Doris Anita Taylor, Ph.D., FACC, FAHA is an American scientist working in

regenerative medicine Regenerative medicine deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human or animal cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function". This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by st ...

and

tissue engineering Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of Cell (biology), cells, engineering, Materials science, materials methods, and suitable biochemistry, biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintai ...

. She was the Director, Regenerative Medicine Research and Director, Center for Cell and Organ Biotechnology at the

Texas Heart Institute The Texas Heart Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization that is improving cardiovascular health through trailblazing research, thought leadership, education, and patient care to forge a better future for those with cardiovascular diseas ...

in Houston, Texas until March 2020.

Biography

Taylor was born in San Francisco and lived in Germany with her parents and two siblings, where her father was in the military. When Taylor was 6 years old, her father was diagnosed with cancer, and the family moved to Texas to seek medical treatment. Experiencing her father's death from cancer, and caring for her brother, who has schizophrenia, led her to a career in medical research.Texas Medical Center Press Office. March 18, 201
TMC Spotlight: Texas Heart Institute's Doris A. Taylor, Ph.D.
/ref> Taylor earned her B.S. from

Mississippi University for Women Mississippi University for Women (MUW or "The W") is a coeducational public university in Columbus, Mississippi. It was formerly named the Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls and later the Mississippi State College ...

in Biology and Physical Sciences and earned her PhD in Pharmacology from the

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 18,800 employees, more than 2,900 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient vi ...

, Dallas, Texas.Doris A. Taylor page at THI
/ref> She did her post-doctoral studies at

Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...

in the Bronx, New York, where she first worked with tissue engineering, growing heart muscle cells in the laboratory. She was on the faculty of

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

from 1991 to 2007, on the faculty of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

from 2003 to 2012, and was with the

from 2012 to 2020. As of 2014 she retains an adjunct professor role at University of Minnesota and is an adjunct professor at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

until 2020.

Research

In 2008, Taylor's team published a paper in ''

Nature Medicine ''Nature Medicine'' is a monthly Peer review, peer-reviewed medical journal published by Nature Portfolio covering all aspects of medicine. It was established in 1995. The journal seeks to publish research papers that "demonstrate novel insight int ...

'' showing that her team could create beating rat hearts using

; the work was called a "landmark". The lab first stripped the cells away from a rat heart (a process called "decellularization") and then injected rat stem cells into the decellularized rat heart. Taylor also is conducting research which has uncovered differences in the underlying framework of male and female hearts and other vital organs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Doris Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Mississippi Mississippi University for Women alumni 21st-century American biologists