Biomechanics, Biosystems, and Bioengineering

Many exciting topics exist at the interface between biomedical science and micro/nanotechnology. Our research aims to develop and apply innovative micro/nanoscale technologies and integrated biosystems targeting important emerging areas of research at the forefront of engineering and medicine. Our research is mainly focusing on interdisciplinary researches that leverage the engineering advances in microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip systems, biomaterials, and biomanufacturing for new and improved solutions for emerging problems in cancer biology, immune engineering, tissue engineering, and stem cell-based regenerative medicine. Our research aims to bridge these fields in engineering and medicine by micro-engineering cell behaviors and environments in engineered models and microsystems for disease diagnosis and modeling. Our current research includes (1) microfluidic nanoplamonic biosensors for immunomoniotoring and single-cell analysis, (2) organotypic organ-on-a-chip tumor microenvironments for cancer immunotherapy modeling, (3) cancer, immune, and stem cell mechanobiology. These novel micro/nanoengineered biosystems will not only permit advances in engineering but also greatly contribute to improving human health.

Muiltiple openings are available for postdoctoral fellow, graduate and undergraduate students in our lab, in the areas of Organ-on-a-Chip, microfluidic biosensing, and cell mechanobiology in applications in cancer, immune engineering, and stem cell biology. Please check Opening for more information.

We are welcom undergraduate students to join our 'Smart Microphysiological System for Precision Medicine' Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) team. Please check VIP team website for more information.

Lab Gallery

Science seminar class for gradduate students in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Mahidol University, Thailand on September 27, 2022

Apratim passed his PhD defense on July 1, 2022

Our Glioblastoma-on-a-chip study won the Best Abstract Award in the 2019 Asian Cellular Therapy Organization Annual Meeting in Sapporo, Japan on November 8, 2019

The Research team in the 2019 BMES Conference on October 18, 2019

Weiyi passed his PhD defense on Auguest 6, 2019

Group photo on Auguest 2, 2019

Group New Year dinner on January 4, 2019

The Research team in the 2018 BMES Conference on October 17, 2018

Dinner with Friends: Peter Wang (UCSD), Weiqiang Chen (NYU Tandon), Marcella Gomez (UC Santa Cruz), Catherine Lu (NYU Plastic Surgery) in the 2nd NYU Biomedical and Biosystems Conference on June 25, 2018

Science seminar in the Mott Hall IV Middle School on May 9, 2018

Jimmy Yau MS thesis defense on May 4, 2018

Group photo on December 22, 2017

The 2017 Summer Undergradaute Research Team: Phoebe Welch, Levan Asatiani, Jiong Xian Huang, Zijing Zhang, Fang Ni Zeng, Adam Grozvirt-Dramen, Joyce Yan

The biophysics team in the 2016 BMES Conference on October 6, 2016

Group photo on September 2, 2016

Group photo on June 12, 2015

Group dinner on June 12, 2015

Weiyi won the 2015 Best Mechanical Engineering PhD Qualifying Exam Performance Award

2015 Summer Undergradaute Research Participant Ahmed Aladly (from the New Jersey Institute of Technology) Working in the Lab

News

December 19, 2023
Congratulations to Kate on receiveing the American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship.

December 10, 2023
The NYU-American Heart Association (AHA) Cardiovascular Engineering Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship Program is supported by the AHA's institutional award for undergraduate student training. The AHA fellowship program provides support for undergraduate students to spend 10 weeks in research laboratories and gain exposure to state-of-the-art cardiovascular engineering research.

October 26, 2023
Our paper Aging-associated Decline in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Mechanosensation is Mediated by Piezo1 Channel is now published in Aging Cell!

October 23, 2023
Our paper Mechanical Constraints in Tumor Guide Emergent Spatial Patterns of Glioblastoma Cancer Stem Cells is now published in the Mechanobiology in Medicine special issue of Mechanobiology and the Tumor Microenvironment in Malignant Cancer !

