Meet our New Assistant Professor Kyle Vining

Meet our New Assistant Professor Kyle Vining

Meet our New Assistant Professor Kyle Vining

Dr. Kyle Vining’s lab at Penn Dental Medicine and Penn Engineering develops new biomaterials for tissue regeneration and investigates mechanical regulation of stromal cells and innate immune cells in fibrotic niches. His lab employs material strategies to manipulate and study cell behavior in a broad range of physiologic and disease contexts, including dentin regeneration, hematopoietic and solid tumor malignancies, and fibrotic extracellular matrix.

Kyle holds a PhD in bioengineering from Harvard University, a DDS from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, and a BS in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University. He was a postdoctoral scientist in immuno-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute prior to joining Penn. He also previously completed a fellowship in the Medical Research Scholars Program at the National Institutes of Health.

During his PhD with David Mooney at Harvard University and post-doctoral work at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Kyle developed an extracellular matrix (ECM) hydrogel platform for investigating immuno-mechanical signaling in fibrosis, which was published in Nature Materials (Vining, K.H., et al., 2022) and Biomaterials (Vining, K.H., Stafford, A., Mooney, D.J., 2019). His current research focuses on applying these findings to develop new mechano-immunotherapies in hematopoietic malignancies and head and neck cancer. He also previously developed a light-curable polymeric material for dental fillings that can support the adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of dental pulp stem cells for regenerative dentistry, which was published in Advanced Materials (Vining, K.H., 2018, US Patent 11,224,679).

Kyle is jointed appointed in Penn Dental Medicine and Penn Engineering and was the first faculty member recruited to the Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry (CiPD). His research has received funding from the NIH/NIDCR through the Mentored Clinical Scientist Career Development Award (K08) and Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00). Dr. Vining was the recipient of several awards, including second place in the Emerging Technologies Competition from the Royal Society of Chemistry. Dr. Vining has also maintained an active clinical practice in restorative and cosmetic dentistry a private clinic in the Boston area, and now at Penn Dental Family Practice at University City.

Kyle’s lab website is https://www.dental.upenn.edu/research/vining-lab/. Please contact him at viningk@upenn.edu in you are interested to learn more about new and ongoing projects in the lab.