03/11/2025
By Zhiyong Gu

Rebecca Kuntz Willits, Ph.D., professor and chair of Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, will give a seminar titled, "Microenvironmental Cues to Enhance Neural Repair."

Date: Thursday, March 20
Time: 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.
Location: Shah Hall, Room 303

Abstract: The overarching goal of my research team is to understand how mechanical, chemical, and electrical factors of microenvironments influence neuro-regeneration. Specifically, in this talk, I will focus on recent projects to characterize mechanotransduction of neural cells. In this research area, we have focused on the role of bound cues on neural cell response, with particular interest in altering the mechanical environment the cells sense. The outcomes from these projects relate to a fundamental understanding of neural systems and the development of design criteria for neural biomaterials and tissue engineered scaffolds. This talk will focus on how changes in the microenvironment alter neural stem cell maintenance and neurogenesis and the development and use of hydrogel scaffolds to manipulate these cellular outcomes. These projects have been supported by the NIH and NSF.

Biography: Rebecca Kuntz Willits is chairperson and professor of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, and has an affiliated appointment in Bioengineering. She has been on the faculty at Saint Louis University from 1999-2010 and at The University of Akron from 2010-2020. Her current research interests are at the intersection of nerve regeneration, tissue engineering, mechanobiology and biomaterials. Her lab works as a multidisciplinary team, with close collaborations with faculty in chemistry and medical schools, as well as physicians in plastic and orthopedic surgery. Dr. Willits has received funding for her research from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and research foundations, and is a fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). She has served on the Board of Directors of WEPAN, AIMBE, and BMES, and actively serves her alma maters on their Chemical Engineering Advisory Boards. She has been actively engaged in increasing diversity of faculty in engineering by publishing commentaries and developing workshops and mentoring programs with NSF funding.