September 28, 2023
Our collaborative reserarch project with Dr. Wampler Muskardin in Hospital for Special Surgery is now supported by the Arthritis Foundation Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Program! The goal of this project is to develop a patient-derived synovium-on-a-chip model to screen new therapies for rheumatoid arthritis.

September 21, 2023
Dr. Chen has been elected as a Fellow of the American Heart Association !

April 18, 2023
Dr. Chen has been selected as a Council Member for the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Special Interest Group (CMBE-SIG)!

April 15, 2023
Congratulations to Lina on receiveing the Roland Ward Award of Best Undergraduate Thesis in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Janurary 2, 2023
Congratulations to Kate on receiveing the Graduate Student Travel Award in the 2023 BMES-Cell and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) Conference.

December 8, 2022
Our paper Computational model of CAR T-cell immunotherapy dissects and predicts leukemia patient responses at remission, resistance, and relapse is now published in Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer!

Ocotober 12, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Rui Li on receiveing the 2022 Burroughs Wellcome Young Investigator Award in the BMES Annual Meeting.

September 22, 2022
Our Collaborative work NUDT21 limits CD19 levels through alternative mRNA polyadenylation in B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia with Iannis Aifantis's Lab is now published in Nature Immunology !

Auguest 4, 2022
Our paper A Computational Model of Cytokine Release Syndrome during CAR T-cell Therapy is now published in Advanced Therapeutics!

December 15, 2021
Our paper Microskeletal stiffness promotes aortic aneurysm by sustaining pathological vascular smooth muscle cell mechanosensation via Piezo1 is now accepted by Nature Communications! This is collabrotive work with Professor Bhama Ramkhelawon’s Lab at NYU Langone Health. Additional Information in Tandon News.

November 14, 2021
Our paper Surface presentation of the noncanonical Wnt5a motif to cytotoxic CD8+ T-cells promotes their mechanotransduction and activation is now published in Chemical Communications! This article is also part of the 2021 Emerging Investigators themed collection

November 12, 2021
Congratulations to Drs. Chao Ma and Rui Li! They have been awarded the Post-Doctoral Researcher Travel Awards to attend the 2022 BMES-Cell and Molecular Bioengineering Conference.

November 10, 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Chao MA! He has been awarded the Tony B. Academic Award to attend the SLAS 2022 International Conference and Exhibition, and the Disease Models & Mechanisms Conference Travel Grant from the Company of Biologists’ to attend the 2021 BMES anuual meeting.

June 21, 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Chao MA! Chao has been awarded a Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Cancer Research Institute to develop tissue engineered CAR T-cell immunothearpy models.

June 10, 2021
The AMB lab has been awarded a NSF grant to study leukemia chemo-resistance mechanisms in a bioengineered leukemic bone marrow niche model!

May 20, 2021
Our collaborative reserarch project with Dr. Wampler Muskardin in the School of Medicine is now supported by the Colton Center for Autoimmunity Innovative Grant! The goal of this project is to develop a vascularized human synovium-on-a-chip model to screen new therapies for rheumatoid arthritis.

April 22, 2021
Our paper An in silico glioblastoma microenvironment model dissects the immunological mechanisms of resistance to PD-1 checkpoint blockade immunotherapy is now published in Small Methods!

December 19, 2020
Dr. Chen received the 2021 Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Rising Star Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society.

November 19, 2020
Our reviewer paper Organ-on-a-Chip: A new paradigm for drug development is now published in the Trends in Pharmacological Sciences!

Ocotober 21, 2020
Our reviewer paper The Cellular Mechanobiology of Aging: From Biology to Mechanics is now published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences!

September 22, 2020
Our paper Mechanical Forces Regulate Asymmetric Vascular Cell Alignment is now published in Biophysical Journal!

September 15, 2020
Rui's review paper The CAR T-cell Mechanoimmunology at a Glance is now published in Advanced Science!

