Rebecca Willits
Professor and Chair,
Chemical Engineering
Affiliated Faculty,
Bioengineering
Office
- 201F Cullinane
- 617.373.2989
Research Focus
neural regenerative strategies, neural mechanosensing, diversity and inclusion in engineering
Education
- PhD, Cornell University, Chemical Engineering, 1999
- MS, The Johns Hopkins University, Chemical Engineering, 1996
Honors & Awards
- AIMBE Fellow
Professional Affiliations
- American Chemical Society
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- Biomedical Engineering Society
- Golden Key Honor Society
- National Center for Regenerative Medicine
- New York Academy of Sciences
- Sigma Xi
- Society for Biomaterials
Research Overview
neural regenerative strategies, neural mechanosensing, diversity and inclusion in engineering
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Silantyeva, E., R.K. Willits, M.L. Becker. Post-fabrication Tethering of Molecular Gradients on Aligned Nanofibers of Functional Poly(ԑ-caprolactone)s. Biomacromolecules. 20(12):4494-4501, 2019.
- Motta, Cecilia M.M., K.J. Endres, C. Wesdemiotis, R.K. Willits and M.L. Becker. Enhancing Schwann Cell Migration Using Concentration Gradients of Laminin Derived-peptides. Biomaterials. 218:119335, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2019.119335
- Cavanaugh, McKay, Elena Silantyeva, Galina Pylypiv Koh, Elham Malekzadeh, William Lanzinger, Rebecca Willits, Matthew Becker. RGD-modified nanofibers enhance functional outcomes in rats after sciatic nerve injury. Biomimetic Materials for Regenerative Medicine; Journal of Functional Materials. 2019.
- Philip, D.#, Silantyeva, E.#, Becker, M.L., and R.K. Willits. RGD-functionalized nanofibers increase early GFAP expression during neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells. Biomacromolecules, #co-first authors. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.9b00018
- Zhou, W., J.M. Stukel, A. AlNiemi*, and R.K. Willits. Novel microgel-based scaffolds to study the effect of degradability on human dermal fibroblasts. Biomedical Materials. 13(5): 055007, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-605X/aaca57
Sep 02, 2020
New Faculty Spotlight: Rebecca Willits
Rebecca Willits joined the Chemical Engineering department in July 2020 as Professor and Chair.
Aug 03, 2020
Willits Selected as a BMES Fellow
ChE Professor and Chair Rebecca Willits selected as a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society.