Rate My Professor Salman Khetani

Salman Khetani, PhD, is the Robert Uyetani Collegiate Professor, Associate Department Head, and Director of Graduate Studies in the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. As a prominent figure in Engineering, he leads the Microfabricated Tissue Models (MTM) Laboratory, specializing in the development of engineered human liver tissues and multi-organ platforms for drug testing, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine. His research employs micropatterned co-cultures, 3D bioprinting, droplet microfluidics, and nanofiber scaffolds to mature induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes, enabling studies of liver zonation, pathogen infections such as hepatitis B and C, and interactions like liver-heart systems for atrial fibrillation modeling.

Khetani earned a PhD and MS in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego (2006 and 2002), and BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering (summa cum laude) from Marquette University (2000). His career encompasses Assistant Professor at Colorado State University's School of Biomedical Engineering (2011-2015), co-founder and Director of Research at Hepregen Corporation (2008-2011), and postdoctoral associate at Harvard-MIT (2006-2008). At UIC since 2015, he advanced to Associate Professor (2018) and Professor (2022). Notable awards include UIC University Scholar (2025), Distinguished Research Award (2026), NSF CAREER Award (2014-2019), Graduate Mentoring Award (2023), multiple College of Engineering Teaching Awards (2017, 2022, 2023), and top ranking in hepatocyte research by ScholarGPS (2024). Key publications are 'Microscale culture of human liver cells for drug development' (Nature Biotechnology, 2008), 'Persistent hepatitis C virus infection in microscale primary human hepatocyte cultures' (PNAS, 2010), and 'Engineered Co-cultures of iPSC-derived Atrial Cardiomyocytes and Atrial Fibroblasts for Modeling Atrial Fibrillation' (Science Advances, 2024). With 7882 citations, h-index 37, and i10-index 63, his work has advanced tissue engineering and predictive toxicology.