Weiqiang Chen

About

Professor Weiqiang Chen leads the Applied Micro-bioengineering Laboratory at NYU, focusing on the interface between biomedical science and micro/nanotechnology. His research aims to develop and apply innovative micro/nanoscale technologies and integrated biosystems targeting emerging areas at the forefront of engineering and medicine. The lab's interdisciplinary work leverages advances in microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip systems, biomaterials, and biomanufacturing to address challenges in cancer biology, immune engineering, tissue engineering, and stem cell-based regenerative medicine. Professor Chen's research bridges engineering and medicine by micro-engineering cell behaviors and environments in engineered models and microsystems for disease diagnosis and modeling. Current projects include microfluidic nanoplasmonic biosensors for immunomonitoring and single-cell analysis, organotypic organ-on-a-chip tumor microenvironments for cancer immunotherapy modeling, and studies on cancer, immune, and stem cell mechanobiology. These novel micro/nanoengineered biosystems aim to advance engineering and significantly contribute to improving human health. Professor Chen was promoted to full professor in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering and has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Heart Association. He has also been selected as a Council Member for the Biomedical Engineering Society's Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Special Interest Group. His lab…

Research topics

• Medicine
• Immunology
• Cancer research
• Biology
• Molecular biology
• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Genetics
• Nanotechnology
• Cognitive science

Selected publications

• Organ-on-a-Chip: A New Paradigm for Drug Development

  Trends in Pharmacological Sciences · 2020 · 547 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Extensive Remodeling of the Immune Microenvironment in B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

  Cancer Cell · 2020 · 190 citations

  DOI

• NUDT21 limits CD19 levels through alternative mRNA polyadenylation in B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

  Nature Immunology · 2022 · 53 citations

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cancer-on-a-chip for precision cancer medicine

  Lab on a Chip · 2025-01-01 · 23 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  Many cancer therapies fail in clinical trials despite showing potent efficacy in preclinical studies. One of the key reasons is the adopted preclinical models cannot recapitulate the complex tumor microenvironment (TME) and reflect the heterogeneity and patient specificity in human cancer. Cancer-on-a-chip (CoC) microphysiological systems can closely mimic the complex anatomical features and microenvironment interactions in an actual tumor, enabling more accurate disease modeling and therapy tes…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Bioengineered immunocompetent preclinical trial-on-chip tool enables screening of CAR T cell therapy for leukaemia

  Nature Biomedical Engineering · 2025-07-01 · 15 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy is promising for treatment of blood cancers; however, clinical benefits remain unpredictable, necessitating development of optimal CAR T cell products. Unfortunately, current preclinical evaluation platforms are inadequate owing to their limited physiological relevance to humans. Here we engineer an organotypic immunocompetent chip that recapitulates microarchitectural and pathophysiological characteristics of human leukaemia bone marrow strom…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Bioengineering Leukemic Bone Marrow Niche for Dissecting the Heterogeneous Leukemia Chemo-resistance Mechanisms

  NSF · $314k · 2021–2024

• Engineered Glioblastoma Tumor Immunity for Personalized Immunotherapy

  NIH · $226k · 2018–2021

• Collaborative Research: Plasmofluidic Nanoantenna-Superlens Biosensor for Single-Cell Functional Immunophenotyping

  NSF · $279k · 2017–2021

Frequent coauthors

• Raymond H. W. Lam

  City University of New York

  50 shared

• Jianping Fu

  49 shared

• ­Jun Li­

  First Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University

  39 shared

• Qiang Li

  Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University

  29 shared

• Weiyi Qian

  New York University

  28 shared

• Wei Sun

  25 shared

• Chao Ma

  Ningbo University

  25 shared

• Wei Yang

  China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences

  22 shared

Labs

• Applied Micro-Bioengineering LaboratoryPI

  Develops and applies innovative micro/nanoscale technologies and integrated biosystems targeting important emerging areas of research at the forefront of engineering and medicine.

Education

• PhD, Mechanical Engineering

  University of Michigan

  2014

Awards & honors

• Fellow, American Heart Association (2023)
• The Micro and Nanoengineering Young Investigator Award, seco…
• Chemical Communications Emerging Investigator Award (2021)
• Healthy Longevity Award, New York Academy of Sciences and Ja…
• Biomedical Engineering Society Cellular and Molecular Bioeng…

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