Weian Zhao's Biography

Weian Zhao, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California-Irvine

Dr. Weian Zhao is an Associate Professor at the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California, Irvine. Dr. Zhao is also the founder of Velox Biosystems, a start-up company that aims to develop rapid and sensitive diagnostic technologies. Dr. Zhao is the UC Irvine Lead for the Drug, Device, Discovery and Development (D4) of UC BRAID (Biomedical Research Acceleration, Integration, and Development) and currently a member of UC Irvine’s ANTrepreneur Center Faculty Board. Dr. Zhao’s research aims to elucidate and eventually control the fate of transplanted stem cells and to develop novel miniaturized devices for disease diagnosis and monitoring. His work has been published in top journals including Nature Communications, Nature Nanotechnology, PNAS, Blood, Neurology, Biomaterials, Lab on a Chip, JACS, Advanced Materials, and Angewandte Chemie, which has been cited more than 2100 times to date. In addition, he has given over 50 invited seminars. Dr. Zhao has received numerous awards including the MIT’s Technology Review TR35 Award: the world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35 and NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.