The Biomaterials and Stem Cell Tissue Engineering Laboratory (BSCTEL) is dedicated to the development of novel biomaterials for assisting biological studies and enhancing clinical therapies. Specific research directions include:
Functional biomaterials for regenerative medicine:
bio-functional polymeric biomaterial scaffolds for tissue engineering applications: biomimetic materials to present microenvironmental cues to guide cell/tissue development
physically functional biomaterials for clinical applications: mechanically robust, injectable and stimuli-responsive materials
nanomaterials for gene/drug delivery and molecular imaging/detection
Stem cell tissue engineering
investigate the role of microenvironment cues including mechanical forces, cell-scaffold interactions and biochemical factors on cellular function, tissue structure and development
explore the regulatory mechanisms of musculoskeletaltissue mineralization
advance stem cell-based tissue engineering technologies for cartilage and other musculoskeletal tissues
Conformational manipulation of scale-up prepared single chain polymeric nanogels for multiscale regulation of cells. (Chen, et al., Nature Communications, 2019)
Magnetically tuning tether mobility of integrin ligand regulates adhesion, spreading, and differentiation of stem cells. (Wong, et al., Nano Letters, 2017)
Dr. Dexter Wong
Remote manipulations of ligand oscillations regulate stem cell and macrophage adhesion and polarization. (Kang, et al., ACS Nano, 2017; Kang, et al., Nano Letters, 2017)
Self-assembled injectable nanocomposite hydrogels stabilized by bisphosphonate-magnesium coordination regulates the differentiation of encapsulated stem cells via dual crosslinking
(Zhang, et al., Adv. Func. Mater., 2017)
Dr. Heemin Kang
Dr. Kunyu Zhang
Dr. Chen Xiaoyu
Synthetic presentation of noncanonical Wnt5a motif promotes mechanosensing-dependent differentiation of stem cells and regeneration. (Li, et al., Science Advances, 2019)
Dr. Li Rui
Novel supramolecular hydrogels are injectable, malleable, and mechanically robust.
Mechanically resilient, injectable, and bioadhesive supramolecular gelatin hydrogels crosslinked by weak host-guest interactions assist cell infiltration and in situ tissue regeneration.
(Feng, Wei, et al., Biomaterials, 2016)
Novel supramolecular hydrogels are mechanically robust, fatigue resistant, and resistant to cutting by a scalpel. (Wei, et al., Chemistry of Materials, 2017)
