Cynthia Reinhart-King
Cynthia A. Reinhart-King is an American biomedical engineer and the Department Chair of Bioengineering at Rice University. Her research focuses on how cells move and stick to surfaces, using imaging, measurements of forces, histology and biochemical tests to study cells from the molecular level up to tissues. She serves as president of the Biomedical Engineering Society.
She studied chemical engineering and biology at MIT, where she worked on integrin-mediated signaling with Doug Lauffenbu nger. She earned her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006, with a thesis on the traction forces exerted by endothelial cells on deformable substrates. She then did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Rochester, researching atherosclerosis with Bradford Berk.
Her work has advanced understanding of cancer progression, showing how the tissue around a tumor stiffens after formation, promoting growth and affecting treatment. Her lab has shown that cancer cells can move quickly during metastasis but tend to travel along the easiest paths, preferring wider spaces. She has also studied diabetic retinopathy.
Reinhart-King began her independent research career at Cornell University and later moved to Vanderbilt University, where she served as Senior Associate Dean for Research in 2022, before joining Rice University. In 2021, she was named President-Elect of the Biomedical Engineering Society and has acted as an expert adviser to the U.S. government on biotechnology and biomanufacturing. She is married to Michael King, a professor at Vanderbilt University.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:23 (CET).