Cell Adhesion

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITIONS:
Christopher S Chen, MD, PhD, Skirkanich Professor of Innovation in the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Bioengineering , is also a faculty member of the Cell Biology and Physiology Program as well as the Cell Growth and Cancer Program. He is Director of the Tissue Microfabrication Laboratory and founding director of the Center for Engineering Cells and Regeneration.

EDUCATION:
He received his AB in Biochemistry from Harvard, MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and PhD in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program. He earned his MD from the Harvard Medical School. He was Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering and in Oncology at Johns Hopkins University prior to being appointed Associate Professor at Penn.

HONORS AND AWARDS:
Dr Chen 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, and the Herbert W Dickerman Award For Outstanding Contribution to Science.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITES:
He serves as a member of Faculty of 1000 Biology, the Board of Trustees for the Society for BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology, Editor for BioInterphases and Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics, and member of
the Defense Sciences Study Group.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Dr Chen has been an instrumental figure in the development of engineered cellular microenvironments in order to engineer cell function. 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 in the
biology of stem cells, tissue vascularization, and cancer.