Trujillo-de Santiago, Grissel

Grissel Trujillo de Santiago is a Professor at the School of Engineering and Sciences at Tecnológico de Monterrey. She is CSO and scientific founder of FORMA Foods. She was trained as a Chemistry & Pharmacy Biologist at Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (summa cum laude); she obtained her MSc degree in Biotechnology (summa cum laude), and her PhD degree in Biotechnology from Tecnológico de Monterrey. Dr. Trujillo de Santiago conducted research in Material Sciences at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Naples, Italy) during her PhD program. She was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Dr. Khademhosseini's Lab in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Division (2014-2016) and the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT. Dr. Trujillo is member of the National System of Researchers in Mexico (level 2). She has published more than 70 papers, has been granted with a Mexican patent and has 6 more patent-pending technologies, including 3D chaotic printing. Her work has been cited more than 4800 times, and she has an H-index of 26 (by October 2023). She has graduated 5 Ph.D., and 14 M.Sc. students. She has been a recipient of several awards, including the For Women in Science Fellowship from the L'Oreal-UNESCO-AMC-CONACyT foundation in 2019, the "Professional Development Award" by the International Society for biofabrication, the award for Innovation in Bionanotechnology by CINVESTAV and Neolpharma, the Romulo Garza for Research that leads to entrepreneurship, was named "Distinguished Citizen" by her hometown, Matamoros Coah., and is member of the "Distinguished Circle of Faculty Members" of the School of Engineering and Sciences. Trujillo is Topic editor at ACS Materials Letters and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the United Nations University (Latin America and the Caribbean programme). Her main area of interest and expertise is bioprinting, biofabrication, and materials engineering for Tissue Engineering applications. Dr. Trujillo de Santiago research is currently focused on the development of novel platform-technologies based in chaos to produce multilayered complex 3D micro-structured living tissues.

I received my PhD degree in Biotechnology from Tecnológico de Monterrey, México in May 2014. During my doctoral studies, I conducted a significant part of my experimental work at Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Naples, Italy), were I was trained for eight months in Material Sciences at the laboratory of Professor Ernesto Di Maio and Professor Salvatore Iannace. I have fifteen papers in Indexed International Journals, one book chapter, one granted Mexican patent, one patent application submitted and multiple participations in National and International Conferences. My main area of interest and expertise is the design and fabrication of biomaterials suitable for high added value applications (i.e. biopharmaceutical engineering and tissue engineering). As part of my PhD work I studied the feasibility of elaboration of bioplastics from maize and sorghum, two important bioresources in México. Moreover, I explored the potential use of some of these materials in cell culture applications. I worked as a Research and Development Engineer at the Protein Research and Development Center at Tecnológico de Monterrey (Monterrey, México). This center focuses on the use of vegetal proteins in food formulations. In this position I contributed significantly to expand the portfolio of products; I have developed more than eighteen food formulations in four months. My master's-degree research project was related to the development of a high-value probiotic product using sweet milk whey, a neglected by-product from cheese manufacturing. My project derived on the publication of a research paper in a high-reputation Journal, a book chapter and a Mexican patent (granted). In addition, I have been involved in teaching/tutoring activities. I directly supervised four undergraduate students during my graduate studies, and six students during my postdoctoral research work. I recently made a Postdoctoral Research stay at Dr. Khademhosseini's Lab (Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology) collaborating in several projects related with biomaterials, tissue engineering and point-of-care applications. My main research project is about the development of a platform to produce tissue-like structures using chaotic flows. In summary, during the recent years I have actively conducted research and technology development activities, and have published my work in international journals. My immediate goal is to continue my training as a scientist in the fields of design of biomaterials for tissue engineering applications. I want to significantly contribute in the development of fundamental knowledge and cutting-edge technology. I am currently an Assistant Professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey conducting research within the group of Nanotechnology for Devices Desing, and teaching courses to undergraduate programs in the area of Biomedicine and Innovation.