I was accepted by Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1999, and got bachelor’s degree in 2004. Through five years of training at USTC, I had solid theoretical foundation and excellent scientific attainments. I was then accepted by Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, a top university in the United States, with full financial support. I obtained my Ph.D. degree in 2010. I then pursued my postdoctoral training in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University under the supervision of Prof. Jennifer Elisseeff, a famous professor in the field of tissue engineering. During my 12-years research training abroad, I have been dedicated in developing polymeric biomaterials for challenging applications in biology and medicine, including biodegradable drug-eluting stent, artificial cornea, shape memory nanosystem, arthritis, bone repair and cancer treatment. Under the supervision of Prof. Jennifer Elisseeff, who is a pioneer of the tissue engineering field, I have got plenty of knowledge and experience in tissue engineering, outstanding capability of identifying and solving significant scientific questions, and extraordinary academic achievements. I have led a federal grant from Department of Defense (DoD) on artificial cornea, which involves funding of $1530,000. My achievements in artificial cornea has brought over $500,000 in capital fund. I was also actively involved in application of two other grants, including the one on biodegradable drug-eluting stent (obtained funds of $500,000 from Boston Scientific), and the other on drug delivery system for arthritis treatment (obtained $150,000 from Arthritis Foundation). Upon the support of these funds, I have authored 17 articles (SCI-E: 15, EI: 11) that have been cited more than 175 times. I have 8 first-author papers (SCI-E: 7) with H-index of 8. Two of my first-author articles were published on a top scientific journal, Biomaterials. Biomaterials is the No. 1 journal in the area of biomaterials. My work has been reported in details a few journals, including Optics & Photonics News (OPN), an award-winning monthly magazine that has global readership in 100 countries and unites research and industry by providing timely coverage of exciting technologies in optics. This work focused on developing biomimetic polymeric scaffolds with tailored nanostructures mimicking native tissues for tissue regeneration. Conventional biopolymer scaffolds are composed of loose networks of collagen fibrils with little organization, which is hardly comparable to the collagen structure in cornea. I addressed this issue by fabricating a new scaffold that underwent a unique drying process, which mimicked the maturation process that occurs during the developmental formation of the cornea. This biomimetic scaffold demonstrated for the first time a special lamellar structure, which has only been found in the native corneal tissue. I found that the biopolymer scaffold did not only maintain corneal cellular characteristic phenotypes, but also promoted the growth of corneal cells. This work has attracted great attention from investing banks, companies, clinicians, and patients. The other two SCI first-author papers were published in Journal of controlled Release, a top journal in the field of pharmaceutical research, and Macromolecules, an influential journal ranked No. 3 in the Polymer Science category. This study aimed to develop polymeric drug delivery systems with suitable biomechanical and biodegradation properties for coronary drug-eluting stent. I innovatively exploited a new biodegradable and biocompatible polymer on the drug-eluting stent, leading to incredible results. The polymer served as a drug-carrier to precisely control the drug release from the stent and then fully degraded from the stent surface after fulfilling its drug delivery goal. I furthered my critical studies by developing a theoretical release model to interpret the underlying drug release mechanisms. This work provided the first fundamental basis to use biopolymers to design drug delivery systems with desirable drug release behaviors. These two papers have been widely cited with a few famous groups (including Prof. Sarah Heilshorn at Stanford University) utilizing my work to provide the theoretical basis for their work.

In summary, my research integrates knowledge from various areas, including engineering, polymer materials, cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, oncology and translational medicine. The interdisciplinary nature of my research allows me to tackle the challenging questions in biology and medicine, and make breakthrough discoveries and innovations to ultimately improve human health.