About
Jennifer L. West
Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering, Departments of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, and director of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
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Jennifer West is internationally recognized for cutting-edge research in two of bioengineering's most competitive fields-nanotechnology and tissue engineering. Her research focuses on the synthesis, development, and application of novel biofunctional materials, such as materials for small-diameter vascular grafts that could eliminate the need for doctors to use veins from a patient's leg for heart bypass surgery. Her lab is developing techniques to use a patient's own cells to grow replacement blood vessels by synthesizing so-called "scaffold materials," which mimic extracellular matrices and provide structure for the growth of replacement blood vessels. Another area of her work involves biomedical applications of nanoshells, ultrasmall metallic spheres with special optical properties that may be used in cancer therapy, drug delivery, and medical testing.
West graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering at M.I.T. (1992) and went on to earn an M.S. (1994) and a Ph.D. (1996) in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She joined the faculty of Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 2001. In 2005 she was named director of Rice University's Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB), which fosters cross-disciplinary research and education programs in biology, chemistry, and engineering.
West is the recipient of an NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award recognizing outstanding scientists and engineers who show early and exceptional potential for leadership. In 2004 she won one of the nation's most competitive and prestigious honors, the Annunzio Award presented by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation.