Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory translates the latest biological and engineering knowledge into innovative technologies for diagnostics, therapeutics and drug testing applications in pharmaceutical and healthcare industry.

Research Interests

We adopt the latest industrial management models of teams to train future leaders of the R&D-based industry and academia. Our research expertise span from basic biological studies, biomaterials synthesis, to integrative engineering of biomedical devices that facilitate the translation of systems level understanding of biological functional processes into significant application solutions to help patients with liver diseases; and fuel biomedical industrial development in Asia. We acquire fundamental principles and technologies to quantitatively study and manipulate liver cell and tissue polarity and functions at meso-scale such that their global tissue structures and functions can be precision-engineered at mm-cm scales for applications.

Biography

Prof Yu is a Professor in the Department of Physiology, YLL School of Medicine, National University Health System, Principal Investigator at MBI, and Co-Lead Principal Investigator, Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine (CAMP), Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). He was trained as a cell biologist but ventured into various other disciplines such as imaging, biomaterials, tissue engineering, drug testing, and computational biology of liver fibrosis. He takes pride in the interdisciplinary approach to research and graduate training; and he strives to build integrated teams to equip future graduates to readily adapt into both industrial and future academic settings.

Education

PhD, Duke University, USA

Recent Publications

Wu X, Raymond JJ, Liu Y, Odermatt AJ, Sin W, Teo DBL, Natarajan M, Ng IC, Birnbaum ME, Lu TK, Han J, Springs SL, and Yu H. Rapid Universal Detection of High-Risk and Low-Abundance Microbial Contaminations in CAR-T Cell Therapy. Small Methods 2025;:e2500253. [PMID: 40159755]
Zhou H, Loo LSW, Ong FYT, Lou X, Wang J, Myint MK, Thong A, Seow DCS, Wibowo M, Ng S, Lv Y, Kwang LG, Bennie RZ, Pang KT, Dobson RCJ, Domigan LJ, Kanagasundaram Y, and Yu H. Cost-effective production of meaty aroma from porcine cells for hybrid cultivated meat. Food Chem 2025; 473:142946. [PMID: 39864181]
Bennie RZ, Ogilvie OJ, Loo LSW, Zhou H, Ng SK, Jin A, Trlin HJF, Wan A, Yu H, Domigan LJ, and Dobson RCJ. A risk-based approach can guide safe cell line development and cell banking for scaled-up cultivated meat production. Nat Food 2025;. [PMID: 39753758]
Lou X, Wang J, Kwang LG, Zhou H, Ong FYT, Ng S, and Yu H. Perforated imprinting on high moisture meat analogue confers long range mechanical anisotropy resembling meat cuts. NPJ Sci Food 2024; 8(1):106. [PMID: 39706829]
Liu Y, Raymond JJ, Wu X, Chua PWL, Ling SYH, Chan CC, Chan C, Loh JXY, Song MXY, Ong MYY, Ho P, Mcbee ME, Springs SL, Yu H, and Han J. Electrostatic microfiltration (EM) enriches and recovers viable microorganisms at low-abundance in large-volume samples and enhances downstream detection. Lab Chip 2024;. [PMID: 39189168]
Ma Y, Li Z, Luo Y, Chen Y, Ma L, Liu X, Xiao J, Huang M, Li Y, Jiang H, Wang M, Wang X, Li J, Kong J, Shi P, Yu H, Jiang X, and Guo Q. Biodegradable Microembolics with Nanografted Polyanions Enable High-Efficiency Drug Loading and Sustained Deep-Tumor Drug Penetration for Locoregional Chemoembolization Treatment. ACS Nano 2024;. [PMID: 38946122]
Wu Y, Cheng J, Qi J, Hang C, Dong R, Low BC, Yu H, and Jiang X. Three-dimensional liquid metal-based neuro-interfaces for human hippocampal organoids. Nat Commun 2024; 15(1):4047. [PMID: 38744873]
Luo X, Wang J, Tan C, Dou Q, Han Z, Wang Z, Tasnim F, Wang X, Zhan Q, Li X, Zhou Q, Cheng J, Liao F, Yip HC, Jiang J, Tan RT, Liu S, and Yu H. Rapid Endoscopic Diagnosis of Benign Ulcerative Colorectal Diseases with an Artificial Intelligence Contextual Framework. Gastroenterology 2024;. [PMID: 38583724]
Makhija E, Zheng Y, Wang J, Leong HR, Othman RB, Ng EX, Lee EH, Kellogg LT, Lee YH, Yu H, Poon Z, and Van Vliet KJ. Topological defects in self-assembled patterns of mesenchymal stromal cells in vitro are predictive attributes of condensation and chondrogenesis. PLoS One 2024; 19(3):e0297769. [PMID: 38547243]
Zhao S, Zhang L, Zhao J, Kota VG, Venkat KM, Tasnim F, and Yu H. Characteristics of contemporary drug clinical trials regarding the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Diabetes Metab Syndr 2023; 18(1):102921. [PMID: 38128261]