The Biomedical Engineering Society names Weiqiang Chen a 2019 Young Innovator
BROOKLYN, New York, Wednesday, October 9, 2019 – The Biomedical Engineering Society has named Weiqiang Chen, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and of biomedical engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, a 2019 Young Innovator of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering. He is one of only 12 researchers to receive this honor.
The Society recognized Chen for original research that employs principles of mechanical engineering and physics to identify the state of individual cells. The scholarship could lead to new methods of examining how stressors such as injury and chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension drive cellular allostasis, a biological process of arriving at a new level of equilibrium.
As in past years, awardees will present their papers in a special, two-part session on Friday, October 18 at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society in Philadelphia at 8 am and 1:15 pm, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
The study, “Probing Single-Cell Mechanical Allostasis Using Ultrasound Tweezers,” is featured in the current issue of the Society’s journal, Cellular and Molecular Engineering.
“We could not be more proud of Weiqiang Chen for garnering this prestigious honor at this stage of his career; it presages even greater things to come,” said NYU Tandon Dean Jelena Kovačević. “His novel approach to measuring cellular allostasis is also a testament to the virtues of open, multidisciplinary scholarship, which we encourage, particularly at the nexus of such vital areas of research as chemical engineering, health, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, and sustainability.”
According to the Society, of the 56 Young Innovators who have received the award over the course of its six years beginning in 2014, 58.9% have received the prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, 7 National Institutes of Health (NIH) New Innovator Awards, 2 NIH Trailblazer Awards, and two Presidential Early Career Awards in Science and Engineering (PECASE). Seven of our Young Innovators have been inducted as Fellows of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Seven of this year’s 12 Young Innovators are women.
The paper, “Probing Single-Cell Mechanical Allostasis Using Ultrasound Tweezers” is available at https://link.springer.com
About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, one of the country’s foremost private research universities, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit http://engineering.nyu.edu.
