The Gurtner Laboratory
Utilizing a wide range of cutting edge technologies to advance wound healing, regeneration, and foreign body response.
The Gurtner Lab focuses on developing translational research projects in the lab that can become commercialized to improve patient care.
These projects can range over a wide breadth of topics, such as wound healing, regeneration, and foreign body response. They utilize a wide range of cutting edge technologies, including small molecule therapeutics, cellular therapies, smart electronics, and single cell transcriptomics.
Dr. Geoffrey Gurtner, professor of surgery and biomedical engineering and chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Arizona, has multiple patents and has successfully founded several companies from the various projects that initially started in his lab.
The lab is located at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson campus, which serves as a unique, collaborative hub that connects both clinical and basic science researchers to tackle ongoing clinical issues. We have multiple collaborations across the hospital, College of Medicine, College of Engineering, and the rest of the university, as well as partnerships with industry to facilitate an interdisciplinary approach to our projects. Lab alumni have gone on to pursue careers in various areas of clinical and academic medicine, research, and industry. Major funding support is provided by the NIH (e.g., NIDDK, NIA), Department of Defense, Clinical Trials, and industry contracts.
Meet Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, FACS
Dr. Gurtner is the chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Arizona. He is internationally recognized as a highly accomplished clinician and prolific researcher, author, inventor and entrepreneur. He has been awarded more than $27 million in federal research funding and holds 35 patents. He also has founded three venture capital-backed life sciences companies.
Meet Kellen Chen, PhD
Kellen Chen, PhD, is an assistant research professor in the Department of Surgery and Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine – Tucson. Dr. Chen co-directs the lab of Department of Surgery Chair Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, FACS, and is particularly interested in the molecular and cellular drivers of fibrosis and regeneration across all organ systems.
Dr. Chen has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and five book chapters, including first author publications in journals such as Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, Nature Biomedical Engineering, and PNAS.