Eben Alsberg, PhD
Richard and Loan Hill Chair
UIC Distinguished Professor
Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine, and Orthopaedic Surgery
Contact
Building & Room:
7005 COMRB
Address:
909 South Wolcott Avenue, MC 563, Chicago, IL 60612
Email:
Related Sites:
About
Eben Alsberg is the Richard and Loan Hill Chair and Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine, and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he serves as Director of the Alsberg Stem Cell and Engineered Novel Therapeutics (ASCENT) Laboratory. He was previously a professor at Case Western Reserve University in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedic Surgery from 2005-2018. He received his B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering and also in Mechanical Engineering and Material Science from Duke University in 1994. He then went to graduate school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received an M.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering (1998), an M.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering (1998), and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (2002). Following his graduate studies, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Vascular Biology Program at Harvard Medical School. His laboratory focuses on engineering functional biologic replacements to repair damaged or diseased tissues in the body. Complex signals implicated in tissue morphogenesis, repair, and homeostasis are used as inspiration for the development of innovative biomaterials for tissue regeneration. Through the precise temporal and spatial presentation of soluble bioactive factors, mechanical forces, and biomaterial physical and biochemical properties, his lab aspires to create microenvironments that regulate cell gene expression and new tissue formation. With an h-index of 72, he has co-authored >155 peer reviewed papers and book chapters, and his work has been recognized with the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) Senior Scientist Award, the Biovalley Young Investigator Award from the Tissue Engineering Society International (TESI), the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award, the Crain’s Cleveland Business Forty Under 40 Award, the Technion Lady Davis Fellowship, a Visiting Professorship at Kyung Hee University, and election as fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM), the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). His research has been funded by the NIH, DOD, NSF, the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Coulter Foundation, the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, the State of Ohio and the AO Foundation. Alsberg has ~30 patents issued or pending in the field of tissue engineering. He has given >180 invited lectures around the world and is active in many professional societies.
Selected Publications
Lee YB, Jeon O, Lee SJ, Ding A, Wells D, Alsberg E. Induction of 4D spatiotemporal geometric transformations in high cell density tissues via shape changing hydrogels. Advanced Functional Materials (in press, 2021).
Ding A, Jeon O, Tang R, Lee YB, Lee SJ, Alsberg E. Cell-laden multiple-step and reversible 4D hydrogel actuators to mimic dynamic tissue morphogenesis. Advanced Science (in press, 2021).
McMillan A, Nguyen MK, Huynh CT, Sarett SM, Ge P, Chetverikova M, Nguyen K, Grosh D, Duvall CL, Alsberg E. Hydrogel microspheres for spatiotemporally controlled delivery of RNA and silencing gene expression within scaffold-free tissue engineered constructs. Acta Biomaterialia (in press, 2021).
Herberg S, Varghai D, Alt D, Dang P, Park H, Cheng Y, Shin J-Y, Dinikia A, Boerckel J, Rolle M, Alsberg E. Scaffold-free human mesenchymal stem cell construct geometry regulates long bone regeneration. Communications Biology (in press, 2020).
Lee J, Jeon O, Kong M, Adbeen AA, Shin J-Y, Lee HN, Lee YB, Sun W, Bandaru P, Alt DS, Lee K, Kim H-J, Lee SJ, Chaterji S, Shin SR, Alsberg E*, Khademhosseini A*. Combinatorial screening of biochemical and physical signals for phenotypic regulation of stem cell-based cartilage tissue engineering. Science Advances (in press, 2020). *Co-corresponding authors.
Jeon O, Lee YB, Jeong H, Lee SJ, Wells D, Alsberg E: Individual cell-only bioink and photocurable supporting medium for 3D printing and generation of engineering tissues with complex geometries. Materials Horizons, 6: 1625-1631, 2019.
McDermott AM, Herberg S, Mason DE, Collins JM, Pearson HB, Dawahare JH, Tang R, Patwa AN, Grinstaff MW, Kelly DJ, Alsberg E*, Boerckel JD*: Recapitulating bone development through engineered mesenchymal condensations and mechanical cues for tissue regeneration. Science Translational Medicine, 11(495), 2019. *Co-corresponding authors.
