DrBen Almquist

Ben Almquist is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, where his research sits at the intersection of materials science, nanotechnology, and biology. His group is driven by a seemingly simple question: how do we design materials that work with living systems, rather than simply inside them?

To answer this, his team develops a new generation of smart biomaterials capable of sensing and responding to the signals, forces, and chemistry of living cells. This ranges from pioneering the use of cellular traction forces as a fundamentally new trigger for controlled drug delivery, to programmable nanotechnologies for gene therapy, to materials that actively direct the repair of damaged tissue. Together, these approaches are opening new possibilities for treating some of medicine's most stubborn problems: chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers, hypertrophic scarring, and bone repair, and hold broader promise across regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. These conditions collectively affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide and cost healthcare systems billions of pounds each year.

Before joining Imperial, Ben obtained his PhD in Materials Science from Stanford University and completed postdoctoral training as an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellow at MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. He has been invited to speak at events including the World Economic Forum, TEDx, Gordon Research Conferences, and leading international wound care conferences.

Ben is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM), Co-Director of Imperial's Network of Excellence in Wound Healing and Regeneration, Director of the Biomedical Technology Ventures degree, and founder and Chief Technology Officer of London medtech company Traxion Biotech. His research has been funded by the Wellcome Trust, EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC, The Royal Society, and the NIH, among others. Researchers trained in his group have been recognised with numerous prestigious awards, including a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Industrial Fellowship, the Wound Healing Society Innovation Award, the European Tissue Repair Society Young Investigator Award, the Imperial Venture Catalyst Impact Prize and have gone on to positions in academia, industry, and entrepreneurship.