September 3, 2020
Chao's paper Leukemia-on-a-Chip: Dissecting the chemo-resistance mechanisms in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia bone marrow niche is now published in Science Advances! Additional Information in Tandon Research Briefs.

August 28, 2020
Our paper Dissecting the Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironments in Glioblastoma-on-a-Chip for Optimized PD-1 Immunotherapy is now published and featured in the "Discovery and Translation of Cancer Immunology" Special Issue of eLife! This is collabrotive work with Prof. Matija Snuderl and Dimitris Placantonakis et. al. at NYU Langone Health. Additional Information in Tandon Research Briefs.

July 27, 2020
The AMB lab received a $250K fund from the NIH for purchaing a new confocal microscope for our CAR T-cell research.

May 6, 2020
Our collaborative reserarch project Map Leukemia-immune Cell Communication with Nanoplasmon Ruler in CAR T-Cell Immunotherapy is now supported by the National Cancer Institute.

December 6, 2019
Dr. Chen was selected as a member of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health.

November 8, 2019
Our Glioblastoma-on-a-chip study won the Best Abstract Award in the 2019 Asian Cellular Therapy Organization Annual Meeting in Sapporo, Japan!

October 14, 2019
Our collaborative paper Airplug-mediated isolation and centralization of single T cells in rectangular microwells for biosensing with Prof. Mohammad Qasaimeh's lab at NYU Abu Dhabi is published in Advanced Therapeutics!

October 8, 2019
Apratim's paper The Interplay Between Cell-cell and Cell-Matrix Forces Regulates Cell Migration Dynamics is published and featured in the "Mechanobiology" Collection of Biophysical Journal!

October 5, 2019
Dr. Chen received the 2019 Young Innovators Award of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering from the Biomedical Engineering Society.

September 25, 2019
Our collaborative paper Cellogram: On the Fly Traction Force Microscopy with Prof. Aldo Ferrari at ETH and Prof. Daniele Panozzo at NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is published in Advanced Therapeutics!

Auguest 27, 2019
Dr. Chen has won the NIH R35 Maximizing Investigators' Research Award for Early Stage Investigators! This award from National Institute of General Medical Sciences will support our reserarch on "Dissecting and engineering CAR T-cell function for optimized Immunotherapy". The goal of this project is to develop novel engineering systems to probe and analyze both the immunological and biomechanical attributes of CAR T-cells and map the leukemic bone marrow niche for advancing current CAR T-cell immunotherapies.

August 22, 2019
Our textbook Biomedical Devices: Materials, Design, and Manufacturing coauthored by Profs. Chen and Raymond Lam at City Univeristy of Hong Kong is publsihed by Springer Nature!

August 12, 2019
Prof. Chen, Prof. Deok-Ho Kim, and Chwee Teck Lim edited a Special Issue: Biomaterials for Cell Mechanobiology for ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering!

August 6, 2019
Weiyi passed his PhD dissertation defense. Congratulations!

July 21, 2019
Dr. Chen was awarded the inaugural Chroma Young Investigator Award for recognition of the outstanding contribution and leadership in the general field of Biomedical Engineering.

July 22, 2019
Dr. Chen gave an keynote talk in the 7th Sino-American Workshop on Biomedical Engineering and Biomechanics in Chongqing, China.

June 23, 2019
Our paper Energy-mediated Machinery Drives Cellular Mechanical Allostasis is published in Advanced Materials!

May 30, 2019
Our paper Probing Single-Cell Mechanical Allostasis using Ultrasound Tweezers is published in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering! This article is featured as part of the 2019 CMBE Young Innovators issue.

February 21, 2019
Prof. Chen and Prof. Deok-Ho Kim edited a Special Issue: Bio-Interfaces for Immunoengineering for Advanced Healthcare Materails!

January 12, 2019
Our paper Biophysical Phenotyping and Modulation of ALDH+ Inflammatory Breast Cancer Stem-Like Cells is published in Small!

