Haoran graduated and got PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI), Tsinghua University,China in June 2022. His doctoral studies focused on modeling human organs and diseases by using microfluidics, where droplets were employed as microtissue formulation templates. Firstly, a non-chemical cross linking method was innovated to gelate collagen at physiological conditions, which were proven non-harmful to the encapsulated cells. Meanwhile, the biochemical and mechanical properties of native collagen were well preserved, and new functionalization, e.g. angiogenesis, was achieved by programming the molecular additives (e.g. DNA strands) in the new scaffold. It enables the high-throughput synthesis of primary tissue-derived ultra-softcell-laden microgels for either injection-based transplantation uses or high-throughput organoid modeling. Further, based on this development and working together with group mates, an automated and high-throughput tumor modeling system was innovated, that is, tumor organoids dispensed in 96-wellplates. It was tested as an in vitro drug screening platform. The personal sensitivity to different chemo-drugs was evaluated and an accuracy was received of 81%. Nearly 200 patient samples were tested over the course of development. These works involved microfluidics, tissue engineering, stem cell therapy, organoid modeling, drug testing, etc.

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His research interests include Biomaterials design for cell (regenerative) therapy applications; Cells expansion in large scale; Human artificial organ modeling and in vitro characterization for personalized medicine / tissues regeneration.

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