(6d) Designer Biomaterials and Integrated Biosensors Toward Precision Medicine

Research Interests: Precision or personalized medicine is an emerging approach that matches patients with the most appropriate treatment based on the precise molecular features of an individual patient’s disease. Despite huge advances in translational research, diagnosis and treatment continue to pose profound challenges in addressing significant health problems, including cancer and infectious diseases. In the MTFC presentation, I will showcase three research projects that demonstrate molecular engineering efforts toward precision medicine. Two focus on new developments in diagnosis: (i) bioanalytical sensing of plasma markers predictive of impending sepsis based on a magneto-electrochemical approach, and (ii) molecular profiling of breast cancer assisted by deep-learning algorithms for global health and point-of-care diagnostics. The third utilizes a novel programmable multi-therapy release strategy for orthopedic implants, enabling both bacterial eradication at the bone-hardware interface and accelerated bone tissue regeneration. These studies highlight the potential of integrating materials science, molecular engineering, and clinical science approaches to develop advanced molecular diagnostics and innovative therapies for precision medicine.

I received my BS from Cornell University, and PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT (Advisors: Paula T. Hammond and Richard D. Braatz). I then joined Dr. Ralph Weissleder’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) / Harvard Medical School in Boston, where I have made some exciting developments in translational research. My research interests include the development of advanced therapeutic biomaterials, new tools for early disease detection and molecular profiling, and modeling methods for systems analysis. As faculty I would like to continue developing materials-based molecular biosensing technologies for precise non-invasive imaging and detection of human disease for early diagnosis, and to ultimately improve the quality of global healthcare and serve humanity in the long-term.

Complete List of Published Work in My Bibliography:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LEpfhOQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Teaching Interests: I am interested in teaching students the basic chemical engineering concepts, as well as recent advancements and perspectives in chemical and biomedical engineering. Specifically I am looking forward to teaching the transport courses and polymer courses. In addition, I am excited to create new courses such as an undergraduate-level polymer laboratory and a graduate-level special topic course in biomedical and biotechnology that showcases various approaches to translate traditional engineering concepts into clinical reality.