Lab Members — Hao Lab

Principal Investigator

Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

- Postdoc. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Ph.D. Northwestern University
- Honors and Awards
- NIH-NCI Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00)
- American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship Award
- Ludwig Molecular Oncology Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Student Research Fellowship
- International Institute for Nanotechnology Outstanding Research Award
- Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society Nucleic Acid Research Award
- Leading Edge Fellow, Inaugural HHMI Leading Edge Symposium
- Bayer Lindau Fellow, Bayer Science & Education Foundation
- Convergence Scholar, MIT Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine

I am interested in developing innovative tools for non-invasive disease early detection, risk stratification and treatment monitoring. I’m also interested in exploring approaches for disease biomarkers profiling.
Education:
PhD in Pharmaceutics at Peking University, China, 2019-2024
BS in Pharmaceutical Science at Peking University, China, 2015-2019

I am interested in enhancing clinical usefulness of therapeutics through improving tissue targeting and reducing off-site toxicity. In the lab, I seek to engineer nanoscale delivery systems to precisely treat and sense tumors.
Honors & Awards: SB2 Trainee
Education: BS & MS in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University 2018-2022
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I am particularly interested in researching women's health and developing medical diagnostics and tools that can help treat women and underrepresented minorities in the health industry. In addition to women's health, I am also driven to create medical tools that can be used in low-resource settings.
Honors & Awards: Biofeedback Control Trainee
Education: BS in Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis 2020-2024
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I’m working on establishing a high-throughput approach to assess protease activity in a spatial context in order to better inform the development of diagnostics and therapeutics that leverage the activity of endogenous proteases. I am also interested in creating novel point-of-care diagnostics.
Honors & Awards: Salisbury Prize
Education: BS Biology & Biotechnology Worcester Polytechnic Institute 2014-2018
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I am interested in leveraging synthetic biology tools to improve cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. My current work includes characterizing the protease activity profile of colorectal cancer for T cell engager design; engineering logic-gated receptors that are activated conditionally within the tumor microenvironment; and developing a toehold switch-based system that produces volatile compounds upon tumor sensing.
Education: BS in Biological Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, 2021-2024
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My primary research interest lies in leveraging multi-omics data to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer development and progression, as well as translating the insights into clinically diagnostics and treatments. I am also working on engineering CRISPR tools for rapid, stable, and low-cost diagnostics that could be deployed in point-of-care settings.
Education: Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Engineering at Tianjin University, 2015-2019
MS in Bioengineering at Northeastern University, 2019-2021
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I am developing yeast-based selection methods for improving protease and nanobody specificity toward therapeutic targets. I aim to integrate laboratory evolution and scalable screening methods to rapidly, and cost-effectively produce bespoke therapeutics. (*Co-advised with Mo Khalil)
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Honors & Awards: William D. Larson Scholarship
Education: BS in Chemistry, Minor in Biology, University of St. Thomas, MN 2016-2020