Nguyen MK, Huynh CT, Gilewski A, Wilner S, Maier K, Kwon N, Levy M*, Alsberg E*: Covalently tethering siRNA to hydrogels for localized, controlled release and gene silencing. Science Advances, 5(8): eaax0801, 2019. *Co-corresponding authors.
Herberg S, McDermott AM, Dang PN, Alt DS, Tang R, Dawahare JH, Varghai D, Shin J-Y, McMillan A, Dikina AD, He F, Lee Y, Cheng Y, Umemori K, Wong PC, Park H, Boerckel JD*, Alsberg E*: Combinatorial morphogenetic and mechanical cues to mimic bone development for defect repair. Science Advances, 5(8): eaax2476, 2019. *Co-corresponding authors.
Jeon O, Lee YB, Hinton TJ, Feinberg AW, Alsberg E: Cryopreserved cell-laden alginate microgel bioink for 3D bioprinting of living tissues. Materials Today Chemistry, 12:61-70, 2019.
Huynh CT, Liu F, Cheng Y, Coughlin KA, Alsberg E: Thiol-epoxy “click” chemistry to engineer cytocompatible PEG-based hydrogel for siRNA-mediated osteogenesis of hMSCs. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 10(31): 25936-25942, 2018.
Nguyen MK, Jeon O, Dang PN, Huynh CT, Varghai D, Riazi H, McMillan A, Herberg S, Alsberg E: RNA interfering molecule delivery from in situ forming biodegradable hydrogels for enhancement of bone formation in rat calvarial bone defects. Acta Biomaterialia, 75:105-114, 2018
Jeon O, Lee K, Alsberg E: Spatial Micropatterning of Growth Factors in 3D Hydrogels for Location–Specific Regulation of Cellular Behaviors. Small, 14(25):e1800579, 2018.
Herberg S, Varghai D, Cheng Y, Dikina AD, Dang PN, Rolle MW, Alsberg E: High-density human mesenchymal stem cell rings with spatiotemporally-controlled morphogen presentation as building blocks for engineering bone diaphyseal tissue. Nanotheranostics, 2(2):128-143, 2018.
Seo J, Shin JY, Leijten J, Jeon O, Bal ÖA, Rouwkema J, Li Y, Shin S, Hajiali H, Alsberg E*, Khademhosseini E*: Interconnectable Dynamic Compression Bioreactors for Combinatorial Screening of Cell Mechanobiology in Three-dimensions. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 10(16): 13293-13303, 2018. *Co-corresponding authors.
McMillan A, Nguyen MK, Gonzalez-Fernandez T, Ge P, Yu X, Murphy WL, Kelly DJ, Alsberg E: Dual non-viral gene delivery from microparticles within 3D high-density stem cell constructs for enhanced bone tissue engineering. Biomaterials, 161: 240-255, 2018.
Dikina AD, Alt DS, Herberg S, McMillan A, Strobel HA, Zheng Z, Cao M, Lai BP, Jeon O, Petsinger VI, Cotton CU, Rolle MW, Alsberg E: A modular strategy to engineer complex tissues and organs. Advanced Science, 5(5): 1700402, 2018.
Jeon O, Shin JY, Marks R, Hopkins M, Kim TH, Park H, Alsberg E: Highly elastic and tough interpenetrating polymer network-structured hybrid hydrogels for cyclic mechanical loading-enhanced tissue engineering. Chemistry of Materials, 29(19): 8425-8432, 2017.
Dang PN, Herberg S, Varghai D, Riazi H, Varghai D, McMillan A, Awadallah A, Phillips LM, Jeon O, Nguyen MK, Dwivedi N, Yu X, Murphy WL, Alsberg E: Endochondral ossification in critical-sized bone defects via readily implantable scaffold-free stem cell constructs. Stem Cells Translational Medicine, 6(7): 1644-1659, 2017.
Education
Postdoc, Harvard Medical School, 2005
Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2002
M.S.E., Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, 1998
M.S.E., Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 1998
B.S.E., Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, 1994
B.S.E., Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, 1994