Microengineered Biomaterials and Biosystems for Translational Medicine
Many exciting topics exist at the interface between biology and micro/nanotechnology. Taking advantage of state-of-art nanotechnologies and fabricating fascinating functional biomaterials and integrated biosystems, we can address numerous important problems in fundamental biology as well as clinical applications in disease diagnosis and treatment. My research is mainly focusing on interdisciplinary researches that leveraging the engineering advances in biomaterials, microfluidics and advanced manufacturing for new and better solutions for emerging problems in cancer biology, systems immunology, and stem cell-based regenerative medicine. Specific examples include microengineered nanotopographic biomaterial for capture and analysis of the rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for cancer diagnosis, and synthetic micro/nanoscale ex vivo cellular microenvironment for study and regulating human embryonic stem cell behaviors that are desirable for functional tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In addition to biomaterials, new microfluidic-based immunomonitoring platform has been explored for accurate measurement of the immune status in patients with immune system disorders such as HIV, sepsis, malaria and Tuberculosis. These novel micro/nanoengineered functional biomaterials and biosystems will not only permit advances in engineering but also greatly contribute to improving human health.
Muiltiple openings are available for graduate students and posdoctoral fellows in our lab in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of New York University. Please check Opening for more information.