Chris Chen

Talk Title: Forces in Multicellular Assembly and Function

Chris is the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor at Boston University, director of the Tissue Microfabrication Laboratory, and founding director of the Biological Design Center(opens in new tab/window) at Boston University. He has been an instrumental figure in the development of engineered cellular microenvironments to understand and control how cells build tissues. The goal of Dr. Chen’s research is to identify the underlying mechanisms by which cells interact with materials and each other to build tissues, and to apply this knowledge to the biology and engineering of stem cells, tissue vascularization, connective tissues, and cancer. He has received numerous honors, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the Angiogenesis Foundation Fellowship, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the Mary Hulman George Award for Biomedical Research, the Herbert W. Dickerman Award For Outstanding Contribution to Science, and the Robert A. Pritzker Award. He serves a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and as a member of the Faculty of 1000 Biology, the Board of Trustees for the Society for BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology, and Defense Sciences Study Group.

He received his A.B. in Biochemistry from Harvard, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Harvard-MIT. Health Sciences and Technology Program. He earned his M.D. from the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chen previously was Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering and in Oncology at Johns Hopkins University, and the Skirkanich Professor of Innovation and founding director of the Center for Engineering Cells and Regeneration at the University of Pennsylvania.