Kelly Stevens

Biography

My lab is developing new technologies to assemble synthetic human tissues from stem cells, and to remotely control these tissues after implantation in a patient.

Our research seeks to hijack and rewire aspects of nature’s developmental programs to control the processes by which cells assemble to form human systems. To do this, we use diverse tools taken from stem cell biology, tissue engineering, synthetic biology, micro/nanofabrication, and bioprinting.  We are currently integrating these technologies to build human platforms for understanding and treating infectious disease, interrogating biological programming in human development, and controlling artificial tissue for organ regeneration in animal model systems. We ultimately seek to translate our work into new therapies for patients with heart and liver disease.

Education

• Ph.D., Bioengineering, University of Washington, 2008
• B.S.. Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2002

Previous appointments

• Postdoctoral, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009-2014

Select publications

1. Stevens KR, Scull MA, Chaturvedi RR, Fortin CL, Xiao JW, Ramanan V, Fung C, de Yong YP, Chen CS, Rice CM, Bhatia SN. In situ expansion of engineered human liver tissue. In Revision.
2. Dudani JS, Jain PK, Kwong GA, Stevens KR, Bhatia SN. Photoactivated spatiotemporally-responsive nanosensors of in vivo protease activity. ACS Nano. 2015 Dec 22:9(12):11708-17.
3. Stevens KR, Ungrin MD, Schwartz RE, Ng S, Carvalho B, Christine KS, Chaturvedi R, Li CY, Zandstra PW, Chen CS, Bhatia SN. InVERT molding for scalable control of tissue microarchitecture. Nature Commun. 2013. 4; 1847.
4. Baranski, JD, Chaturvedi RR, Stevens KR, Carvalho B, Solorzano RD, Yang MT, Miller JS, Bhatia SN, Chen CS. Geometric control of vascular networks to enhance engineered tissue function. PNAS. 2013. May 7; 110(19): 7586-91.
5. Miller JS, Stevens KR, Yang MT, Baker BM, Nguyen DH, Cohen DM, Toro E, Chen AA, Galie PA, Yu X, Chaturvedi R, Bhatia SN, Chen CS. Rapid casting of patterned vascular networks for perfusable engineered three-dimensional tissues. Nature Materials. 2012. 11(9); 768-74.
6. Stevens KR, Kreutziger KL, Dupras SK, Korte FS, Regnier, M, Muskheli V, Nourse MB, Bendixen K, Reinecke H, Murry CE. Physiological Function and Transplantation of Scaffold-free and Vascularized Human Cardiac Muscle Tissue. PNAS. 2009. 106(39); 16568-73.
7. Stevens KR, Pabon LM, Muskheli V, Murry CE. Scaffold-free human cardiac tissue patch created from embryonic stem cells. Tissue Engineering Part A. 2009. 15(6); 1211-22.
8. Stevens KR, Rolle MW, Minami E, Ueno S, Nourse MB, Virag JI, Reinecke H, Murry CE. Chemical Dimerization of FGFR-1 Induces Myoblast Proliferation, Increases Intracardiac Graft Size, and Reduces Ventricular Dilation in Infarcted Hearts. Human Gene Therapy. 2007. 18(5); 401-12.

Honors & awards

• 2016 Wellcome Trust Image Award
• 2010 Ruth L. Kirschstein Individual National Research Service Award
• 2006 Bioengineering Cardiovascular Training Grant Fellow
• 2003 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow

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