Rate My Professor Luisa DiPietro

Luisa DiPietro is a Professor of Periodontics in Health Science at the University of Illinois, Chicago, College of Dentistry. She directs the UIC Center for Wound Healing and Tissue Regeneration, founded in 2006, and serves as UIC Scientific Director of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium. Her academic background includes a BS in Biology as a James Scholar from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1976, DDS with honors from UIC in 1980, MS in Histology from UIC in 1982, residency in General Dentistry at Michael Reese Hospital from 1982 to 1983, PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from UIC in 1989, and postdoctoral fellowship in Pathology at Northwestern University from 1989 to 1992.

DiPietro's research examines wound healing and tissue regeneration after injury to skin or oral mucosa, focusing on inflammation, macrophage roles, angiogenesis mechanisms, differences in scarless oral mucosal healing versus skin scarring, genomic regulation of repair, and computational models of healing dynamics. She has obtained over $19 million in extramural grants. Her publications include the highly cited "Factors Affecting Wound Healing" (Journal of Dental Research, 2010), "Inflammation and Wound Healing: The Role of the Macrophage" (Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine, 2011), "Aging and Wound Healing" (World Journal of Surgery, 2004), "Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Mediates Angiogenic Activity During the Proliferative Phase of Wound Healing" (American Journal of Pathology, 1998), and "Angiogenesis and Wound Repair: When Enough is Enough" (Journal of Leukocyte Biology, 2016), with her work cited more than 33,000 times. Awards include the 2025 UIC Distinguished Professor honor, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wound Healing Society, University of Illinois University Scholar Award, Mentor of the Year from the American Association for Dental Research Student Research Group, and election as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She serves on the National Advisory Dental and Craniofacial Research Council for the National Institutes of Health.