Ali Khademhosseini

Khademhosseini was born in Tehran, Iran, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. He received his Ph.D. in bioengineering from MIT under the supervision of Robert S. Langer (2005), and MASc (2001) and BASc (1999) degrees from the University of Toronto both in chemical engineering.

Dr. Khademhosseini is a leader in applying bioengineering solutions to precision medicine. His large interdisciplinary research team is interested in developing ‘personalized’ solutions that utilize micro- and nanoscale technologies to enable a range of therapies for organ failure, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. In enabling this vision, he works closely with clinicians (including interventional radiologists, cardiologists, and surgeons). For example, he has developed numerous techniques for controlling the behavior of patient-derived cells to engineer artificial tissues and cell-based therapies. He is also developing ‘organ-on-a-chip’ systems that mimic human physiology and pathology to enable patient-specific evaluation of drug candidates. In addition, his laboratory is a leader in utilizing biofabrication to form vascularized tissues with appropriate microarchitectures and regulate stem cell differentiation in microengineered environments. He has pioneered various high-performance biomaterials for numerous applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. He has developed and popularized gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) which has become one of the main materials for 3D bioprinting industry.[6] He also developed electrically conductive, tunable hydrogels by mixing GelMA with nanomaterials, including gold nanoparticles and carbon-based nanomaterials.[7][8][9][10] He has demonstrated the use of GelMA-based materials for tissue engineering and other clinical applications such as sealants and hemostats.[11][12] He has developed different bioinks for various tissue engineering applications.[13][14] He has done seminal work in engineering 3D bioprinters. In one example, he has developed an innovative multi-nozzle, multi-material bioprinter.[15] In another example, he has engineered stereolithography-based bioprinters.[16] Another area of focus was building multi-organ on-a-chip systems with integrated in-line sensors.[17] Such devices are finding use in the next generation of organs on a chip systems. His early work in electrochemical biosensors with regeneration ability and microfluidic physical sensors allowed in-line monitoring of organs-on-a-chip platforms.[18][19][20] He was also one of the pioneers of smart patches for chronic wound healing, where both sensing the wound and the rapid drug intervention was conducted using the same device.[21] He has also made key contributions to vascularizing thick tissues with technologies including sacrificial molding, bioprinting, and microengineering.[22][23][24] He was also instrumental in carrying out fundamental studies in microfluidics, cells, and biomaterials, such as cell docking, cell capture within channels, stem cell differentiation in microwells, and 3D cell encapsulation. He has edited multiple books/journal special issues and is an author on >700 peer-reviewed journal articles, editorials, review papers, >70 book chapters/edited books, and >50 patent/disclosure applications. His work has been published in leading journals and routinely highlighted in international media. Also, he has given over 250 invited seminars and keynote lectures. Every year since 2014, he has been selected by Thomson Reuters as one of the World’s Most Influential Minds as a Highly Cited Researcher. Khademhosseini is passionate about translating the findings of his research into products that benefit patients. In one seminal example, he combined silica nanoparticles with gelatin to engineer shear-thinning materials for the embolization of blood vessels in the peripheral vasculature. He then co-founded Obsidio Medical (https://www.obsidiomed.com/) to pursue clinical applications of this breakthrough. The technology was approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Obsidio Medical was acquired by Boston Scientific in August 2022. He has also founded Omeat, aiming to produce meat products in a scalable and affordable manner and is becoming a key player in the cultivated meat space.

Dr. Khademhosseini's interdisciplinary research has been recognized over 70 major national and international awards. He is a recipient of the 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by President Barack Obama, the highest honor given by the US government for early-career investigators.[25] In 2007, he was named a TR35 recipient by the Technology Review Magazine as one of the world's top young innovators. In 2011, he received the Pioneers of Miniaturization Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) for his contribution to microscale tissue engineering and microfluidics. In 2016, he received the Sr. Scientist Award of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society-Americas (TERMIS-AM) and in 2017 he received the Clemson Award of the Society for Biomaterials. In addition, he has received the young investigator awards of the Society for Biomaterials and the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-North America. He has also received the American Chemical Society's Viktor K. Lamer award and the Unilever award and has been recognized by major governmental Awards including the NSF Career award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award. He has been elected into the Canadian Academy of Engineering as well as the Royal Society of Canada. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE), Materials Research Society (MRS), NANOSMAT Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2019, he received the Mustafa Prize, for his work on microfabricated hydrogel for biomedical applications.[26]

Akhilesh K. Gaharwar, Amir Manbachi, Amir Sheikhi, Wujin Sun, Junmin Lee, Jeroen Leijten, Amir Miri, Shrike Zhang, Ali Tamayol, Mohsen Akbari, Ryan Sochol, Amir Sanati Nezhad, Mehdi Nikkhah, Pinar Zorlutuna, Shilpa Sant, Hojae Bae, Bonggeun Chung, Yu Shik Hwang, Yanan Du

• Harvard-MIT faculty profile
• TR35 profile
• NanoQuebec
• Regenerate tissue engineering conference
• Lab on a Chip
• U of T engineering speaker
• Microengineering the cellular environment
• Khademhosseini wins the Coulter Foundation Early Career Award
• Scholarly works by Khademhosseini
• HST faculty wins the BMW Scientific award