Dr. Laura Niklason is an
Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Biomedical Engineering at Yale. She received her Bachelors degrees in Physics
and Biophysics from the University of Illinois, and went on to the University of Chicago for her PhD in Biophysics in 1988.
Dr. Niklason subsequently received her MD from
the University of Michigan, where she did her internship.
She then went on to the Massachusetts General Hospital for residency in Anesthesia, followed by fellowship training in
Critical Care Medicine. During her time
in Boston, Dr. Niklason was also a
post-doctoral researcher at MIT with Dr. Robert Langer, where she developed
techniques for the tissue engineering of autologous
arteries. Dr. Niklason
joined the faculty at Duke University in 1998, where she continued her work in
cardiovascular tissue engineering, and founded a biotechnology company designed
to bring tissue engineered cardiovascular products to the clinic. Dr. Niklason has
received national and international recognition for her work in this field,
receiving the Discover Magazine award for Technological Innovation in 2000, and
being named a Hunt Scholar in the Duke School of Engineering in 2001. In January of 2006, Niklason
moved to
Yale University, where she is expanding her
research program in tissue engineering and in understanding the basic aspects
of cellular aging.
Currrently, Dr. Niklason’s research program
has several areas of focus. With regard
to engineered arteries, Niklason is engaged in
preclinical studies in large animals to validate the method for generating
engineered tissues that are available “off the shelf”. Large animal studies on vascular grafts are
centered on immune/inflammatory response minimization to these off-the-shelf
tissues, and on the long-term function of the grafts in the arterial
circulation. In addition, Niklason is developing tissue engineering approaches to
generating vascularized cardiac muscle, as well as vascularized lung tissue. In addition, Niklason
has active research interests in vascular remodeling that is associated with
various disease states, including atherosclerosis and arterial vasospasm.