Curriculum Vitae

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PI: De Laporte, Laura:

Researcher unique identifier(s): B-9980-2014
Date of birth: December 3 1980, Gent, Belgium

Contact: DWI Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, Forckenbeckstrasse 50,

52074 Aachen, phone: +49 241 80 23163, email: delaporte@dwi.rwth-aachen.de
Website: http://www.dwi.rwth-aachen.de
Family: Married, 2 children: Hannah (27/09/2010), Alice (02/10/2012)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------EDUCATION
Sept 1 2004 Jun 19 2009: PhD: GPA: 4.0/4.0
Multiple channel bridges with the ability for DNA and protein delivery for spinal cord regeneration
PI: Lonnie Shea, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Northwestern University (NU), USA
Engineered the first three-dimensional poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) multiple channel
bridges for spinal cord regeneration: (De Laporte et al, Molecular Therapy 2009)
Implemented a new animal model in the lab for rat spinal cord hemisection surgery and bridge
implantation (trained by Prof. Aileen Anderson, University of California, Irvine), and trained
multiple colleagues on this model (Yang et al, 2009, De Laporte et al, 2009, 2010, 2011,
Tuinstra et al, 2012,2013)
Developed a method to optimize DNA delivery from PLGA scaffolds in vivo after spinal cord
injury, and obtained 3D patterned transfection (De Laporte et al. Biomaterials 2009, Acta
Biomaterialia 2010, patent US7,846,466 B2)
Implemented a dual protein delivery system from the spinal cord bridges to enhance
angiogenesis and neurite extension (De Laporte et al, J of Biomed Mater Res A, 2011)
Jul 2006: Spinal cord injury research technique course
Reeve-Irvine Research Center, University of California, Irvine, USA
Sept 1 1998 Jul 4 2003: Master: Great distinction
Development of a cardiovascular flow model and drug-eluting stents applications
PI: Pascal Verdonck, Chemical Engineering, University of Ghent, Belgium
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------CURRENT POSITION
Aug 2013 current: Junior Research Group Leader:
Engineering bioinspired hydrogels for tissue regeneration purposes
DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, RWTH Aachen, Germany

Curriculum Vitae

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Engineer injectable biomaterials that form an anisotropic microheterogeneous structure in vivo

Synthesize and modify biomaterials with functional domains to fine-tune their biological and drug
delivery properties for specific tissue repair applications
Design hydrogels with light modulated stiffness for dynamic control of cell behavior
Develop effective clinical translatable therapies to stimulate nerve regeneration and reduce
paralysis after spinal cord injury
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PREVIOUS POSITIONS
Jul 1 2009 Oct 1 2012: Post-doctoral research:
Engineering hydrogels with extracellular matrix fragments for tissue regeneration
PI: Jeffrey Hubbell, Interschool Institute of Bioengineering,
Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
Discovered that tenascin has the ability to bind morphogens and defined the domain
responsible for it (De Laporte et al, PLoS One 2013, patent US 20140011978 A1)
Cloned and produced multiple extracellular matrix protein fragments that are modified to bind
into hydrogels in order to enhance morphogen retention, cellular migration and proliferation, and
neurite extension (De Laporte et al, PLoS One 2013, patent US 20140011978 A1)
Collaborated with laboratory of Prof. Matthias Lutolf (EPFL) to use a new high throughput
robotic system to analyze the effect of multiple proteins on neurite extension
Designed an animal model in the laboratory of Prof. Grgoire Courtine (EPFL) to inject an
engineered hydrogel after rat spinal cord contusion, which would gel in situ and stimulate
regeneration
Sept 1 2003 Aug 31 2004: Research Assistant
Employer: Lonnie Shea, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, NU
Aug 2002: Internship
Investigation and optimization cardiovascular flow model. Guidant, Belgium
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------CAREER BREAKS
Oct 2 2012 Aug 15 2013

Maternity leave second child 10 months

Oct 1 2010 Jan 17 2011

Maternity leave first child 4 months

Jul 7 2010 Oct 1 2010

Hospitalization first pregnancy 3 months

PUBLICATIONS
H-Index: 12
Torres-Rendon JG, Kpf M, Gehlen D, Blaeser A, Fisher H, De Laporte L, Walther A. Cellulose
nanofibril hydrogel tubes as sacrificial templates for freestanding tubular cell constructs.
Biomacromolecules, 2016 Feb; Epub ahead of print.

