Kellen Chen, PhD

Dr. Chen co-directs his research lab with the Department of Surgery Chair Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, FACS. Together, they are currently studying therapies to improve outcomes after injury, skin grafting, chronic wound development, biomedical device implantation, liver cirrhosis, cancer development and more. Among these many research avenues, Dr. Chen is particularly interested in the molecular and cellular drivers of fibrosis and regeneration across all organ systems. He is also currently working on obtaining FDA approval for a clinical trial to study pharmacological inhibition of mechanical signaling to accelerate healing of deep dermal injury.

Dr. Chen has co-authored over 55 peer-reviewed publications and three book chapters, including first author publications in journals such as the Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, PNAS and Nature Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Chen is a member of the Wound Healing Society, Diabetic Foot Consortium, Biomedical Engineering Society and Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society.

In addition, Dr. Chen is also the co-director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC) Biospecimen Core. Request cancer and healthy tissue specimens for research.