Mehdi Nikkhah

Arizona State University, Harvard University

Papers

Total Citations

734

H-Index

About

Mehdi Nikkhah is a prominent biomedical engineer whose research sits at the intersection of biomaterials science, tissue engineering, and stem cell biology. His work has significantly advanced the development of next-generation hydrogel platforms for regenerative medicine applications. Nikkhah's highly cited 2019 review on self-healing hydrogels, which has garnered an impressive 593 citations, helped redefine the field by articulating the transformative potential of durable, self-healable biomaterials as superior alternatives to brittle hydrogels currently used in clinical settings — addressing a fundamental challenge in balancing toughness with rapid self-repair. His earlier contributions in stem cell engineering are equally impactful; his 2014 work introducing a combinatorial cell-laden gel microarray platform (141 citations) provided researchers with an innovative high-throughput approach for screening three-dimensional microenvironments that guide human mesenchymal stem cell differentiation toward bone-forming lineages. This work bridged robotics-assisted fabrication with precision stem cell control, opening new avenues in personalized regenerative therapies. Collectively, Nikkhah's research has profoundly shaped how scientists design biomaterial systems that better mimic native tissue complexity, earning him recognition as a leading voice in the biomaterials and tissue engineering communities.