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Torres-Rendon JG, Femmer T, De Laporte L, Tigges T, Rahimi K, Gremse F, Zafarnia S,

Lederle W, Ifuku S, Wessling M, Hardy JH*, Walther A*. Bioactive Gyroid Scaffolds Formed by
Sacrificial Templating of Nanocellulose and Nanochitin Hydrogels as Instructive Platforms for
Biomimetic Tissue Engineering. Advanced Materials, 2015 Apr; 27(19): 298995 *Authors
contributed equally.
Repenko FT, Fokong SS, De Laporte L, Go D, Kiessling F, Lammers T, Kuehne A. Water
soluble dopamine-based polymers for photoacoustic imaging. Chemical Communications, 2015
Feb; 51: 6084-7
Hillmer JM, De Laporte L, Singh S, Wessling M (2014) BIG opportunities, Biologische
intelligente Gele in der Medizin. RWTH Themen Medizin und Technik,1/2014: 52-55.
Hopkins AM, De Laporte L, Tortelli F, Spedden E, Staii C, Atherton T, Hubbell JA, Kaplan DL.
Silk hydrogels as soft substrates for neural tissue engineering. Advanced Functional Materials,
2013 Nov; 23(41):5140-9.
De Laporte L*, Rice JJ*, Tortelli F, Hubbell JA. Tenascin C promiscuously binds growth factors
via its fifth fibronectin type III-like domain. *Authors contributed equally. PLoS One, 2013 Apr;
8(4):e62076.
Rice JJ*, Martino MM*, De Laporte L*, Tortelli F*, Briquez PS, Hubbell JA. Engineering the
regenerative microenvironment with biomaterials. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2013 Jan;
2(1):57-71. *Authors contributed equally.
De Laporte L, des Rieux A, Tuinstra HM, Zelivyanskaya ML, De Clerck NM, Postnov AA, Prat
V, Shea LD. Vascular endothelial growth factor and fibroblast growth factor 2 delivery from
spinal cord bridges to enhance angiogenesis following injury. Journal of Biomedical Materials
Research Part A. 2011 Sep; 98(3):372-82.
De Laporte L, Huang A, Ducommun M, Zelivyanskaya ML, Aviles MO, Adler A, Shea LD.
Pattened gene expression from tissue engineering scaffolds for spinal cord regeneration. Acta
Biomaterialia, 2010 Aug; 6(8):2889-97.
Yang Y, De Laporte L, Zelivyanskaya ML, Whittlesey KJ, Anderson AJ, Cummings BJ, Shea
LD. Multiple channel bridges for spinal cord injury: cellular characterization of host response.
Tissue Engineering Part A. 2009 Nov; 15(11):3283-95.
Zhang XQ, Tang H, Hoshi R, De Laporte L, Qiu H, Xu X, Shea LD, Ameer GA. Sustained
transgene expression via citric acid-based polyester elastomers. Biomaterials. 2009 May;
30(13):2632-41.
De Laporte L, Yan AL, Shea LD. Local gene delivery from ECM-coated poly(lactide-coglycolide) multiple channel bridges after spinal cord injury. Biomaterials. 2009 Apr; 30(12):23618.
De Laporte L, Yang Y, Zelivyanskaya ML, Cummings BJ, Andersin AJ, Shea LD. Plasmid
releasing multiple channel bridges for transgene expression after spinal cord injury. Molecular
Therapy, 2009 Feb; 17(2):318-26.

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De Laporte L, Shea LD. Matrices and Scaffolds for DNA Delivery in Tissue Engineering.
Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 2006 Dec; 59(4-5): 292-307.
De Laporte L, Cruz Rea J, Shea LD. Design of modular non-viral gene therapy vectors.
Biomaterials, 2006 Oct; 28(7):947-54.
Yang Y, De Laporte L, Rives CB, Jang J-H, Shull K, Shea LD. Controlled NGF release from
single-lumen and multi-lumen conduits for nerve regeneration. Journal of Controlled Release,
2005 Jun; 104(3):433-46.
PATENTS
Shea L.D., Shea L.L., Whittlesey K.J., Yang Y., Rives C.B., De Laporte L., Jang J-H.
Biodegradable scaffolds and uses thereof. U.S. Patent (Patent No US 7,846,466 B2, Date of
Patent: Dec 7, 2010)
Hubbell J.A., Martino M.M., De Laporte L., Rice J.J., Tortelli F.: Tissue Repair Formulations
from extracellular matrix heparin-binding domains. U.S. Patent (US 20140011978 A1, Date of
Patent: Jan 9, 2014)
SELECTED INVITED ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Society for Neuroscience, Annual meeting, 2006 Atlanta, GA (USA) (poster)
American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), Annual meeting
o

