Dr. Kristin M. Fischer is very excited to return to her home state of Virginia and be the newest member of the H-SC Biology department. She earned her B.S in Biology at Virginia Tech and her interest in the medical field led her to pursue her graduate degrees from the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. Dr. Fischer focused on tissue engineering with the goal to replace or repair damaged tissue in the body by creating a scaffold structure for cells to grow on, culturing cells on the scaffold, and implanting a functional, new tissue into a patient.

Her graduate work at Virginia Tech and post-doctoral work at Rutgers University focused on creating a scaffold for skeletal muscle cells to grow on and culturing the skeletal muscle cells on it. The image below shows a scanning electron image of the polymeric scaffold on top and skeletal muscle cells fluorescently stained grown on it below. She completed a second postdoctoral position focusing on cardiac muscle tissue engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to her research, Dr. Fischer has previously taught a variety of courses including physiology, tissue engineering, anatomy & physiology, and introductory biology. She is looking forward to teaching in the upcoming school year.

Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, 2011. 99A(3): p. 493-499.