Principal Investigator
Siyang Zheng
Dr. Siyang Zheng is a Full Professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prior to his appointment at CMU, he was an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University at University Park. He is the principal investigator of the Micro & Nano Integrated Biosystem (MINIBio) Laboratory at CMU. He graduated from Department of Biological Science and Biotechnology at Tsinghua University, and later received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from California Institute of Technology. Dr. Zheng’s main research theme is to develop micro/nano technologies for precision healthcare, at the interface of material, device and biomedicine. His recent work includes developing liquid biopsy technologies for non-invasive cancer diagnosis using nanomaterials and microdevices, innovative nanomaterials and biomaterials for cancer therapeutics, nanomaterial-integrated microdevices for virus discovery and diagnosis, new methods for protein/peptide enrichment and proteomics, DNA analysis, volatile odor detection, implantable pressure sensor, in vivo gene transfer materials and devices, on-chip physiological or disease models, and fabrication of biodegradable and biocompatible polymers. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal papers. He also holds more than 15 patents and patent applications. Among other honors, he is the recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and the American Cancer Society’s Research Scholar Award.
Visiting and Postdoctoral Scholars
Hongzhang (Simon) He
Affiliation:
• Visiting Scholar, BME (2019)
• CTO and Interim CEO of Captis Diagnostics (2018)
Education:
• Ph.D. in Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University (2014)
• M.S. in Clinical Pharmacology, Wenzhou Medical College (2011)
• B.S. in Pharmacy, Wenzhou Medical College (2008)
Research: Liquid biopsy for cancer and aging diseases.
Email (CMU) Email (Captis Diagnostics)
Jadranka Milosevic
Affiliation:
• Visiting Scholar, BME (2019)
• Senior Scientist of Captis Diagnostics (2019)
Education:
• Ph.D. in Medical Science, University of Giessen (2008)
• B.S. in Chemistry, University of Zagreb (2003)
Research: Liquid biopsy for cancer and aging diseases.
Ravikumar Krishnamurthy
Affiliation:
• Postdoctoral Research Associate BME (2024)
Education:
• Postdoctoral Research Associate in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Pittsburgh (2019-2023)
• Ph.D. in Biomaterials, Indian Insititue of Science, Bangalore (2017)
• B. Tech. in Materials Science and engineering (2011)
Research: Organ on chip, Induced pluripotent stem cell differentiation, Type 2 Diabetes models, T cell and Thymus differentiation and maturation
Ph.D. Students
Mengrou (Lucia) Lu
Affiliation:
• Ph.D. Student, BME (2019)
Education:
• M.S. in Pharmacological Sciences, University of California Irvine (2016)
• B.S. in Biological Sciences, University of California Irvine (2013)
Research: Cancer therapuetics
August Kohls
Affiliation:
• Ph.D. Student, ECE (2020)
Education:
• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (2022)
• B.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Cincinnati (2020)
Research: Nanomaterial integrated microdevices for EV and virus enrichment.
Harrison Lawson
Affiliation:
• Ph.D. Student, ChE (2020)
Education:
• M.S. in Chemical Engineering, Michigan State University (2020)
• B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh (2018)
Research: Nano-medicine design, Metal-organic framework applications
Keng-Jung (KJ) Lee
Affiliation:
• Ph.D. Student, BME (2020)
Education:
• M.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University (2020)
• M.S. in Biomechatronics Engineering, National Taiwan University (2016)
• B.S. in Chemical Engineering, National Chung Hsing University (2013)
Research: Extracellular vesicle based therapeutics, diagnosis and cancer biology
Sheng Zhang
Affiliation:
• Ph.D. Student, BME (2021)
Education:
• M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (2020)
• B.S. in Computer Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2014)
Research: Genomic analysis
Jaewon Choi
Affiliation:
• Ph.D. Student, BME (2022)
Education:
• M.A. in Biomedical Engineering, Korea University (2018)
• B.A. in Polymer Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University (2016)
Research: Biomedical devices
Belle Wongsuwan
Affiliation:
• Ph.D. Student, BME (2022)
Education:
• M.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering, Mahidol University (2020)
• B.S. in Microbiology, Kasetsart University (2016)
Research: Omics technology, Extracellular vesicle based therapeutics and diagnosis
Abbas Jalili
Affiliation:
• Ph.D. Student, BME (2023)
Education:
• M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology (2020)
• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology (2017)
Research: Nanomaterial-based micro/nano devices for drug delivery and disease diagnosis
Huy Nguyen
Affiliation:
• Ph.D. Student, BME (2023)
Education:
• B.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering, International University-VNU-HCM (2022)
Research: Metal-organic frameworks for nucleic acid delivery
Master Students
Vaishnavi Umalkar
Affiliation:
• M.S. Student, BME (2022)
• M.S. Student, Engineering & Technology Innovation Management (2022)
Education:
• B. Tech in Biomedical Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Techology (2021)
Research: Medical Devices, Microfluidics for the development of Organ-On-a-Chip systems for the study of cancer metastasis
Jiaqi Chen
Affiliation:
• M.S. Student, BME (2023)
Education:
• B.S. in Biological Science, Huazhong Agricultural University (2023)
Research: Extracellular vesicle-based diagnosis
Jiahui Dai
Affiliation:
• M.S. Student, BME (2023)
Education:
• B.S. in Biological Science, Northwest University (2022)
Research: Thymus chip and hIPSC differentiation
Matteo Sanchez-Dahl Gonzalez
Affiliation:
• M.S. Student, BME (2023)
Education:
• B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, The George Washington University (2023)
Research: Liquid biopsy for cancer; AI-driven biomarker discovery
Technicians and Staff
Mingxi (Marshall) Chen
Affiliation:
• BME Lab Technician
Education:
• B.Eng. in Bio-engineering, China Agricultural University (2020)
• M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (2023)
Research: Extracellular vesicle-based diagnosis
Undergraduate Students
- Claire Su (ChE/BME) '24
- Ayesha Tupe (ChE/BME) '24
- Cindy Jiang (ChE/BME) '25
- Sarah Scoles (ChE/BME) '24
- Benedict Song (ECE)