2006 San Francisco, CA (USA)

2007 Salt Lake City, UT (USA)

2008 Philadelphia, PA (USA)

Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS)

o

2010 Galway, Ireland

2012 Vienna, Austria

Aachen Polymer Chain (APC) Talks, 2014 Aachen, Germany

Umbrella Symposium (collaborative meeting Technion Haifa, the Forschungszentrum Jlich,
RWTH Aachen University) 2014, Aachen, Germany
Guest Lecture : Introduction to Tissue Engineering, University of Ghent, Belgium, 2014
Umbrella Symposium (collaborative meeting Technion Haifa, the Forschungszentrum Jlich,
RWTH Aachen University) 2015, Haifa, Israel
Seleca Symposium, Osaka University, 2015, Osaka, Japan
Physiologisches Kolloquium, 2015, Uniklink Aachen, Germany
Summer School RWTH - Georgia Tech University, 2015, Aachen, Germany
Engineering of functional interfaces, 2015, Hannover, Germany
Synthetic Biology meets Bioinspired Materials, 2015, Dresden, Germany
6th BSRT Symposium Revealing Prometheus secrets Current technologies for tissue & organ
regeneration and their clinical perspective, Charit, 2015, Berlin, Germany

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FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

Dec 1 2015 Nov 30 2016

Umbrella Seed Fund RWTH with Avi Schrder (Technion)

Jan 1 2016 Dec 31 2016

Deans Seed Fund Fakultt 1 with Angela Lampert

Jul 1 2015 Jun 30 2016

DFG Nachwuchsakademie MatWerk

Mar 1 2015 Feb 28 2020

ERC starting grant ANISOGEL

Jan 1 2015 Dec 31 2018

Marie Curie ITN - BIOGEL

Apr 1 2014 Mar 31 2015

Ramp-up project SFB985

Sept 1 2008 Jun 19 2009

Terminal Year Richter Fellowship, NU

2008

AIChE Women's Initiatives Committee Travel Award, USA

2006, 2007, 2008

Conference Travel Grant, NU (per year)

2007

Profile in The Center for Genetic Medicine (CGM) newsletter

2006

CGM Travel Fellowship Award, USA

Sept 1 2004 Aug 31 2005

International fellowship, NU

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------STUDENT SUPERVISION
2013-2016

Postdoc: Yashoda Chandorkar - PhD students: Jonas Rose, Christopher Licht,

Arturo Castro Nava, Luis Paulo Busca Guerzoni, Delphine Blondel, Abdolrahman
Omidinia Anarkoli, Erdin Polat - Master students: Jan Bohl, Sarah Boesveld,
Maria Camara, Tekin Genturk, David Gehlen, Urandelger Tuvshindorj, Tessa
Borloo - Bachelor students: Anna Funke, Todor Kukushliev, Miriam Rauser, Denise
Loeker, Philippe Jung

2010-2012

PhD students: Amy Hopkins, Batzaya Byambaa - Master student: Myung sun
Kang, Robin Carnello

2004-2008

Master students: Alyssa Huang, Kanika Bathia - Bachelor students: Melissa

Ducommun, Andy Adler, Anna Yan

TEACHING ACTIVITIES
1 semester 2015

Masters for Biomedical Engineering, Introduction to polymers,

RWTH

1 quarter 2008

Teaching apprentice program, Introduction to polymers, NU

1 quarter 2007

Teaching assistant, Mass transfer, NU

Sept 1 2006 Jun 30 2007 Teaching Assistant Fellows Program, Northwestern Searle Center
for Teaching Excellence
1 quarter 2005

Teaching assistant, Molecular and cellular biology for engineers,

NU

1 quarter, 2005

Teaching assistant Introduction to polymers, NU

INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
2013 current

Project Development for Research Program Biointerface and Biohybrid

Curriculum Vitae

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Systems; Management of cell culture laboratory

2010 2011

Graduate Student Advisor, EPFL

2005

Member of graduate student committee for faculty search

Coordinator of Annual Departmental Retreat
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, NU

MAJOR COLLABORATIONS
Prof. Angelika Lampert (RWTH Aachen, Germany)
Prof. Aileen Anderson (University of California, Irvine, USA)
Prof. Guillermo Ameer (Northwestern University, USA)
Prof. Matthias Lutolf (EPFL, Lausanne)
Prof. Grgoire Courtine (EPFL, Lausanne)
Prof. David Kaplan (Tufts University, USA)
Prof. Jeffrey Rice (Tennessee Tech University, USA)