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| Elena Aikawa, MD, PhD | Su Ryon Shin, PhD |
Elena Aikawa, MD, PhD, director of the Heart Valve Translational Research Program in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Su Ryon Shin, PhD, of the Division of Engineering in Medicine, received the Brigham Department of Medicine’s 2020 Innovation Evergreen Fund (IEF) award for their research project, “Engineering 3D Heart Valves Using Smart Biomaterials and Programmable 4D Bioprinting Technology.”
The Department of Medicine established the IEF as a tool to support innovation and investigation. The program’s goal is to engage and support basic, translational, clinical, epidemiologic or population-based research. Aikawa and Shin were chosen from a pool of very competitive applications.
For their project, Aikawa will be the senior investigator and professor and Shin will be the junior investigator and instructor. They will develop an artificial heart valve using 3D bioprinting technique combined with smart materials with shape transformation properties and evaluate the therapeutic impact of this engineered heart valve.
Aikawa’s clinical and research expertise involves heart valve pathobiology, cardiovascular calcification and tissue engineering. Shin’s expertise includes the design and fabrication of nano-biomaterials and their use in novel 3D bioprinting systems for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.
