Hynda K. Kleinman received her MS and Ph.D from MIT (971 and 1974 respectively). She was a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts University from 1973- 1975 and at NIH from 1975-2006. She currently consults for pharma companies. Dr. Kleinman’s research focused on the structure/function of the extracellular matrix in development and disease She developed Matrigel which is widely used in vitro and in vivo to promote cell differentiation and in vivo. She demonstrated the importance of thymosin ß4 in angiogenesis, dermal and ocular wound healing, and stem cell migration/differentiation. Her numerous awards include the Hildegard Doerenkamp-Gerhardt-Zbinden Award for developing “an in vitro assay for screening anti-cancer compounds”, Senior Woman in Science Award (American Society for Cell Biology), Debio Peptide Award for identifying a peptide which inhibits cancer growth/metastases, Women in Science and Engineering Award for “being the most outstanding woman scientist in the federal government”, and Hertzfeld Prize for Health.