Ali Khademhosseini, MASc, PhD

Degrees

• PhD in Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005
• MASc, in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 2001
• SB in Chemical Engineering, University of Toronto, 1999

Selected Awards/Societies

• International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) Young Faculty Member Award, 2009
• NSF CAREER award, 2009
• IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award, 2008
• Victor K. LaMer Award, Surface and Colloid Science Division, American Chemical Society, 2008
• BMW Scientific Award, 2007
• TR35 Top Young Innovator Award, Technology Review, 2007
• Coulter Foundation Young Investigator Award in Bioengineering 2006
• OMNOVA/MIT PPST - Outstanding Polymer-related Research, 2004-2005
• Biomedical Engineering Society Outstanding Graduate Student Award, 2005
• Poitras pre-doctoral fellowship, 2004-2005
• MIT's Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor, 2003-2004
• NSERC - Post Graduate Scholarships A & B, 1999-2003

Research Interests

Despite significant advances in medicine and biology, the lack of precisely defined in vitro systems has hindered our ability to understand cell function and to regulate its behavior for tissue engineering. In addition, our inability to miniaturize experiments and to perform high-throughput cell-based experiments has limited our ability to define optimized culture conditions. Therefore, it is important to control cell microenvironment in a manner that is tightly controlled, reproducible and scalable. Using innovative approaches at the interface of biology, engineering, medicine and materials science, we aim to address this challenge. Our goal is to develop micro- and nanoengineering approaches for controlling cell microenvironment and to use these techniques to regulate stem cell fate decisions. To control cell microenvironment we develop novel micro- and nanoscale technologies to regulate cell-cell contact (using patterned co-cultures), cell-ECM interactions (using novel biomaterials), cell-soluble factor components (using microfluidics) and cell shape (using micropatterning) . In addition, we have developed microfluidic and microarray methods to perform high-throughput experiments, in order to facilitate systematic testing of various environmental conditions on cell fate. Equipped with these tools we study various aspects of stem cell self-renewal and differentiation and develop microreactors that facilitate directed differentiation of stem cells to therapeutic cells.

Reference Publications

• Y. Du*, E. Lo*, A. Shamsher, A. Khademhosseini. "Directed assembly of cell-laden microgels for fabrication of 3D tissue constructs" Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA 150: 9522-9527 (2008).
• A. Manbachi*, S. Shrivastava*, M. Cioffi, B.G. Chung, M. Moretti, U. Demirci, M. Yliperttula, A. Khademhosseini. "Microcirculation within grooved substrates regulates cell positioning and cell docking inside microfluidic channels" Lab on a Chip 8:747-54 (2008).
• H.-C. Moller, M. Mian, S. Shrivastava, B.G. Chung, A. Khademhosseini. "A microwell array system for stem cell culture: Effects of material properties and cell seeding density" Biomaterials 29:752-63 (2008).
• Y. Ling, J. Rubin, Y. Deng, C. Huang, U. Demirci, J.M. Karp, A. Khademhosseini. "A cell-laden microfluidic hydrogel". Lab on a chip 7: 756-62 (2007).
• G. T. Franzesi, B. Ni, Y. Ling, A. Khademhosseini. "A controlled-release strategy for the generation of crosslinked hydrogel microstructures" Journal of American Chemical Society 128:15064-65 (2006).
• A. Khademhosseini, R. Langer, J. Borenstein, J. Vacanti. "Microscale Technologies for Tissue Engineering and Biology"Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA 103:2480-2487 (2006).