Christian Hiepen worked for Taconic Biosciences before entering academia. He studied molecular biology and received a PhD in Biochemistry in 2008 (Freie Universität Berlin) from researching cell biology, actin-cytoskeleton and non-canonical BMP signalling in the group led by Prof. Petra Knaus. During his postdoc, in collaboration with the Berlin-Centre for Regenerative Therapies at Charité Berlin, he specialized in mechanobiology and the extracellular matrix in the pathology of the BMP rare disease pulmonary arterial hypertension. After this Chris was affiliated with the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT), working on digital stem cell technologies, including the global registry for human pluripotent stem cell lines (hPSCreg.eu). Chris is currently full Professor for Molecular Biology especially Biomedicine at the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences in Germany, where he focuses on tissue engineering and iPSC-derived model systems, with the aim to develop technologies that allow their culture, differentiation, and screening under complex and mechanically challenging in vitro environments.