Jennifer LewisView profile
Professor
Jennifer Lewis is the Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering and Jianming Yu Professor of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University's Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Her research focuses on bioengineering, materials science, and advanced manufacturing, with emphasis on 3D-printed functional materials, organoids, and soft robotics. She leads the Lewis Research Group, which develops biomimetic technologies for regenerative medicine, energy systems, and robotics. Lewis holds appointments in SEAS, the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Her research areas include applied mathematics, fluid mechanics, soft matter physics, and bioengineering applications such as kidney organoid models, vascularized tissues, and programmable materials. Notable innovations include kidney organoid-on-chip systems for drug testing, 3D-printed liquid crystal elastomers, and bioprinted cardiac tissues. Lewis was awarded the 2025 James Prize in Science and Technology Integration for pioneering interdisciplinary research. Her lab's projects span organ building blocks, immune-response modeling in transplanted tissues, and acoustophoretic printing techniques for high-resolution bioprinting. Collaborations include the NIH Somatic Cell Genome Editing Program and industry partnerships for bioprosthetic valve research. She advises on grants totaling over $20M and mentors a multidisciplinary team of postdocs and graduate students in materials science, biomedical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Lewis' lab facilities include the Pierce Hall lab (Cambridge) and Allston SEAS campus, with state-of-the-art 3D printing systems, microfluidics platforms, and bioreactors for organoid culture. Current projects aim to engineer functional human tissues for therapeutic applications and develop smart materials with programmable mechanical/chemical responses.












