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Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic

Serbian American engineer

Summary

Serbian American engineer

Field	Value
name	Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic
image	Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic.jpg
native_name	Гордана Вуњак Новаковић
native_name_lang	sr
birth_place	Belgrade, Serbia
alma_mater	University of Belgrade
work_institutions	Columbia University
University of Belgrade
University of Novi Sad
Tufts University

University of Belgrade University of Novi Sad Tufts University Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic (Гордана Вуњак Новаковић) FRSC is a Serbian American biomedical engineer and university professor. She is a University Professor at Columbia University, as well as the Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences. She also heads the laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering at Columbia University. She is part of the faculty at the Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Center for Human Development, both found at Columbia University. She is also an honorary professor at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy at the University of Belgrade, an honorary professor at the University of Novi Sad, and an adjunct professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University.

Her focus is on engineering human tissues for regenerative medicine, stem cell research and modeling of disease. Together with her team she has published over 380 scientific papers, 70 book chapters and three books on tissue engineering. Vunjak-Novakovic has also given 380 invited lectures across the world and is named as co-inventor on 100 licensed, issued and pending patents. Building on these patents she co-founded four biotech companies: EpiBone, TARA Biosystems, Xylyx Bio, and Immplacate Health. Additionally, she is a frequent advisor to the federal government on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Biography

Vunjak received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Belgrade, in Belgrade, Serbia, her birthplace. After her postgraduate study in Germany, she returned as a faculty to the University of Belgrade in its Chemical Engineering Department. She was a Fulbright Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology from 1986 to 1987 and held joint appointments as research scientist at the Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology at MIT (1993–1998) and as adjunct professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University (1994–2004). In 1998 she became a full-time principal research scientist with the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Science and Technology at MIT, where she collaborated, among others, with biomedical engineer Robert S. Langer. In 2005, she accepted a position as full professor with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University.

Research

Vunjak-Novakovic's numerous scholarly accomplishments have substantially impacted the field of tissue engineering in specific and the field of biomedical engineering in general. Building on these efforts, Vunjak-Novakovic continued to perform complex cell biological studies that address fundamental problems such as the growth and differentiation of stem cells for functional skeletal and cardiac mechanics, the growth of mammalian cells in microgravity environment, and the role of chondrocytes in cartilage tissue biomechanics. In ways not achieved by any other research team, Vunjak-Novakovic's group has succeeded to control cell growth, metabolism and function of engineered human tissues. This has garnered her highest praise and recognition of the scientific community. She is now starting to translate this foundation into clinical applications.

Recognition

In 2007, Vunjak-Novakovic became the first woman engineer to receive the distinction of giving the Director's Lecture at the National Institute of Health. In 2008, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, and has previously served as a Chair of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. She is a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, a fellow of AAAS, and a founding fellow of TERMIS. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and one of Foreign Policy 100 leading global thinkers for 2014.

In 2012 she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering "for bioreactor systems and modeling approaches for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine," becoming the first woman at Columbia to ever earn the prestigious distinction. Two years later this was followed by the elections to the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors. In 2019, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2017, Vunjak-Novakovic was appointed to the rank of University Professor at Columbia University, the institution's highest academic honor reserved for a small number of faculty who have made the most important contributions to their field of study, and serve the university as a whole.

In February 2021, she was awarded the Sretenje order of the Republic of Serbia. In July 2021, she was as awarded the Popular Prize by the European Inventor Award.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, National Public Radio (NPR), and the BBC. She appeared in 2018 as herself in the documentary film Tesla Nation.

References

Anne Eisenberg. (March 28, 2010). "Replacement Bones, Grown to Order in the Lab".
(May 6, 2011). "Columbia Engineers Patch A Heart". [[Columbia Daily Spectator]].
"Women in Technology Hall of Fame".
(1999). "Cardiac tissue engineering: Cell seeding, cultivation parameters, and tissue construct characterization". Biotechnology and Bioengineering.
Vunjak-Novakovic, G.. (1999). "Bioreactor cultivation conditions modulate the composition and mechanical properties of tissue-engineered cartilage". Journal of Orthopaedic Research.
N. Bursac. (1999). "Cardiac muscle tissue engineering: toward an in vitro model for electrophysiological studies". American Journal of Physiology.
Vunjak-Novakovic, Gordana. (1998). "Dynamic cell seeding of polymer scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering". Biotechnology Progress.
L. E. Freed. (1998). "Chondrogenesis in a cell-polymer-bioreactor system". Experimental Cell Research.
(April 17, 2017). "Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic Appointed University Professor". Columbia Spectator.
(October 31, 2014). "Two NIBIB-Supported Biomedical Engineers Named to Prestigious Institute of Medicine". National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
"Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Ph.D.". American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
"BMES List of Fellows".
Holly Evarts. (October 22, 2014). "Professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic Elected to the Institute of Medicine". [[Columbia Daily Spectator]].
Holly Evarts. (December 17, 2014). "Professors Nayar and Vunjak-Novakovic Elected to the National Academy of Inventors". Columbia Spectator.
(April 18, 2019). "Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences". Columbia Spectator.
Lee C. Bollinger. (April 13, 2017). "President Bollinger Appoints Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic a University Professor". Columbia Spectator.
"Svečana ceremonija dodele ordenja povodom Sretenja VIDEO".
(17 June 2021). "Glas srpske nauke daleko se čuje - Gordana Vunjak Novaković dobitnica prestižne nagrade". RTS.
Alex Knapp. (May 9, 2011). "Researchers Mend A Broken Heart".
(June 10, 2011). "Growing Hearts and Bones".
(October 10, 2009). "Jaw bone created from stem cells". [[BBC News]].
(December 15, 2004). "Beating heart tissue grown in lab". BBC News.
Milica Puric. (May 31, 2019). "Tesla Nation, documentary by Zeljko Mirkovic". Urban Culture Tribe.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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