Building on these patents she co-founded four biotech companies: EpiBone, TARA Biosystems, Xylyx Bio, and Immplacate Health.

In 1998 she became a full-time principal research scientist with the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Science and Technology at MIT, where she collaborated, among others, with biomedical engineer Robert S. Langer.

In her work she has laid the theoretical and experimental foundation for the development of new biomaterials and scaffold architecture to regenerate tissue.

In ways not achieved by any other research team, Vunjak-Novakovic's group has succeeded to control cell growth, metabolism and function of engineered human tissues.

[citation needed] In 2007, Vunjak-Novakovic became the first woman engineer to receive the distinction of giving the Director's Lecture at the National Institute of Health.

[3] She is a member of the Academia Europaea,[13] Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and one of Foreign Policy 100 leading global thinkers for 2014.

[20] Her work has been featured in The New York Times,[1] Scientific American,[21] Forbes Magazine,[22] National Public Radio (NPR),[23] and the BBC.