(6ft) Next-Generation Bioengineering and Biodesign

Biological materials have been used by human being for thousands of years, from enhancing the leisure experience with fermented foods, to manufacturing essential therapeutics to cure diseases. In our perspective, we observe living cell as a design tool, which has the potential to be engineered to synthesize and build anything. This means that we are not only interested in the cellular or secreted specific products, but also consider the cell itself as a functional building block. The faculty candidate’s research strategy is bidirectional—enhancing the relationship with bio-related industry by advanced technology, and educating the civilians to learn and to use biotechnology through biodesign. The ultimate goal is to bridge the interface between bioengineering and biodesign for novel, functional, and interactive products which benefit both industry and consumer. In the poster, the faculty candidate would like to present two recent projects within this vision: 1) on-line monitoring of product in mammalian cell culture; 2) novel microbe-human interface for stimuli-responsive transformational bio-hybrid materials.