Professional Activities:

Employment History
Industry Positions

1984-86 Engineer.  Signature Materials and Composite Design, General Dynamics, San Diego, CA.  Developed stealth materials to reduce radar cross-sections of missile components.
1994-1997

Consulting Director of Development. Bio-Crystals Corporation, Boston, MA, specializing in orthopedic applications of calcium phosphate biomaterials. Directed efforts on manufacturing scale up and preclinical testing of a novel bone substitute material.

1998-2000 Co-owner/co-founder of NaturApatites Co., Inc., Boston, MA, specializing in orthopedic and oncology applications of calcium phosphate biomaterials. Directed two programs of preclinical studies (1) localized delivery of chemotherapy and (2) delivery of osteogenic agents from composite biomaterial scaffolds. NaturApatites Co. was acquired by ETEX Corp. in 2000.
2000-2002

Director, Orthopaedics Product Development (2001-2002). Assistant Director, Oncology Development (2000 – 2001).  ETEX Corporation, Cambridge, MA. Supervised technical staff conducting preclinical studies and product development activities in the area of orthobiologics specifically spinal fusion and long bone repair, generation of design control documentation, interfacing with quality and regulatory departments.

Academic Positions

1986-1991

Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant.  Materials Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA. Thesis Research: Theoretical mechanics modeling of powder consolidation. Developed constitutive law mathematical equations for predicting optimal processing cycles for components made of powdered materials.  Performed finite element modeling with ABAQUS.

1992-1994 Research Associate. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. Biomineralization experiments with calcium carbonate. Characterization and testing of natural and biomimetic ceramic structures including eggshells and seashells.
1994-2002 Research Associate/Instructor: Joint appointee in Skeletal Disorders and Rehabilitation, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, and Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Optimized protocols for plasma and solution chemical extraction of biologically produced calcium phosphate crystals from bone and mineralized cell culture matrix. Characterized the mineral phase in bone and mineralized cell cultures characterization using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy.
2002-present

Associate Professor. Center for Regenerative Medicine and Skeletal Development, Reconstructive Sciences Department.  School of Dental Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT.  Research areas: local delivery of therapeutics from biomaterial scaffolds or nanoparticles. Preclinical testing of dental implant systems and anticancer therapies. Derivation of progenitor cells for bone tissue engineering from human pluripotent stem cells.  Developing new growth factor based therapeutics for bone repair in the elderly.

2012-2013 Visiting Associate Professor. French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), U1109, Department of Osteoarticular and Dental Regenerative Nanomedicine, Faculté de Medicine, University of Strasbourg; Strasbourg, France.

Professional Memberships

1994 –present American Society of Testing and Materials
1995 American Ceramic Society
1996 The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society
1996 –present The Society For Biomaterials
2004-2008      

American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists

2004-2008 Controlled Release Society

Awards, Honors

1998

Young Investigators Travel Award. 6th Int. Conference on the Chemistry and Biology of Mineralized Tissues in Vittel, France.

2000 Scientific American Award from the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM).
2002 Selected as Overall Program Chair of the Annual Meeting of the Society For Biomaterials. This is the premier biomaterials meeting in the United States and is attended by approximately 3000 scientists from both the US and abroad.  Coordinated the entire scientific program
2004-2011

Elected General Interest Vice-Chair of Main Committee F04 Medical and Surgical Materials and Devices, American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM).

2006 Patrick Liang Award from the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) for significant and outstanding contributions in the field of medical and surgical devices
2009 Winner of the Women of Innovation Award for Academic Innovation and Leadership from the Connecticut Technology Council.
2009-2011 Elected Chair of the Drug Delivery Special Interest Group of the Society For Biomaterials.
2014

Award of Merit from the American Society of Testing and Materials International (ASTM) – highest ASTM award for distinguished service and outstanding participation with accompanying honorary title of Fellow.

Teaching Activites

School of Dental Medicine Courses, University of Connecticut Health Center

2003 Lecturer. DENT 440, Integrating Biotechnology with Clinical Dentistry. Course Director: E. Rossomando.
2004 Lecturer. DENT 433. Connective Tissue Biology. Course Director: B. Oliver
2005,2007 Lecturer. DENT 440. Biodontics. Course Director: E. Rossomando
2009 Lecturer. DENT 5440. Integrating Bioscience with Clinical Dentistry. Course Director: E. Rossomando
2005-2008 Faculty judge of Business Plans by dental residents in Biodontics summer course. Course Director: E. Rossomando.
2009-2012

Faculty facilitator. D400-720 Critical Thinking in Dentistry, Correlated Dental 2014              Problem Solving. Course Director: M. Goupil.  Two semester course.

 

Liisa Tiina Kuhn

Associate Professor

 

  • :860-679-3922
    Fax: 860-679-1370

  • DEPARTMENTDepartment of Reconstructive Sciences
    Center for Regenerative Medicine and Skeletal Development
    University of Connecticut Health Center
  • COUNTRY USA