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Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic

Gordana
Vunjak-Novakovic
Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering
Columbia University
Director

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, where she directs the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, the Bioreactor Core of the NIH Tissue Engineering Resource Center, and the Stem Cell Imaging Core. She received her B.S., S.M. and Ph.D from the University of Belgrade (all in chemical engineering), and was a Fulbright fellow at MIT. Her lab is working on engineering human tissues, for use in regenerative medicine and advanced studies of human stem cells. Gordana published 2 books, 45 book chapters, 210 peer-reviewed articles and 34 patents. She is a frequent advisor to governmental organizations on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and chairs her NIH study section. In 2002, she was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2007, she gave the Director's lecture at the NIH, as the first woman engineer to receive this distinction. In 2008, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame "for developing biological substitutes to restore, maintain or improve tissue function". In 2009, she was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences. In 2010, she received the Clemson Award of the Biomaterials Society for contributions to literature.

Select Publications: 

Eng G, Lee BW, Protas L, Gagliardi M, Brown K, Kass RS, Keller G, Robinson RB, Vunjak-Novakovic G. Autonomous Beating Rate Adaptation in Human Stem Cell-derived Cardiomyocytes. Nature Communications. 7:10312 (2016).

Grayson WL, Frohlich M, Yeager K, Bhumiratana S, Chan ME, Cannizzaro C, Wan LQ, Liu XS, Guo XE, Vunjak-Novakovic G. Regenerative Medicine Special Feature: Engineering anatomically shaped human bone grafts. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Feb 23;107(8):3299-304.

Freytes DO, Wan LQ, Vunjak-Novakovic G. Geometry and force control of cell function. J Cell Biochem. 2009 Dec 1;108(5):1047-58.

Grayson WL, Martens TP, Eng GM, Radisic M, Vunjak-Novakovic G. Biomimetic approach to tissue engineering. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2009 Aug;20(6):665-73.

Cimetta E, Figallo E, Cannizzaro C, Elvassore N, Vunjak-Novakovic G. Micro-bioreactor arrays for controlling cellular environments: design principles for human embryonic stem cell applications. Methods. 2009 Feb;47(2):81-9.

Radisic M, Marsano A, Maidhof R, Wang Y, Vunjak-Novakovic G. Cardiac tissue engineering using perfusion bioreactor systems. Nat Protoc. 2008;3(4):719-38.

Gerecht S, Burdick JA, Ferreira LS, Townsend SA, Langer R. and Vunjak-Novakovic G. Propagation of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells in hyaluronic acid hydrogels. PNAS 104(27): 11298-11303 (2007)