Kara E McCloskey

Biography:

Dr. Kara E. McCloskey, PhD, is a Founding Full Professor at the University of California, Merced in the Chemical and Materials Engineering (CME) Department. Dr. McCloskey is the current Program Director for a Training Program in Undergraduate Stem Cell Engineering and Biology (TUSCEB) as well as Program Director for a UC Merced facility developing Resources for Expanding Stem cell-derived Tissues and Organs for Regenerative Engineering (RESTORE), both funded by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. She has been Founder and Chair of the Graduates Program in Biological Engineering and Small-scale Technologies (BEST) and Materials and Biomaterials Science and Engineering (MBSE), as well as the program lead developer for a new B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering. She is well-known for her work in directing endothelial cell (EC) fate from both human and mouse ESCs and induced-pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, including a pioneering publication to identify and characterize the derivation of stable angiogenic and non-angiogenic ECs from stem cells. She has 14 publications in this specific area and has authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles in areas from magnetic cell separation, stem cell differentiation, and tissue assembly. She is currently focusing her efforts examining cell-material interactions for developing functional tissues.

Dr. McCloskey earned a highly competitive $1.7 million New Faculty Award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) for studies on fabricating cardiac tissue models from stem cells; this was followed by a Basic Biology Award from CIRM on directing endothelial subphenotypes from embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Dr. McCloskey’s experience as a leader in the NSF-funded Science and Technology Center (STC) on Emergent Behavior in Integrated in Cellular Systems (EBICS, MIT, UIUC, and GT) for 10 years helped develop the appropriate expertise to successfully apply for the CREST Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines (CCBM), the first NSF-funded research center at UC Merced – a Hispanic serving institution. She now participates in another NSF-funded STC on Cellular Engineering in MechanoBiology (CEMB, UPenn) and an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) on the Transformation of American Rubber through Domestic Innovation for Supply Security (TARDISS).