She was raised in
Decatur,
Valdosta, and
Roswell, Georgia. She graduated with a B.ChE. in 1982 from the
Georgia Institute of Technology, where she was a writer and editor on the undergraduate newspaper,
The Technique, in 1982, and was named a distinguished alumna of her alma mater's School of Engineering in 2006. She received a PhD in chemical engineering from the
University of California, Berkeley in 1988. She joined the MIT faculty in 1991, was promoted to associate professor of chemical engineering in 1996, and to tenure in chemical engineering in 1998, the same year she joined the newly formed Division of Biological Engineering and Environmental Health at MIT. As an assistant professor, she joined a collaboration with
Charles Vacanti,
Joseph Vacanti, and Joseph Upton to create tissue engineered cartilage in the shape of a human ear (published under the surname used in her first marriage), known as the
Vacanti mouse. The Griffith Lab at MIT currently focuses on molecular biomaterials and tissue engineering approaches for regenerative medicine, drug development and understanding disease pathophysiology. In 1994, together with colleagues
Roger D. Kamm and
Alan Grodzinsky, she led development of MIT's first interdepartmental minor degree, in biomedical engineering, which was launched in 1995 and soon became MIT's most popular minor degree. The interdepartmental bioengineering curriculum committee she chaired grew into the Undergraduate Programs Committee for the Department of Biological Engineering, and as chair of this committee she led development of the undergraduate major in Biological Engineering, launched in 2005 as MIT's first new undergraduate major in 39 years. She stepped down as chair of this committee in 2009 to spend a fellowship year at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, sponsored by the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. She currently holds the School of Engineering Teaching Innovation Chair in recognition of her contributions to curriculum development at MIT. Furthermore, she is the co-founder of CN Bio Innovations and serves on the advisory board of Lumicell. She is married to
Doug Lauffenburger, also a professor at MIT. ==Women's health research==