David Dean received his Ph.D. from the City University of New York in 1993. Following a two-year Postdoctoral appointment at the Institute for Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at New York University, he joined the faculty of the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2013, his primary appointment transferred from the Department of Neurological Surgery at CWRU to The Ohio State University, where he is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Plastic Surgery and a member of the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Cell-Based Therapies. His research has led to the development of computer-aided design software for the additive manufacture, also referred to as 3D printing, of tissue-engineered bone implants. His research program currently includes the seeding of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in 3D-printed bone tissue engineering scaffolds. These scaffolds are bioreactor pre-cultured before implantation. Much of this research has focused on the repair of critical size and larger cranial defects.