Kristi Anseth

Early life and education

Kristi Anseth grew up in northwestern North Dakota. She played on both the volleyball and basketball teams at the University of North Dakota-Williston, earning the honor of Academic All-American in her second year.

Kristi Anseth transferred to Purdue University where she began her research career as an undergraduate student in the lab of Nicholas A. Peppas, receiving her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering in 1992. She obtained her PhD in 1994, working under Christopher Bowman, himself a former graduate student of Nicholas Peppas, at the University of Colorado.

Career

After post-doctoral work with Robert Langer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Thomas Cech, Anseth became an assistant professor at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1996. She currently leads the Anseth Research Group as the Tisone Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

Anseth is working at the intersection of materials science, chemistry and biology, studying natural and synthetic hydrogels and using biomaterials to create an extracellular matrix to support three-dimensional cell enculturation.

Anseth is developing photopolymers that will change from soft to hard in response to cues such as ultraviolet light, and then degrade predictably over time. Such materials could be used to for orthopedic repairs, functioning as a replacement for damaged areas of bone and then slowly being replaced by regrowth of natural material as the body heals. Her pioneering approach applies photopolymerization and photodegradation to enable precise control in space and time of hydrogels' structure and composition. This research involves fundamental investigations into the molecular dynamics of processes at the cell-biomaterial interface.

Anseth is also working on the tissue engineering of biomaterials for the replacement of cartilage and heart valves. By combining photopolymers and lab-grown cartilage her lab is creating living replacements for worn-out joints. The problem is more difficult than replacing bone because the cartilage in joints, unlike bone, does not have the ability to regrow.

She has published more than 250 papers and filed for at least 18 patents. She has been involved in editorial activities of journals including Biomacromolecules, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research — Part A, Acta Biomaterialia, Progress in Materials Science, and Biotechnology and Bioengineering. As of January 2015 she was elected the Vice President/President-Elect of the Materials Research Society (MRS).

Awards

In 1999, Anseth was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.

Kristi Anseth was the first engineer, male or female, to be selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator. At age 40, she was the youngest member ever to be elected to both the National Academy of Engineering (2009) and the Institute of Medicine (2010). In 2013, she was also elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She shares the distinction of being a member of all three with chemical engineers Cato Laurencin, Robert S. Langer, Nicholas A. Peppas, Frances Arnold, and Rakesh K. Jain. As of 2015, she was also named to the National Academy of Inventors.

Other awards and honors include: