Jennifer Elisseeff has been appointed as the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department head. She has served on an interim basis since June 2023 and will now officially assume the title of F. Stuart Hodgson Department Head.
Elisseeff is committed to studying the fundamentals and translation of tissue engineering. The Elisseeff Lab, started in 2001, initially focused on stem cells and the clinical translation of biomaterials-based tissue engineering technologies. As her research evolved, Elisseeff shifted her focus to the role of the immune system in regeneration, pioneering immunoengineering approaches that optimize immune responses to enhance tissue healing outcomes. She has advanced clinical applications of her research, including hydrogel-based cartilage repair and immune-modulating biomaterials for soft tissue reconstruction, improving patient outcomes, and demonstrating regenerative immunology’s potential in tissue repair.
Elisseeff’s current research focuses on how aging and senescence affect tissue regeneration, investigating how senescent cells and altered immune responses impair healing and exploring interventions like immune reprogramming and biomaterials to restore regenerative capacity across the lifespan. A key aspect of this research involves integrating computational techniques and multi-omics strategies to uncover cell networks regulating tissue repair.
Elisseeff is the first Johns Hopkins faculty member to be elected to all three national academies—the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and most recently, the National Academy of Science. This rare achievement highlights her dedication to research and her exceptional contributions to advancing knowledge across disciplines.
Elisseeff is the founder of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at the Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Wilmer Eye Institute, where she was the director from its inception in 2010 until 2023.
She has also founded several companies and participates in multiple industry advisory boards, including the State of Maryland’s Technology Development Corporation. Elisseeff was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2019, she received the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award. In 2022, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Elisseeff received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in medical engineering from the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. She was a Fellow at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Pharmacology Research Associate Program, where she worked at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.