Basak Uygun, PhD

Brief Biography

Dr. Uygun received her BSc and MSc in chemical engineering from Bogazici University and her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Wayne State University. She joined the Center as a postdoctoral fellow in 2006, became an Instructor in 2011 and is now an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. 

Research Summary

Her research focuses on the application of engineering tools to help patients suffering from liver disease. Her work combines tissue engineering principles with regenerative medicine to develop technologies in the fields of organ reengineering, biopreservation, burns trauma and wound healing.

She is known for work in whole human liver engineering, where she uses discarded donor livers to make transplantable liver grafts.

For this work, she received the prestigious Pathway to Independence Award from NIH in 2011. She is also the recipient of 2013 Mass General Claflin Distinguished Award and the 2014 Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

Her publications appeared in Nature Medicine, PloS One and Tissue Engineering, and have been cited over 600 times.

Education

• BsC, and MsC, Bogazici University, Turkey
• PhD, Chemical Engineering, Wayne University

Research Thrusts

• Biopreservation
• Burns Trauma and Wound Healing
• Organ Reengineering
• Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Publications