Dr. Liangliang Hao

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

Post-doc Associates

  • I am interested in developing delivery systems of biologics (especially nucleic acids), to realize translational precise theragnostics. I am also interested in merging data science and AI with therapeutics in my future work.

    Education:

    • PhD in Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at University of Utah 2017-2022

    • Master in Pharmaceutics at Peking University, China 2014-2016

    • Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Science at Peking University, China, 2010-2014

Graduate Students

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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)

    Honors & Awards: William D. Larson Scholarship

    Education: BS in Chemistry, Minor in Biology, University of St. Thomas, MN 2016-2020

Undergraduate Students

  • I am passionate about applications of genome editing and nanobodies' potential in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.

    BU ENG Dean’s List: 2021 Fall -2022 Fall

  • I am a Boston University Senior Undergraduate majoring in Bio-Medical Engineering in addition to studying pre-medicine coursework. I also play for the BU Men’s Soccer team.

    I am interested in researching and engineering biomarkers that are disease specific for point of care diagnostics and clinical applications.

    Patriot League Academic Honor Roll: 2021, 2022, 2023

Lab Alumni

Xingxiao (Carrie) Li

Undergraduate Researcher 2023-2024

What’s Next? M.S. Biomedical Engineering, Brown University