Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is a world leader in bioengineering of human tissues for regenerative medicine and human organs on a chip platforms modeling of disease. She was the first to introduce the use of bioreactors into the field of tissue engineering. She has established the biomimetic principles of bioreactor design, to provide the cultured cells with their native-like niches with biological and physical regulatory factors. She has implemented these principles in basic and translational studies of a number of tissue systems, including heart, lung, bone and solid tumors. She has mentored over 250 trainees and has launched with her students five startup companies. In addition to her membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, she is a member of eight other national and international academies including the Academia Europaea, US National Academies of Engineering, Medicine and Inventors, and the Royal Society of Canada Academy of Science.