Congratulations to UW Bioengineering Associate Professor Kelly Stevens for being honored with the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) 2024 Mid-Career Award. This award is the highest honor that a bioengineer can receive at the mid-career stage.
The Award honors a member in good standing who has shown notable leadership and accomplishments in biomedical engineering. These accomplishments can be in the areas of scholarship, education, mentorship, leadership or the practice of biomedical engineering.
Stevens will speak on October 26 at 11:00am at the 2024 BMES Annual Meeting. Her presentation title is Engineering human organoids, organs and societies.
Stevens’ research focuses on mapping human organs and engineering artificial tissues, leveraging her expertise in synthetic biology, 3D bioprinting and organoid development (3D clusters of organ tissue). Her goal is to assemble engineered human organs from scratch and translate these technologies into therapies for patients with heart and liver diseases. Stevens also holds a faculty position at UW Medicine’s Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine.
Some of her recent achievements include 3D bioprinted tissues with entangled vascular networks for air and blood, 3D printed fluid systems that supply penetrating heat in patterns that trigger gene expression in human livers, and sci-Space technology, a technique that tracks cell positions and gene expression over time in a developing embryo. In 2022 she was named an Allen Distinguished Investigator to support her work to build human livers in the lab.
Stevens is also passionate about developing the next generation of diverse scientists and engineers. She is co-leading a new NIH-funded center to reduce disparities in biomaterials research. The Humanity Unlocking Biomaterials (HUB) center, led by the University of Washington and University of Michigan, aims to accelerate the development of biomaterial innovations for medical treatments. By fostering collaboration among researchers and offering seed funding, the center will help launch new projects.