Cell state sensing

The intrinsic process of development and diseases during progressive changes is cell state transition. One of the fundamental challenges to study cell state transition is to monitor the cell state by endogenous biomolecules. My lab is developing mammalian synthetic biology tools to sense cell states (identities) for controlling and perturbation cell state in living cells and tissues.

Cell fate bioengineering

Cell state transitions are steered by critical regulators in a timely manner. By developing mammalian synthetic biology tools, we aim to systematically identify the functions of these regulators and bioengineer cell fate in a rationally designed and step-wised way for medical applications, such as regenerative medicine and cellular therapy.

Genetically programed differentiation

Limited cell types have been derived from hiPSCs as the differentiation is largely guided by externally administered small molecules/cytokines to perturb endogenous pathways in a trial-and-error manner. My research programs focus on developing systematic genetic tools to differentiate the desired cell types from hiPSCs for addressing emerging biomedical challenges, including providing cost-effective and unlimited cell sources for cell therapies.

Microfluidic human organ modeling

Building ex vivo engineering models of organ/tumor-on-a-chip to test therapy efficacies and integrating both patient cancer cells and immune cells derived from hiPSCs for developing cell therapies in a cancer microenvironment model.