Melissa Kinney has been named as a 2013 Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) Young Investigator. The award is designed to recognize outstanding achievements by members of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society America's Chapter (TERMIS-AM) who are in the early stages of their careers. Kinney was presented the award at the TERMIS-AM meeting on November 13, 2013 in Atlanta.
Kinney received the award in recognition of her accomplishments and contributions as an American Heart Association Predoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Todd McDevitt, PhD. Her research studies the morphogenesis of stem cells within three-dimensional microtissues, which has emerged as an important, yet largely unexplored, question at the forefront of the stem cell and tissue engineering fields. The understanding of cell intrinsic interactions and signaling mediating spatiotemporal differentiation of ESCs is expected to advance stem cell and developmental biology and contribute to the development of novel strategies to guide the morphogenesis of functional tissue structures.
Kinney is the primary author on two research publications and contributed to several others in the lab. In addition, she has authored three scientific review articles, including one highlighted in a Trends in Biotechnology Limited Edition on stem cells, and authored a book chapter, “Embryonic stem cells,” in Tissue Engineering section Biomedical Engineering Handbook 4th Edition. She has presented her research through 9 podium and 11 poster presentations at international conferences in the fields of biomedical engineering, regenerative medicine and stem cell biology.
