Jeffrey M. Karp, PhD

Degrees

• PhD in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 2004
• BEng in Chemical Engineering, McGill University, 1999

Selected Awards/Societies

• Gecko BioMedical Adhesive Technology selected as one of Popular Mechanic"s "Top 20 New Biotech Breakthroughs that Will Change Medicine", 2009
• TR35 -- Recognized as one of the world's top innovators under age 35 (Technology Review), 2008
• Outstanding Undergraduate Student Mentor Award at MIT (selected from all faculty at MIT), 2008
• Recognized as one of the top engineers in the country between the ages of 30-45 through invitation to attend the 2007 National Academy of Engineering -- Frontiers in Engineering symposium
• First Prize - MIT Chemical Engineering Research Symposium, 2005
• First Prize - Current Progress in Tissue Engineering Conference, 2005
• NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship with Institute Professor Robert Langer,MIT, 2004-2006
• Top Innovator Award - IBBME (UofT), 2004

Research Interests

I am dedicated to the development of next generation bioengineers to work at the forefront of regenerative medicine. I take the professional development of the personnel in my laboratory very seriously and do everything I can to ensure successful career paths.

My laboratory aims to create advanced biomaterials and devices for therapeutics through a highly multidisciplinary approach. Through working at the interface of material science, biology engineering, and medicine, our highly interactive and collaborative group engages outstanding scientists and clinicians at MIT, Harvard, Brigham and Women's Hospital and surrounding hospitals and institutions. A major focus of our group is the study and development of polymers and stem cells for addressing the biggest limitations in engineering replacement tissues and organs.

We have a moral obligation not only to solve problems that can benefit patients of the future but also to develop strategies that can rapidly be translated to the clinic to help patients today. Therefore, we attempt to examine our strategies within in vivo models as soon as possible. This facilitates the pertinent gain of knowledge for potential translational barriers that we may encounter so that we can begin problem solving the key hurdles as early as possible.

Reference Publications

• Karp JM, Leng Teo GS. Mesenchymal stem cell homing: the devil is in the details.Cell Stem Cell. 2009 Mar 6;4(3):206-16.
• Bassett EK, Slocum AH, Masiakos PT, Pryor HI 2nd, Farokhzad OC, Karp JM. Design of a mechanical clutch-based needle-insertion device. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2009 Apr 7;106(14):5540-5.
• Ferreira L, Karp JM, Nobre L, Langer R "New Opportunities: The Use of Nanotechnologies to Manipulate and Track Stem Cells" Cell Stem Cell 3, August 7, 2008.
• Mahdavi A, Ferreira L, Sundback C, Nichol JW, Chan EP, Carter JD, Bettinger C, Patanavanich S, Chignozha L, Ben-Joseph E, Galakatos A, Pryor H, Pomerantseva I, Masiakos P, Faquin W, Zumbuehl A, Hong S, Borenstein J, Vacanti J, Langer R, Karp JM. "A biodegradable and biocompatible Gecko-inspired tissue adhesive". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (COVER FEATURE), 2008 Feb 19;105(7):2307-12.
• Peer D*, Karp JM*, Hong S*, Farokhzad O, Margalit R, Langer R, "Nanocarriers: Emerging Platforms for Cancer Therapy". Nature Nanotechnology, 2007; 2, 751-760.
• Hong S, Lee D, Zhang H, Zhang J, Resvick J, Khademhosseini A, King MR, Langer R, Karp JM. "Covalent Immobilization of P-selectin Enhances Cell Rolling" Langmuir. 2007 Nov 20;23(24):12261-8.
• Karp JM, Yeo Y, Geng W, Cannizarro C, Yan K, Kohane D, Vunjak-Novakovic G, Langer R, Radisic M. "A photolithographic method to create cellular micropatterns." Biomaterials. 2006 Sep;27(27):4755-64.
• Karp JM, Ferreira LS, Khademhosseini A, Kwon AH, Yeh J, Langer R. "Cultivation of human embryonic stem cells without the embryoid body step enhances osteogenesis in vitro" Stem Cells. 2006 Apr;24(4):835-43.