Professor Anseth is a nationally recognized expert in the development of new biomaterials used for a variety of medical purposes. She drastically reshaped and improved the biomaterials that were previously being used in clinical medicine by developing new kinds of multifunctional macromers that are photopolymerized to form predictable and controllable degradable networks. The practical applications of this groundbreaking work include improvements and advancements in the controlled release of drugs, biomaterials for fracture fixation, DNA delivery for tissue engineering, tissue engineering scaffolds, and photopolymerizable tissue adhesives. In addition to her position in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, Professor Anseth is also an associate professor of surgery at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She was the first engineer to be named as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and she was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. In 2013 she received the Hazel Barnes Prize, the highest honor accorded to a CU-Boulder faculty member. (See related story on page 11.)
