One of the research focuses for the Tissue and Biomolecular Engineering Lab is to mitigate global warming and climate change caused by environmental pollution. Food waste is an inevitable global problem. According to an Environmental Protection Agency report, food waste represents the largest component of U.S. landfills, accounting for a quarter of the solid waste. The greenhouse gases emitted from the landfilled food waste cause climate change and extreme weather. We aim to use modern biotechnology and bioengineering approaches to convert food waste into ecofriendly value-added industrial/medical products.
Another research focus is the fundamental and transformative study of stem-cell differentiation and the interplay between cells and their microenvironments with a goal of generating clinically relevant tissues/organoids for disease modeling, drug discovery and cell-based therapy. The lab aims to understand cues and signaling critical for engineering functional organoids and to promote the maturation of tissues/organoids derived from stem cells.
Research Interests
- Environmental biotechnology
- Biochemical engineering
- Bioinformatics
- Proteomics
- Tissue engineering
- Stem cell biology
- Food science
Contact the lab
Sha Jin
Professor/Undergraduate Director
Biomedical Engineering