Christopher Chen

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.

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.

In vivo, the local tissue structure defines the cellular environment, constraining how cells interact with surrounding extracellular matrix substrates, neighboring cells, soluble growth factors, and physical forces. These “microenvironmental” cues not only cooperate to regulate the behavior of individual cells, but their spatiotemporal organization also governsemergent properties of the multicellular community. Because neither traditional cell culture nor in vivo models provide adequate control over the adhesive and mechanical microenvironment in particular, understanding how these different cues contribute to the regulation of cellular function has been exceedingly difficult. To address this, Dr. Chen and his group have taken an innovative two-pronged approach to study these interactions: 1) adapting fabrication tools (mostly from the semiconductor industry) to build novel in vitro microenvironments, and 2) using these systems to understand the underlying mechanisms by which cells probe and respond to the physical, chemical, and structural cues in their surroundings.

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. He serves as a member of the Faculty of 1000 Biology, the Board of Trustees for the Society for BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology, Editor for BioInterphases and Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics. Previously he was a member of the Defense Sciences Study Group. Most recently he was named a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

He received his A.B. in Biochemistry from Harvard, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from M.I.T., and Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Harvard-M.I.T. Health Sciences and Technology Program. He earned his M.D. 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.

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