Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Overview

I am an Assistant Professor (Research) in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown University with research interests in tissue engineering, as well as the physiology of hepatic and cardiovascular diseases. In particular, I am interested in developing in vitro tissues and biomaterials for transplantation and tissue repair, as well as human organoid platforms that mimic the physiology of disease, toxicology, and development. My postdoctoral training was conducted at Brown University with Prof. Jeffrey R. Morgan, leading and collaborating with a multidisciplinary team to build a semi-automated machine that bio-fabricates three massive solid tissues in vitro with physiological structure, density, function, and sustained viability. I continue to expand my innovation experience through collaborating with bioengineering students on projects involving fabrication and mathematical simulation. In total, I have published 17 peer-reviewed publications, (9 as first author) in high impact journals such as Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, Cancer Prevention Research, Biofabrication, and Comprehensive Physiology and am a co-inventor on two invention disclosures submitted to Brown University.

I completed my Ph.D. in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition with Prof. Xiang-Dong Wang at Tufts University as a NIH-NRSA predoctoral trainee in 2014 with 7 peer-reviewed publications (5 as first author) in less than 4 years. My thesis elucidated the therapeutic potentials of dietary lycopene on obesity-associated liver and metabolic diseases. I was awarded the Irwin H. Rosenberg Award for Excellence in Predoctoral Research (best Ph.D. thesis of graduating year), the Marianne Louise Mock Dallas Prize for Research Excellence in Cancer, and I was honored to deliver the graduate commencement address. I further expanded my research knowledge in human translational research when I joined Boston University as a NIH-NRSA postdoctoral trainee (PI: B. Nikolajczyk, G.V. Denis), where I collaborated with clinicians and students to explore how human immune systems are involved in diabetes progression.

Brown Affiliations

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