Mercedes Balcells Camps

Dr. Mercedes Balcells Camps is a Full Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at IQS School of Engineering, Universitat Ramon Llull. She also serves as a Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and holds leadership roles as Co-founder and Program Director of the MIT-Spain Program and IDEA2 Program Director at MIT LinQ Innovation Initiative.

Her educational background includes a Doctor of Science in Macromolecular Chemistry from RWTH Aachen (1999), a Graduate degree in Chemical Sciences from URL (1996), and a Chemical Engineering degree from IQS (1995).

Dr. Balcells Camps' research focuses on vascular engineering and applied biomedicine, with three primary lines: the impact of hemodynamic environment on vascular cell functionality, development of in vitro models for early diagnosis of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and controlled drug delivery in vascular devices. Her work integrates knowledge from medicine, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and computer science to address clinical needs in vascular diseases.

Her recent publications demonstrate expertise in polymeric stents, bioadhesives for medical devices, hydroxyapatite extraction from waste materials, and treatments for aortic dissections. These works span biomaterials development, vascular disease modeling, and innovative therapeutic approaches for cardiovascular conditions, with significant impact as evidenced by an h-index of 27 and over 3,267 citations.

• Principal Investigator for PolyCoarct project on pediatric stents
• Co-PI for VASCRAFT developing decellularized vascular grafts
• Leader of GEVAB research group
• Director of MIT-Spain Program since 2006

She actively supervises doctoral students in IQS's PhD programs in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, mentoring the next generation of researchers in vascular engineering and applied biomedicine.