image: Catherine Whittington
Credit: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, Mass.—August 20, 2025—Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researcher Catherine Whittington has been awarded a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop three distinct laboratory models for the study of fibrosis in pancreas, skin, and uterine fibroids.
Whittington, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was awarded $629,998 from the NSF for the five-year project. The models she develops could lead to research advances in the understanding and treatment of fibrosis, a condition that occurs when an injury results in too much scarring that stiffens tissue and threatens to disrupt the normal functioning of organs. Chronic pancreatitis, keloid scars, and uterine fibroids are all the result of fibrosis.
“There is much to learn about fibrosis so that better treatments can be developed,” Whittington said. “Better laboratory models for pancreatic, skin, and uterine fibroid tissues could lead to an improved understanding of factors at the cellular level that lead to fibrosis and how interventions could interrupt or reverse that process.”
Models are representations, such as physical objects or mathematical equations, that represent real-world phenomena. Researchers use models to study a problem, test ideas under controlled conditions, and make predictions.
Whittington will develop models composed of materials such as collagen and human cells that represent the tissues of interest. The combined materials will be placed in wells on laboratory plates about the size of an index card and then exposed to hormones, varied mechanical inputs, and other environmental factors.
“These models will be small, but they will allow us to systematically ask questions and make discoveries about how different chemicals and forces contribute to the process of fibrosis,” Whittington said.
CAREER Awards are given to promising researchers who are in the early stages of their academic careers. More than 40 current WPI faculty members have received CAREER Awards since the NSF program launched in 1994.
Whittington joined the WPI faculty in 2018 after receiving her PhD in biomedical engineering at Purdue University, completing post-doctorate work at Eli Lilly and Co., and serving as a visiting scholar at Purdue. She was a recipient of WPI’s Romeo L. Moruzzi Young Faculty Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education in 2022 and was awarded tenure in 2025. Her research has explored cancer, tissue engineering, lymphatic disorders, and the role of fat cells in pancreatic fibrosis. Her work has been financially supported by the National Cancer Institute, the NSF, Genentech, and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
As part of her CAREER Award project, Whittington will develop and lead educational programs tailored to high school students, college students, and patients at a free medical clinic in Worcester.
She will expand her biomedical engineering curriculum offerings to high school students enrolled in Frontiers, a summer science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program at WPI. She also will collaborate with the Epworth Medical Program in Worcester to develop educational materials for patients, and she will advise teams of WPI undergraduates as they work with the clinic on projects that use STEM to address social problems.
“A unique element of CAREER Award research is the opportunity to broaden educational outreach about science to the public,” Whittington said. “I am excited to work with others to improve medical literacy, inspire the next generation of scientists, and show how the research in my laboratory can positively impact people.”
About Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a top-tier STEM-focused research university with an R1 classification by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, recognizing the highest level of research activity. Founded in 1865, WPI was established on the principle that students learn most effectively by applying classroom theory to the practice of solving real-world problems.
WPI’s project-based curriculum engages students in addressing pressing scientific, technological, and societal issues—both in the classroom and at more than 50 project centers across the globe.
Today, WPI offers more than 70 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs across 18 academic departments in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts. To help improve lives, address global challenges, and build a more sustainable world, WPI faculty and students pursue groundbreaking research in areas such as the life sciences, smart technologies, advanced materials and manufacturing, and global innovation.
Learn more at www.wpi.edu.
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