Doris Taylor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Doris Taylor
FACC, FAHA
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Doris Taylor in 2012
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| Born |
San Francisco
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Mississippi University for Women, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center |
| Known for | regenerative medicine |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Duke University, Texas Heart Institute |
Doris Anita Taylor is an American scientist. She works in a special field called regenerative medicine. This field focuses on growing or repairing damaged body parts. She also works in tissue engineering, which is about building new tissues and organs in the lab.
Until March 2020, Dr. Taylor was a director at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Texas. She helped lead research there on how to fix or replace parts of the body. She also helped start two companies, Miromatrix Medical, Inc. and Organamet Bio, Inc.
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About Doris Taylor
Doris Taylor was born in San Francisco, USA. When she was young, she lived in Germany with her parents and two siblings. Her father was in the military.
Early Life and Inspiration
When Doris was six years old, her father became very sick with cancer. Her family moved to Texas so he could get medical help. Sadly, her father passed away from cancer. Also, her brother had a brain condition called schizophrenia. These experiences made Doris want to work in medical research. She wanted to help people who were sick.
Education and Career Path
Doris Taylor studied Biology and Physical Sciences at Mississippi University for Women. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree there. Later, she earned her PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
After her PhD, she did more studies at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. This is where she first started working with tissue engineering. She learned how to grow heart muscle cells in a laboratory.
Dr. Taylor taught at Duke University from 1991 to 2007. She also taught at the University of Minnesota from 2003 to 2012. From 2012 to 2020, she worked at the Texas Heart Institute. She still holds a teaching role at the University of Minnesota. She was also a professor at Texas A&M University until 2020.
Doris Taylor's Research
Dr. Taylor's research focuses on regenerative medicine. This field aims to replace or regrow human cells, tissues, or organs.
Creating Beating Hearts
In 2008, Dr. Taylor's team published an important paper in a science journal called Nature Medicine. They showed that they could create beating rat hearts in the lab. This work was considered a big step forward in science.
Here is how they did it:
- First, they took a rat heart.
- They used a special process called "decellularization." This means they removed all the cells from the heart. What was left was like a clear, empty framework of the heart.
- Then, they injected new rat stem cells into this empty heart framework.
- These stem cells grew and developed into new heart cells.
- Amazingly, the new heart started to beat!
Differences in Hearts
Dr. Taylor also does research on how male and female hearts are different. Her work has shown that the basic structure of hearts and other important organs can vary between males and females. This research helps scientists understand more about how our bodies work.
