(6ao) In Vitro Microphysiological Systems for Disease Modeling, Drug Development, and Regenerative Medicine

My research interests focus on recreating living, functional human tissues for disease modeling, drug development and regenerative medicine. Towards this end, I have been working to develop 3D tissue culture systems, microfluidic bioreactors, and in situ biosensors to achieve precise temporal and spatial control of cell microenvironment that regulates cell behavior. During my doctoral research in Scott Simon’s research group at University of California at Davis, I developed a vascular mimetic system emulating the dynamic interactions among vascular endothelial cells, monocytes, and dietary lipids under blood flow to model inflammation and atherosclerosis. I used the model to assay the metabolic perturbations and inflammation of human aortic endothelial cells in response to subjects’ triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TGRL) and identified a regulatory mechanism of endothelial inflammation by TGRL. As a postdoctoral fellow in Michael Shuler’s research group at Cornell University, I am combining my expertise in cell biology and flow dynamics with cutting-edge stem cell and organ-on-a-chip technologies to develop in vitro microphysiological systems for drug development. Specifically, I have developed a microfluidic blood brain barrier model that achieves barrier tightness closest to the in vivo levels among current microfluidic models. I am also developing a novel microfluidic platform that facilitates integration of the vasculature and circulating into a multi-organ microphysiological system. As a future faculty member, my research will focus on establishing 3D multicellular neurovascular models for brain drug development, developing automated biofabrication of vascularized human tissue and organs, and creating personalized tissue constructs for regenerative medicine.

Postdoctoral Project: “Advanced Human on a Chip Systems for Drug Discovery” and “An Organotypic Model Recapitulating Colon Cancer Microenvironment and Metastasis”

Under the supervision of Dr. Michael Shuler, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering, and Harold Craighead, School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University

Ph.D. Dissertation: “Inflammatory Basis of Triglyceride Rich Lipoproteins”

Under the supervision of Scott Simon, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California at Davis

Teaching Interests:

I view research and teaching as mutually beneficial. I have been fortunate to participate in classroom teaching and student research project mentoring both in my Ph.D. and postdoc institutes. At Cornell, I lectured on microfabrication for an upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level course “Nanobiotechnology” for two years, and on Physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling for the “Computer-aided engineering: Applications to biomedical processes” course. In a research lab setting, I have mentored a high school summer intern, many undergraduate students, a Meng student, and a visiting PhD student on their own research projects. I also participated local course and training programs, “The Practice of Teaching in Higher Education” and “Building Mentoring Skills Certificate Program”, to reflect on and improve my teaching and mentoring skills.

I had diverse training cross the fields of cell biology, biochemical, biomolecular and biomedical engineering, due to the interdisciplinary nature of my research. I am capable of teaching fundamental classes and graduate level classes in those mentioned fields (e.g. tissue engineering, biomaterials, fabrication of micro/nanodevices, fluid dynamics).