Professor Ying C. