Dr. Balcells-Camps is a Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (2016) and Profesora Titular in Bioengineering at Institut Químic de Sarrià (2007) in Barcelona. Her research in tissue engineering has shown how endothelial cell states are critical to tissue response to injury. She was the first to show that cells respond to flow frequency not just shear stress and in a manner which is tissue bed dependent. She demonstrated that endothelial cells from the heart and blood vessels, lungs or gastrointestinal tract proliferate optimally under flow conditions whose frequency is tuned to the operating frequency of their host tissue. Dr. Balcells’ group developed novel culture methods and perfusion systems that enable patient-specific geometrical parameters to tissue response. Those methods have been used to characterize cellular response to medical devices and pharmaceutical formulations in collaboration with industry. As a direct consequence of her work in extending MIT’s international opportunities for students and faculty she created and directs the international MIT-Spain Program. In 2011, Spain’s government bestowed Dr. Balcells-Camps with the Cross of the Order of the Civil Merit for her contribution to establish a fruitful channel between MIT and her home country, Spain. Dr. Balcells-Camps chairs MIT innovation program IDEA2 within MIT LinQ Initiative. For her service to MIT and to the world, Dr. Balcells-Camps received the 2019 MIT Excellence Awards “Advancing inclusion and global perspectives: maximizing MIT’s strengths”.

merche[at]mit.edu

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