Bruce Kirkpatrick honored with Outstanding Dissertation Award
Bruce Kirkpatrick
PhD, Biological Engineering, 2025
Dissertation Name
Photochemical Control of Hydrogel Network Topology: Fundamentals to Cellular Applications
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July, 29, 2025
Associated lab
Current position
Third-year medical student at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Denver Health
College of Engineering and Applied ScienceÌýOutstanding Dissertation Award
This award recognizes the best dissertation (excellence of research, topical importance and presentation in the written dissertation) among students completing PhD degree requirements during a calendar year.
Why did you choose CU Boulder for your graduate studies?
I came to CU in 2013 for my undergraduate degree inÌýchemical and biological engineering (ChBE), and I really enjoyed it. After earning my BS in 2017, I applied to MD-PhD programs and was accepted at CU to continue into medical and graduate school. I was thrilled to return to ChBE as a graduate student because I knew how strong the biomedical research program was, especially with Distinguished ProfessorÌýKristi Anseth in the department. Having the chance to work with her and other faculty like Distinguished ProfessorÌýChris Bowman, ProfessorÌýJason Burdick and ProfessorÌýTim White offered the experiential learning in materials science and bioengineering that I hoped for as a budding physician-scientist. (Not to mention that it is great to live in Colorado! I’d be glad to never leave.)
Hydrogels can act as tiny scaffolds that let us create precise patterns or gradients in stiffness or biochemical cues (in this case, a Mona Lisa narrower than a human hair), giving us fine control over the environment that cells experience.
What does receiving this award mean to you?
It’s a huge honor to be selected by my mentors, department, and college.This award affirms that the years I’ve invested in both science and the community are valued. I’ve been part of the ChBE program for 12 years, and I’m grateful to have had the chance to do work worthy of this recognition. I owe a great deal to Dr. Anseth for her guidance and to my collaborators and mentees for giving so much of their time to bring our projects to fruition. I feel especially grateful to have grown my work in such a supportive and collaborative environment.Ìý
Tell me about your dissertation research.Ìý
Broadly, my research focuses on developing jello-like polymeric materials called hydrogels. I use light to build, break and rearrange the tiny chemical connections within them, which lets us control properties like stiffness, degradation, relaxation, and cell behavior with precise timing and location. This helps us create more tunable, lifelike environments for studying biology and developing future medical therapies.
What applications could this research have in the future?
This research supports technologies that enable long-acting or precisely timed drug and vaccine delivery, as well as protective hydrogels that shield donor cells from the immune system and improve their survival after transplantation. These materials can also be used to create acellular devices such as contact lenses, wound dressings, and tissue adhesives along with more realistic tissue models that give researchers better platforms for studying disease and testing new treatments.
Why do you think your dissertation resonated with the award committee?
I think the committee appreciated the range of questions my dissertation addressed and howÌý
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the work connected chemistry, materials science and biology in a coherent way. The projects included new approaches for designing photoresponsive hydrogels, studies of mechanobiology, and tissue engineering applications, with contributions that spanned departments, colleges, and campuses across CU. I think the committee also recognized how deeply collaborative the work was. Rather than solving a single problem, my thesis points toward a variety of future applications, so its impact comes from its breadth and the way it supports a wide range of community efforts.
Why does this research topic interest you?Ìý
This field naturally combines my interests in photochemistry, dynamic chemistry, and polymers with biophysics and materials science. Hydrogels are programmable, biologically relevant platforms, so the work is both scientifically rich and clinically useful. Ìý
Who was particularly influential to your work?
Dr. Anseth was the most influential figure in my scientific training. Her intellectual brilliance, generosity with her time, and ability to connect fundamental chemistry with meaningful biological questions have shaped the way I think about research. I’ve also learned a tremendous amount from her former trainees, many of whom now lead their own groups. I was especially inspired by Professor Cole DeForest, Associate Professor Mark Tibbitt, ProfessorÌýJason Burdick, Professor April Kloxin, and Tobin Brown’s work, to name a few. My amazing collaborators and mentees were essential to the success of every project and working alongside them is what made the science rewarding.
What’s next?
I plan to apply for residency in radiation oncology. I’m excited to work as a physician-scientist with interests in materials science and photochemistry, and my goal is to build a career that bridges the clinical care of cancer patients with research on biomaterials, imaging and analysis tools, and light-based technologies. I ultimately hope to contribute to new treatment strategies that are more tolerable, precise, and effective.