POSITION AVAILABLE

The Biomimetic Microengineering laboratory (BioME) focuses on uncovering the fundamental questions in human health and disease by applying innovative, bioinspired engineering principles to develop biomedical platform technologies. We leverage the cutting-edge human “Organs-on-Chips” microphysiological system to create a paradigm-shifting, biomimetic microdevice that recapitulates the structure, function, and physiology of living human organs and their integration. This microengineered organ model emulates the complex, mechanically active microenvironment of each organ, where the host cells, the human microbiome, and immune components can be placed under spatiotemporal control in a miniaturized, complex, three-dimensional microchip. We are particularly interested in reconstituting the community-level host-microbiome ecosystem fundamentally associated with the mechanisms of human health and disease. By encompassing multidisciplinary approaches of advanced microfluidic technology, microengineering, tissue engineering, and clinical microbiology, we will explore personalized therapeutics for the contribution to the Precision Medicine, test efficacy and toxicity of drug candidates for replacing animal models, and study host-microbiome crosstalk in situ to discover biological complexity and evolution.

The Gut inflammation-on-a-chip (see our PNAS paper)

* How Probiotics Could Be Problematic For Those with Damaged Guts: Woojung’s interview at KUT Austin NPR Station

Funding