Kevin Healy received his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in Bioengineering in 1990. His research interests are biomaterials and tissue engineering. The design and synthesis of biomimetic materials that actively direct the behavior of mammalian cells to facilitate regeneration of tissue and organs, and the design and synthesis of materials that circumvent their passive behavior in complex mammalian cells is the focus of the work conducted at Berkeley.
A central limitation in the performance of traditional materials used in the medical device, biotechnological, and pharmaceutical industries is that they lack the ability to integrate with biological systems through either a molecular or cellular pathway, which has relegated biomaterials to a passive role dictated by the constituents of a particular environment, leading to unfavorable outcomes and device failure.