Interview with Dr. Ngan F. Huang—Editorial Board Member of Bioengineering

We had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Ngan F. Huang, Editorial Board Member of Bioengineering (ISSN: 2306-5354), to discuss the recent research trends in the field and her personal career developments. We hope you enjoy the interview.

Dr. Ngan F. Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Courtesy Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. She holds a co-terminous appointment as Principal Investigator at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Dr. Huang completed her BS in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a Ph.D. in bioengineering at the University of California Berkeley and the University of California San Francisco Joint Program in bioengineering. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a postdoctoral scholar in cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University. Her laboratory investigates the interactions between stem cells and the extracellular matrix microenvironment for engineering tissues to treat cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases.

Dr. Huang has authored over 90 publications and patents in journals such as Nat Med, PNAS, and Nano Lett. Her research is funded by the NIH, the NSF, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the American Heart Association.

The following is an interview with Dr. Ngan F. Huang:

1. What are your research areas?
My laboratory aims to understand the biochemical and mechanical interactions between extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and stem cells that regulate cardiovascular differentiation, survival, and angiogenesis, with the goal of translating these basic insights to the design of biological therapies to treat cardiovascular disease and muscle injuries. Ongoing projects include ECM-mediated effects on the endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition, spatially patterned nanofibrillar collagen scaffolds with induced pluripotent stem-cell-derived endothelial cells for the treatment of peripheral arterial disease, scaffold-mediated delivery of therapeutic smooth muscle cells for treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, and engineered muscle for the treatment of volumetric muscle loss.

2. What are the latest developments in your research field?
With recent technological advancements, there is a general push towards the use of multi-omics approaches to better understand the pathological progression of cardiovascular diseases, as well as the use of multi-omics to reveal fundamental insights into the effects of experimental therapies. I anticipate that spatial transcriptomics, spatial proteomics, single-cell RNA sequencing, and epigenomics will become widely adopted tools for researchers.

3. Can you briefly share your career development story? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?
My research career began as a high school student, when I had the experience to perform research as a summer intern. This experience motivated me to pursue a graduate degree in research. Along the way, I was fortunate to have been mentored by many influential mentors who took an interest in advancing my career. For this reason, I am grateful and have sought to do the same for my own trainees.

4. Do you have any valuable suggestions you would like to share with young students and early career researchers?
Resilience. Successful researchers do not always have smooth career development. My advice is to not be discouraged by setbacks, but to keep inching forward with resilience.

5. What do you think of the development of Open Access in publishing?
Open Access allows for the widest dissemination of findings to the global community. Overall, I think it is a good idea that moves research advances forward.

We are thankful for Dr. Huang's time and support of Bioengineering.