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Translational Biomaterials
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Bone Marrow Tissue Engineering
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Microenvironment Aging and Cancer
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Biomedical Imaging
The overall goal of my research group is to deliver enabling and translational platform technologies that can advance basic biomedical research, solve various medical problems, and ultimately improve patient care. We design and manufacture a broad range of materials to construct standardized, functional human tissue models, and apply multi-dimensional imaging techniques to quantitatively capture complex, dynamic biological processes. Current research activities focus on bone marrow that implicates clinical significance as a major reservoir of adult stem cells, a key regulator of body homeostasis, and, in case of cancerous lesion, a potent instigator of metastatic spread. Our fundamental question is underlying roles of ECM composition, structure, and physical forces in forming and sustaining highly regenerative bone marrow niches and their transformation under pathological and aging processes. For basic and translational research, we are developing manipulatable organotypic bone marrow tissue constructs that can deliver new insights into bone marrow biology and clinical strategies for therapeutic targeting bone marrow niche.