January 2, 2019
Our collaborative paper Magnet Patterned Superparamagnetic Fe3O4/Au Core-Shell Nanoplasmonic Sensing Array for Label-Free High Throughput Cytokine Immunoassay with Prof. Pengyu Chen at Auburn University is published in Advanced Healthcare Materails!

November 29, 2018
Our paper A Photoresponsive Hyaluronan Hydrogel Nanocomposite for Dynamic Immunomodulation is published in Advanced Healthcare Materails!

November 29, 2018
Our collaborative review paper Deconstructing immune microenvironments of lymphoid tissues for reverse engineering with Prof. Jeremy Teo at NYU Abu Dhabi is published in Advanced Healthcare Materails!

Novermber 8, 2018
We welcome our new postdoc Dr. Linru Xu to join our Lab!

October 17, 2018
Five of our works by Weiyi, Chao, Xin, Jingyi, and Renee were selected for oral talks in the 2018 BMES conference in Atlanta.

October 9, 2018
Our paper An integrated adipose-tissue-on-chip nanoplasmonic biosensing platform for investigating obesity-associated inflammation is published in Lab on a Chip and featured in the "Emerging Investigator Series" and the "Organ-, body- and disease-on-a-chip systems" themed collection! This work is also featured as the inside cover story of Lab on a Chip in December 2018, Issue 23.

Auguest 29, 2018
Our collaborative reserarch project with Profs. Matija Snuderl and Dimitrisin Placantonakis in the School of Medcine received the NIH NIBIB Trailblazer Award! The goal of this project is to bioengineer glioblastoma brain tumor microenvironment model for personalized immunotherapy.

Auguest 1, 2018
Our Lab now is a part of the new Biomedical Engineering Department.

July 10, 2018
Weiyi gave an talk on cancer stem cell mechanobiology in the 8th World Congress of Biomechanics(WCB 2018) in Dublin, Ireland.

June 21, 2018
Dr. Chen gave an keynote talk in the 10th International Symposium on Microchemistry and Microsystems (ISSM 2018) in Busan, Korea.

June 20, 2018
Chao gave an invited talk for our lab in the 17th Annual World Preclinical Congress (WPC 2018), the Cambridge Healthtech Institute Inaugural Tumoroids for Oncology Research Conference in Boston.

June 13, 2018
Lanqi passed his MS thesis defense. Congratulations!

May 4, 2018
Jimmy passed his MS thesis defense. Congratulations!

April 25, 2018
Dr. Chen gave an invited talk in the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems(IEEE NEMS 2018) in Singapore.

April 9, 2018
Renee-Tyler Tan Morales was awarded the American Heart Association Undergraduate Student Summer Fellowship Award! Congratulations!

January 29, 2018
Our paper Hacking macrophage-associated immunosuppression for regulating glioblastoma angiogenesis is published in Biomaterials!

January 16, 2018
Our study of Nanotopography Regulates Motor Neuron Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells is published in Nanoscale!

January 12, 2018
Our collaboritive study of A fluorescent microbead-based microfluidic immunoassay chip for immune cell cytokine secretion quantification is published in Lab on a Chip!

January 8, 2018
We welcome our new postdoc Dr. Jie Tong to join our Lab!

January 6, 2018
Dr. Chen gave an talk in the 2018 Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Conference (CMBE 2018) in Key Largo, Florida.

December 11, 2017
Dr. Chen gave an invited talk in the 3rd International Symposium on Mechanobiology (ISMB 2017) in Singapore.

Novermber 16, 2017
Our study of Nanotopographic Regulation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Osteogenesis is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces!

August 22, 2017
Dr. Chen was awarded the NYU Goddard Junior Faculty Fellowship!

August 1, 2017
We welcome our new postdoc Dr. Chao Ma to join our Lab!

