Laura Niklason
Advisory Board

Laura Niklason, MD, PhD, is a member of the BioVentures MedTech Board of Advisors.  Laura is currently the founder, President and CEO of Humacyte, Inc.  

Dr. Niklason founded Humacyte in 2005 while a professor at Duke University and became President and CEO in 2020. Humacyte is a regenerative medicine company, advancing a category-defining platform technology for manufacturing off-the-shelf human tissues at commercial scale.  Laura is also currently an adjunct professor at Yale University.

Dr. Niklason’s scientific and business career has focused primarily on regenerative strategies for cardiovascular and lung tissues.  She was a professor at Duke University from 1998 – 2005, before moving to Yale University in 2005.  She was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2014, into the National Academy of Medicine in 2015, and the National Academy of Engineering in 2020.  She was also named (along with Bill Gates and Joe Biden) as one of 34 leaders who are changing healthcare by Fortune Magazine in 2017.  

Laura received her PhD degree in Biophysics from the University of Chicago and her MD from the University of Michigan.  She completed her medical training in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital