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SELECTBIO Conferences Innovations in Microfluidics 2023

Xin Zhao's Biography



Xin Zhao, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Dr. Xin Zhao is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Her research interest is on Translational Regenerative Medicine, where she integrates multi-disciplinary approaches including material science, cell biology, engineering and medicine to modulate cell microenvironments, control cell behaviors and generate tissue-engineered organs, for addressing clinical issues. So far, she has published >100 articles (with h-index of 49 in Google Scholar, 6 of which are ESI highly cited paper) in prestigious journals including Nat. Mater., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Chem. Rev., Mater. Today, Adv. Funct. Mater., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Biomaterials, Small. She is recognized in the list of “Highly Cited Researchers 2022” by Clarivate Analytics for their significant research impact. She has successfully attracted over 20 grants (?21 million) as principal investigator from the Hong Kong RGC (including CRF), HMRF, ITF, NSFC, NSFC-RGC Collaborative Research Fund. She is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars 2021, President’s Award-Outstanding Young Researcher 2022, the Mid-Career Award of Chinese Association for Biomaterials 2022, and several other awards. She is also a founding editor of Engineered Regeneration, associate editor of Bio-Des. Manuf., and guest editor for 11 other journals.

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Leaf Vein-Inspired Microfluidic Platform to Study Cancer Metastasis

Friday, 5 May 2023 at 14:30

Add to Calendar ▼2023-05-05 14:30:002023-05-05 15:30:00Europe/LondonLeaf Vein-Inspired Microfluidic Platform to Study Cancer MetastasisInnovations in Microfluidics 2023 in SeattleSeattleSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Vascular network is a central component of organ-on-a-chip system to build a 3D physiological microenvironment with controlled physical and biochemical variables. Inspired by ubiquitous biological systems such as leaf venation and circulatory systems, a fabrication strategy is devised to develop a biomimetic vascular system integrated with freely designed chambers, which function as niches for chamber-specific vascularized organs. As a proof of concept, human-on-leaf-chip system with biomimetic multiscale vasculature systems connecting the self-assembled 3D vasculatures in chambers is fabricated, mimicking the in vivo complex architectures of the human cardiovascular system connecting vascularized organs. Besides, two types of vascularized organs are built independently within the two halves of the system to verify its feasibility for conducting comparative experiments for organ-specific metastasis study in a single chip. Successful culturing of human hepatoma G2 cells (HepG2s) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) shows good vasculature formation, and organ-specific metastasis is simulated through perfusion of pancreatic cancer cells and shows distinct cancer encapsulation by MSCs, which is absent in HepG2s. Given good culture efficacy, study design flexibility, and ease of modification, these results show that the bioinspired human-on-leaf chip possesses great potential in comparative and metastasis studies while retaining organ-to-organ crosstalk.


Add to Calendar ▼2023-05-04 00:00:002023-05-05 00:00:00Europe/LondonInnovations in Microfluidics 2023Innovations in Microfluidics 2023 in SeattleSeattleSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com