Our Mission
We are dedicated to developing novel bioengineered tools to address unmet biomedical needs and biological questions, and to quickly translate them to the clinic to help patients. Through working at the interface of pharmaceutical sciences, biomedical engineering, biology, and medicine, our interdisciplinary and collaborative team aims to develop next generation stem cell-based and immuno-therapeutics and miniaturized diagnostics (Research). We are also fully committed to the professional development of the personnel in the laboratory and do everything we can to ensure successful career paths (Education). Multiple positions available for highly motivated Postdocs, Graduate Students, Undergraduate students and Research Staffs who have a background/interest in immunology, cancer biology, genomics, cell engineering, biosensor and diagnostic development, imaging and single-cell analysis. If you are interested in joining the team, collaborating, donating, or are interested in what our research expertise can do for you, please contact Dr. Weian Zhao (weianz@uci.edu).
Immunotherapeutics Discovery
Immunotherapeutics including antibodies and T cells hold great promises to treat cancer. We have been developing single-cell technologies including droplet-based systems to facilitate rapid and cost-effective discovery of immunotherapeutics.
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Mechanobiology
Cells constantly interact with their surrounding niche. Physical and mechanical properties of cellular microenvironments regulate essential cell functions. We have demonstrated that tissue biophysical cues can be harnessed as a novel target to develop next generation cancer treatment.
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Engineering Cell Therapy
Cell therapies including stem cells and immune cells have offered great hope for treating many tragic diseases. We have mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and immune cells in various stages of clinical development to treat autoimmune diseases, neurological disorders and cancer.
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Diagnostics & Spatialomics
We have been developing rapid diagnostics to diagnose diseases at early-stages, when intervention is most effective. We developed advanced imaging technologies for rapid detection of low-abundance biomarkers and for spatialomics profiling in tissues.
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Publications
A high throughput bispecific antibody discovery pipeline. bioRxiv. 2021.09.07.459213. Commun. Biol, 2023, accepted.
Spatial transcriptomics using combinatorial fluorescence spectral and lifetime encoding, imaging and analysis. Nat. Commun., 2022, 13, 169.
Therapeutic implications of transplanted-cell death. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 2021, 5, 379–384.
Combinatorial targeting of cancer bone metastasis using mRNA engineered stem cells. The Lancet’s EBioMedicine. 2019, 45, 39-57.
Stem cell-derived exosomes as nanotherapeutics for autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. ACS Nano. 2019, 13, 6670-6688
Mechanoresponsive stem cells to target cancer metastases through biophysical cues. Sci. Transl. Med. 2017, 9(400). pii: eaan2966
Rapid detection of single bacteria in unprocessed blood using the integrated comprehensive droplet digital detection. Nat. Commun. 2014, 5, 5427.
Media
Latest News
March, 2023: Congratulations to Christine Wei for receiving the NSF GRFP!
September, 2022: Zhao lab receives a new NIH R01 grant to advance spatial proteomics using fluorescence hyperspectral and lifetime imaging.
August 10th, 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Jayapriya Jayaraman, the ninth PhD student graduated from Zhao lab!
Feb. 15th, 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Josh Gu, the eighth PhD student graduated from Zhao lab!!
Jan. 10th, 2022: UCI News covered our spatialomics technology based on fluorescence spectrum and lifetime imaging!
Dec. 22nd, 2021: Congrats to Christine Wei and Hannah Jian, who were selected as 2021 UROP Fellows!
Dec. 15th, 2021: Congrats to Daniela Ochoa, who was awarded the CONACYT Graduate Fellowship!
Dec. 3rd, 2021: Congrats to Josh Gu, who was awarded the AAI Young Investigator Award – 1st Place Poster Presentation at the 2021 UCI Immunology Fair!
Nov. 30, 2021: UCI Researchers Developing Solution to Prevent Long COVID.
July 26th, 2021: UCI news featured our entrepreneurship and innovation!
July 19th, 2021: Congrats to Josh Gu, who was awarded the NIH T32 Stem Cell Translational Medicine for Neurological Disorders!
June 24th, 2021: Congrats to Josh Gu, who was awarded the School of Medicine Behrens Research Excellence Award!
May 17th, 2021: UCI commentary expands understanding of how transplanted stem cells address disease
October 27, 2020: Dr. Zhao was awarded the 2020 UCI Innovator of the Year Award by UCI Beall Applied Innovations! Congrats! Well deserved!