Benjamin Freedman, PhD

Our research focuses on the design and synthesis of biomaterials to improve the repair of biological tissues during aging, with a special focus in orthopaedics. These biomaterials are designed to provide an interface to anchor directly to tissue surfaces and control release of therapeutics to improve tissue healing. Novel materials are tuned to create niche environments to maintain tendon stem/progenitor cell homeostasis and be used as delivery vehicles to augment tendon healing. Previously while in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania (PI: Louis J. Soslowsky), I used many in vivo animal models, mechanical testing methods, imaging modalities, and microscopy techniques to study the role of healing, proteoglycans, collagen type V, and fatigue loading on tendon. As a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and Wyss Institute (PI: David J. Mooney), I applied my knowledge of tendons and the extracellular matrix in healthy and pathological states to develop novel biomaterials which serve as the foundation of ongoing work in our laboratory. Collectively, our work has been published in several high impact journals including Nature BME, Science Translational Medicine, Advanced Materials, Science Advances, and PNAS, and has been covered in over 50 news outlets. 

2024 Assistant Professor in Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School

2023 Faculty, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School

2022 Research Associate, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University

2020 Postdoctoral Fellow, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University

2017 Ph.D. Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania

2011  B.S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester