David Kaplan is the Stern Family Endowed Professor of Engineering at Tufts University and a Distinguished University Professor. He is Professor & Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and also holds faculty appointments in the School of Medicine, Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University and the State University at Syracuse. His research focus is on biopolymer engineering to understand structure-function relationships, with emphasis on studies related to self-assembly, biomaterials engineering and regenerative medicine. Since 2004 he has directed the NIH P41 Tissue Engineering Resource Center (TERC) that involves Tufts University and Columbia University. He has published over 700 peer reviewed papers. The lab has pioneered the study of silk-based biomaterials in regenerative medicine, from fundamental studies of the biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysical features to their impact on stem cell functions, complex tissue formation and medical device formation. Studies are also focused on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine with the use of complex 3D tissue co-culture systems to establish and study a range of tissues. He is the editor-in-chief of ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering and serves on many other editorial boards and programs for journals and universities. He has received a number of awards for teaching, was Elected Fellow American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and received the Society for Biomaterials Clemson Award for contributions to the literature.
