Biomedical Engineer

Kellen Knowles graduated from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis with a major in biomedical engineering. After taking some time off to pursue personal goals (including learning how to fly a plane), he plans to get a Ph.D. and continue doing tissue engineering and biomaterials research.

I’ve always had a real interest in chemistry. So being able to combine that with engineering and finding a field where I can do that has been really great. In the area of tissue engineering and biomaterials, there’s a lot of chemistry involved. That’s something I’m really passionate about. It’s so amazing: being able to get a device that you can put into the body, changing certain features of the material so that the body won’t reject it, and working with the biology to integrate the living and the nonliving. For my senior design project, we’re looking at pacemaker leads, which are commonly made out of polyurethane and silicone. Those are two biocompatible materials, but we want to find a way to make those materials release antibacterial agents over time, so that it will help reduce infection. When I was first looking up engineering, I didn’t even know biomedical was out there. The only reason I found out was research over time.

Watch eGFI’s interview with Kellen Knowles here:

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