Kai Kuck fell in love with the University of Utah as a biomedical engineering doctoral student on a Fulbright scholarship. After graduating, Kuck returned home to Germany as part of the requirements of his scholarship, but he knew he wanted to come back to the U at some point.

As he waited for an opportunity to return to Utah, he joined one of the world’s leading companies in the anesthesia machine and ventilator market and was quickly promoted to lead all of the company’s research.

“It was an invaluable learning experience. I had the chance to lead and interact with top people in our industry and engaged in many innovative and transformative projects. But I always wanted to come back to Utah,” Kuck said. “When my professor from my time at the U retired, they asked me if I could imagine being his successor. That was about 10 years ago, and I haven’t regretted coming back.”

Kuck, now a professor and director of bioengineering research in the anesthesiology department, returned to the U with a background working at a large company, multiple patents and hands-on experience researching machines for use in hospitals. He has been able to apply that knowledge to his work in his engineering lab—one of the few in North America within an anesthesia department—and uses it to guide his students as they contemplate post-graduation plans.

“Our lab is really relatively special as it’s part of the anesthesia department, and what that allows us to do is, of course, close collaboration with clinicians,” Kuck said. “Often in engineering, we have some novel technology, and then we're looking for problems it might solve. But the more important and more interesting thing is to have the proximity to clinicians in our daily collaborations within the department, and they bring challenges that we can help them solve.”

Researchers like Kuck and his lab make sure that their work impacts patients across the world through licensable, patented products and startups. “Our lab feels very proud of having played a major role in developing those startups, patents and products,” he said. “It’s very enjoyable to be able to create something and you can see how it impacts patient care and improves outcomes.”

Our lab feels very proud of having played a major role in developing those startups, patents and products. It’s very enjoyable to be able to create something and you can see how it impacts patient care and improves outcomes.

One patented technology Kuck’s lab developed in close collaboration with Dr. Natalie Silverton, an anesthesiologist, is a device to monitor how stressed a patient’s kidney is during an operation. It’s common for a cardiac surgery patient to get an acute kidney injury during surgery, which can extend hospital stays, increase health care costs and cause complications for the patient. Even though it’s a known problem, there is no solution, like the one Kuck’s lab is working on, on the market.

The University of Utah celebrated Kuck and his team at the inaugural Innovation Awards in 2023 after they were issued two patents in the fiscal year, and the U plans to continue recognizing researchers and innovators at this year’s Innovation Awards on Oct. 28.

“As a campus community, there's a culture of collaboration, both interdisciplinary and between the more basic researchers and people who are more applied,” Kuck said. “It's just like child rearing. It takes a village to create these successful technologies.”