Dr. David Kaplan
Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
Tufts University
United States of America
Biography
David Kaplan holds an Endowed Chair, the Stern Family Professor of Engineering, at Tufts University. He is Professor & Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and also holds faculty appointments in the School of Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine, Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. His research focus is on biopolymer engineering to understand structure-function relationships, with emphasis on studies related to self-assembly, biomaterials engineering and functional tissue engineering/regenerative medicine. He has published over 600 peer reviewed papers and edited eight books. He directs the NIH P41 Tissue Engineering Resource Center (TERC) that involves Tufts University and Columbia University. He serves of the editorial boards of numerous journals and is Associate Editor for the ACS journal Biomacromolecules. He has received a number of awards for teaching, was Elected Fellow American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and received the Columbus Discovery Medal and Society for Biomaterials Clemson Award for contributions to the literature.
Research Interest
The Kaplan lab research focus is on biopolymer engineering to understand structure-function relationships, with emphasis on studies related to self-assembly, biomaterials engineering, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The studies include a variety of structural proteins, including collagens, elastins, resilins and silks. In addition, the lab has pioneered the study of silk-based biomaterials in regenerative medicine, starting from fundamental studies of the biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysical features of this novel class of fibrous proteins to their impact on stem cell functions and complex tissue formation. The result has been the emergence of silk as a new option in the degradable polymer field with excellent biocompatibility, new fundamental understanding of control of water to regulate structure and properties, and new tissue-specific outcomes with silk as scaffolding in gel, fiber, film or sponge formats. Studies are also focused on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine with the use of complex 3D tissue co-culture systems to establish and study human tissues in the laboratory and in animal systems. These systems are also used to study diseases associated with brain, intestine, kidney, obesity, diabetes and cancers, including for therapeutic screening. Interfaces with optical imaging tools are also exploited.
Publications
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Cebe P, Hu X, Kaplan DL , Zhuravlev E, Wurm A, Arbeiter D, Schick C. Beating the heat - fast scanning melts silk beta sheet crystals. Science Reports , 3:11130 (2013)
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Brodsky B, Kaplan DL . Shining light on collagen: expressing collagen in plants. Tissue Engineering Part A , 19(13 - 14): 1499 - 1501 (2013)
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Brenckle, MA, Partlow B, Tao H, Kaplan DL , Omenetto F. Interface control of semicrystalline biopolymer films throug h thermal reflow. Biomacromolecules , 14(7): 2189 - 2195 (2013)
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Brenckle MA, Tao H, Kim S, Paquette M, Ka plan DL , Omenetto FG. Protein - protein nanoimprinting of silk fibroin films. Advanced Materials . 25(17): 2409 - 2414 (2013)
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Blasioli DJ, Kaplan DL . The roles of catabolic factors in the development of osteoarthritis. Tissue Engineering Part B Reviews , Dec 11, in press (2013)
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Benfenati V, Pistone A, Sagnella A, Stahl K, Carnassa L, Gomes - Perez C, Toffanin S, Torp R, Kaplan DL , Ruani G., Omenetto FG, Zamboni R, Muccini M. Silk fibroin films are a bio - active interface for neuroregenerative medicine. J. Applied Biomaterials Functional Materia ls . 10(3): 315 - 323 (2013)
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Bellas E, Marra KG, Kaplan DL . Sustainable three dimensional tissue model of human adipose tissue. Tissue Engineering Part C Methods ahead of print (2013)
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Bellas E, Panilaitis BJ, Glettig DL, Kirker - Head CA, Yoo JJ, Marra KG, Rubin JP, Kaplan DL . Sustained volume retention in vivo with adipocyte and lipoaspirate seeded s ilk scaffolds. Biomaterials 34(12): 2960 - 2968 (2013)
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Bellas E, Seiberp g M, Garlick J, Kaplan DL . In vitro 3D full thickness skin equivalent tissue model using silk and co llagen biomaterials. Macromolecular Bioscience 12(12):1627 - 1636 (2013)
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Bai S, Liu S, Zhang C, Xu W, Lu Q, Han H, Kaplan DL , Zhu H. C ontrollable transition of silk fibroin nano structures: an insight into the in vitro silk self - assembly process. Acta Biomaterialia April 27, 9(8): 7806 - 7813 (2013)
