Karen Christman

Karen Leigh Christman is an American bioengineer who is the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and the Pierre Galletti Endowed Chair for Bioengineering Innovation at University of California, San Diego. Her research considers regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. She was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2023.

Early life and education Christman studied biomedical engineering at Northwestern University. She moved to California in 2000, where she earned her graduate degrees. Christman was a doctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco (USCF), where she developed in situ approaches for myocardial tissue engineering. She has said that she started working in bioengineering to find a way to help patients. In 2007, Christman joined the Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego. She develops materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Her research considers naturally occurring and synthetically derived hydrogels to repair and regenerate tissue. She looks to use these hydrogels for non-invasive therapeutic interventions. She is the founder of Ventrix, Inc, which looks to create a new class of biotherapeutics that help the extracellular matrix guide the body to generate healthy tissue.

Christman serves as editor-in-chief of NPG Regenerative Medicine.

Awards and honors NIH Director's New Innovator and Transformative Research Awards Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society Young Investigator Award Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society Senior Scientist Award Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

Selected publications Her publications include: