Laura De Laporte

Prof. Laura De Laporte holds the Chair of Macromolecular Materials for Medicine at RWTH Aachen University. She leads research in biohybrid and bioinspired materials for medical applications, focusing on regenerative hydrogels, drug delivery, and mechanobiology. Her work combines engineering, chemistry, and biology to design biomaterials that control cell interactions. She heads the Institute for Applied Medical Engineering and is affiliated with the University Hospital RWTH Aachen.

After studying chemical engineering at Ghent University and completing her PhD at Northwestern University, she conducted postdoctoral research at EPFL. She led a junior research group at the DWI – Leibniz Institute from 2013–2018, receiving an ERC Starting Grant in 2015. In 2018, she became an associate professor via the Leibniz Programme for Female Professors. Her ERC Consolidator Grant (2022) supports the 'Heartbeat' project.

Her research interests include anisotropic tissue repair, hydrogel-based therapies, and bioprinted models of kidney fibrosis. She has authored over 50 publications and holds editorial roles in journals like ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Awards include the Young Investigator Award (2018) and Steinhofer Lecture (2019). Her team includes postdocs and PhD students working on projects like 'BioArchitecture' and 'Multi-functional Microgels.'