July 14, 2017
Dr. Chen chaired an Invited Session of "Microfluidic Systems for Cell Manipulation and Analysis" in the 39th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in the Jeju Island, Korea.

July 13, 2017
Dr. Chen was awarded the NYU Whitehead Fellowship! The award will support out research on developing Glioma-on-a-Chip for in vitro Validation of Personalized Immunotherapyis.

July 5, 2017
The AMB Lab has been awarded a NSF grant to develop Plasmofluidic Nanoantenna-Superlens Biosensor for Single-Cell Functional Immunophenotyping! NYU Tandon News: Understanding the Immune System on a Nano-scale

June 21, 2017
Our collaborative reserarch project "Nanomechanical Phenotyping of Prostate Circulating Tumor Cells" with Profs. Qasaimeh at NYU Abu Dhabi was supported by the NYUAD Research Enhancement Fund!

June 1, 2017
We welcome our new postdoc Dr. Jingyi Zhu and Haoyu Wang to join our Lab!

April 11, 2017
Xin gave an invited talk for our lab in the IEEE NEMS 2017 Conference in Los Angeles.

April 10, 2017
Dr. Chen chaired and gave an invited talk in the 1st NYU Biomedical and Biosystems Conference in NYU Abu Dhabi.

March 13, 2017
Our collaborative reserarch project with Prof. Matija Snuderl in the Department of Pathology was supported by the NYU mega-grant initiative award from the NYU Provost Office! The goal of this project is to bioengineer in vitro glioma microenvironment model for personalized immunotherapy.

February 15, 2017
The AMB Lab has been awarded the NYU CTSI Translational Research Pilot Project Award for our collaborative reserarch project with Prof. Jose Aleman at the School of Medicine to develop new plsamo-microfluidic biosensing chip for single-cell phenotyping of human adipose tissue immune cells.

June 16, 2016
Our collaboraitve paper with Prof. Alesha B. Castillo's Lab Osteoblast-derived paracrine factors regulate angiogenesis in response to mechanical stimulation is published in Integrative Biology!

November 1, 2016
Dr. Chen gave an invited talk in the IEEE-NANOMED conference in Macau, China.

October 5-8, 2016
Qianibn and Weyi presented their research in the 2016 BMES Conference.

August 9, 2016
Our study of Nanoroughened adhesion-based capture of circulating tumor cells with heterogeneous expression and metastatic characteristics is published in BMC Cancer!

July 4, 2016
We welcome our new postdoc Dr. Xin Cui to join our Lab!

May 30, 2016
Our collaboraitve paper on Mechanosensitive subcellular rheostasis drives emergent single-cell mechanical homeostasis is published in Nature Materials!

May 20, 2016
We were awarded the American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant! The goal of this project is to study the nanotopography-dependent neural induction of human induced pluripotent stem cells.

March 10, 2016
We were awarded the NYU Global Seed Grant for Collaborative Reserarch with NYU Abu Dhabi (Prof. Qasaimeh) to develop new plsamonic biosensing chip for single cell phenotyping!

Jan 28, 2016
We welcome our new postdoc, Dr. Qianbin Wang, welcome on board!

August 9, 2015
Our review paper on Engineering Nanoscale Stem Cell Niche: Direct Stem Cell Behavior at Cell-Matrix Interface is published in Advanced Healthcare Materials!

April 27, 2015
Congratulations to Weiyi! He has just won the Best Mechanical Engineering PhD Qualifying Exam Performance Award!

March 9, 2015
Congratulations to Weiyi! His first review paper on Capturing Cancer: Emerging Microfluidic Technologies for the Capture and Characterization of Circulating Tumor Cells is published in Small!

February 12, 2015
Congratulations to Weiyi! He has successfully passed PhD qualifying exam!

September 1, 2014
The AMB Lab welcomes his newest doctoral students. Weiyi and Yan, welcome on board!

September 1, 2014
Dr. Chen has joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of New York University as an assistant professor!

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