Dr. Karen Christman

Biography

Karen Christman is a Professor in the Bioengineering Department at the University of California San Diego, where she also serves as the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the Jacobs School of Engineering. She holds the Pierre Galletti Endowed Chair in Bioengineering Innovation. Christman's research focuses on the development of novel biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. The Christman lab has a strong translational focus aimed at developing minimally invasive, biomaterials-based therapies for conditions such as myocardial infarction, heart failure, and peripheral artery disease. Her projects often involve interdisciplinary collaborations with basic scientists, engineers, and physicians. She completed her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University in 2000 and earned her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Francisco and Berkeley Joint Bioengineering Graduate Group in 2003. Following her doctoral studies, she was a NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she specialized in polymer chemistry and nanotechnology. Since joining the faculty at UC San Diego in 2007, Christman has been an influential member of the Institute of Engineering in Medicine and the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. She has received numerous accolades, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator and Transformative Research Awards, the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Early Career Translational Research Award, and the American Heart Association Western States Innovative Sciences Award. Additionally, she co-founded Ventrix, Inc., which focuses on clinical trials involving a cardiac extracellular matrix hydrogel technology developed in her lab.

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Awards