Rate My Professor Kristan Worthington

Kristan Worthington is an Associate Professor in the Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Iowa College of Engineering. She joined the faculty in 2017 and directs the Worthington Lab, which uses engineering principles to predict and tune the composition, mechanics, and architecture of biomaterials for soft tissue engineering applications. These efforts encompass regenerative engineering of ocular and oral soft tissues, examination of mechanics in pulmonary and ocular diseases, high-resolution 3D printing applied to biomedical problems, and development of bio-sourced molecules for sustainable light-based manufacturing. Her research integrates biomaterials, photopolymerization, 3D printing, stem cells, and regenerative engineering techniques for retinal tissue engineering, precision drug delivery, and biomaterials-mediated control of cell fate decisions. Worthington holds affiliations with the University of Iowa Institute for Vision Research and the Iowa Sciences Academy.

Worthington earned her PhD and MS in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 2014. Her scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed publications such as 'Two-Photon Polymerization as a Tool for Studying 3D Printed Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering' (Macromolecular Bioscience, 2018), 'The effect of retinal scaffold modulus on performance during retinal organoid culture' (Acta Biomaterialia, 2021), 'Photopolymerization Parameters Influence Mechanical Properties of Tissue Engineering Hydrogels' (ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 2023), 'Evaluating the polymerization effectiveness and biocompatibility of bio-sourced visible light-based photoinitiator systems' (Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, 2024), and 'Influence of Substrate Stiffness on iPSC-Derived Retinal Organoids' (Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2024). Major recognitions include the NSF CAREER award in 2022 to advance light-based 3D printing, a $1.9 million NIH grant in 2024 spanning 4.5 years to investigate tissue stiffness's role in age-related macular degeneration affecting retinal pigmented epithelial and choroidal endothelial cells, and selection for the National Academy of Engineering Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering program in 2022. Previously, she served as Vice-President of the University of Iowa Postdoctoral Association (2016-2017) and is noted as a first-generation college graduate.