Kellen Chen, PhD
Kellen Chen, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery and Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine Tucson. Dr. Chen completed his postdoctoral research fellowship at Stanford University. He also previously received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia and earned his B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Chen co-directs his research lab with the Department of Surgery Chair, Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, FACS. Together, they are currently studying therapies to improve outcomes after injury, skin grafting, chronic wound development, biomedical device implantation, liver cirrhosis, cancer development, and more. Among these many research avenues, Dr. Chen is particularly interested in the molecular and cellular drivers of fibrosis and regeneration across all organ systems. He is also currently working on obtaining FDA approval for a clinical trial to study pharmacological inhibition of mechanical signaling to accelerate healing of deep dermal injury.
Dr. Chen has co-authored over 55 peer-reviewed publications and three book chapters, including first author publications in journals such as the Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Nature Biomedical Engineering. He has received a variety of awards, including the First Place Young Investigator's Award from the Wound Healing Society; Bernard G. Sarnat MD Excellence in Grant Writing Award from the Plastic Surgery Foundation, Career Development Award from the University of Arizona Health Sciences, and Dean Louis J. Kettel Award for exemplary student research mentoring from the Medical Student Research Program. Dr. Chen is a member of the Wound Healing Society, Diabetic Foot Consortium, Biomedical Engineering Society, and Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society.
For more information, please visit the lab website here.
In addition, Dr. Chen is also the co-director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC) Biospecimen Core. To request cancer and healthy tissue specimens for research, please see here for more information.
Chen K, Kwon SH, Henn D, Kuehlmann BA, Tevlin R, Bonham CA, Griffin M, Trotsyuk AA, Borrelli MR, Noishiki C, Padmanabhan J, Barrera JA, Maan ZN, Dohi T, Mays CJ, Greco AH, Sivaraj D, Lin JQ, Fehlmann T, Mermin-Bunnell AM, Mittal S, Hu MS, Zamaleeva AI, Keller A, Rajadas J, Longaker MT, Januszyk M, Gurtner GC. Disrupting biological sensors of force promotes tissue regeneration in large organisms. Nat Commun. 2021 Sep 6;12(1):5256. PMID: 34489407.
Chen K, Henn D, Januszyk M, Barrera JA, Noishiki C, Bonham CA, Griffin M, Tevlin R, Carlomagno T, Shannon T, Fehlmann T, Trotsyuk AA, Padmanabhan J, Sivaraj D, Perrault DP, Zamaleeva AI, Mays CJ, Greco AH, Kwon SH, Leeolou MC, Huskins SL, Steele SR, Fischer KS, Kussie HC, Mittal S, Mermin-Bunnell AM, Diaz Deleon NM, Lavin C, Keller A, Longaker MT, Gurtner GC. Disrupting mechanotransduction decreases fibrosis and contracture in split-thickness skin grafting. Sci Transl Med. 2022 May 18;14(645):eabj9152. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abj9152. Epub 2022 May 18. PMID: 35584231.
Chen K, Vigliotti A, Bacca M, McMeeking RM, Deshpande VS, Holmes JW. Role of boundary conditions in determining cell alignment in response to stretch. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Jan 30;115(5):986-991. PMID: 29343646
Henn D, Zhao D, Sivaraj D, Trotsyuk A, Bonham CA, Fischer KS, Kehl T, Fehlmann T, Greco AH, Kussie HC, Moortgat Illouz SE, Padmanabhan J, Barrera JA, Kneser U, Lenhof HP, Januszyk M, Levi B, Keller A, Longaker MT, Chen K* (co-senior author), Qi LS*, Gurtner GC*. Cas9-mediated knockout of Ndrg2 enhances the regenerative potential of dendritic cells for wound healing. Nat Commun. 2023 Aug 7;14(1):4729. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40519-z. PMID: 37550295.
Kussie HC, Hahn W, Sivaraj D, Quintero F, Knochel A, Alfsharif AM, Yasmeh JP, Fischer K, Mojadidi S, Hostler A, Granoski M, McKenna E, Henn D, Litmanovich B, Miller AA, Schurr DK, Li VW, Li WW, Gurtner GC, Chen K. Avenanthramide and β-Glucan Therapeutics Accelerate Wound Healing Via Distinct and Nonoverlapping Mechanisms. Adv Wound Care (New Rochelle). 2024 Apr;13(4):155-166. doi: 10.1089/wound.2023.0050. Epub 2024 Feb 26. PMID: 38299969.
Degrees
- BS: Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley
- PhD: Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia
- Postdoctoral Fellowship: Surgery, Stanford University