Christopher Chen, MD, PhD

Professor (BME, MSE)

Email chencs@bu.edu
Website Chen Lab - Tissue Microfabrication Lab

In the News

Curing Heart Attacks, Replacing Diseased Organs—Christopher Chen Is Engineering a Healthier Future
July 29, 2025
Christopher Chen was a teenager when he first started thinking seriously about what makes the human body such an amazing machine. An avid runner and soccer player, Chen injured his knee, sidelining him from sports for a while. His knee eventually got better on its own, but during this time of convalescence, Chen mused about replacement surgery—even the best materials, developed with the most cutting-edge technology, would eventually break down. If he had needed a knee replacement, he’d need another surgery at some point, and maybe even another after that. [ More ]

Publications

View a complete list of publications chronologically by year.
View a complete list of publications by citation.

Research Areas

Prof. Chen’s laboratory seeks
1) to understand how adhesive, mechanical, and biochemical interactions drive cell and tissue function
2) to use this knowledge to build biomimetic tissues as experimental models of disease and physiology
3) to direct tissue remodeling and regeneration
Prof. Chen is studying how the cooperation between adhesive, mechanical and biochemical signaling drives tissues to organize during development, adapt to physical stresses, and devolve during disease. Dr. Chen’s laboratory examines these questions through the development and application of innovative technologies to control how cells interact with their surroundings, advancing numerous technologies from microfluidics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), nanofabrication, mechanobiology, biomaterials, and synthetic and stem cell biology. Dr. Chen’s research applies insights from these efforts to the biology and engineering of stem cells, tissue vascularization, cardiac tissue, and cancer.
At this interface between technology, cell biology, and medicine, Chen and his lab’s mission is to provide new tools for biomedicine, to gain new insights into the control of cell and tissue function, to train scientific leaders that transcend traditional disciplines, and to demonstrate the boundless opportunities for impacting the future of research, medicine, and education.

Additional Affiliations

Founding Director, Biological Design Center (BDC)
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University
Division of Materials Science & Engineering
Deputy Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center in Cellular Metamaterials
Co-PI of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Engineering Mechanobiology
Director, SB2 NIH/NIGMS T32 Training Program

Departments or Divisions: Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering

Affiliations: Primary & Affiliated Faculty, Synthetic Biology, Tissue Engineering & Mechanobiology

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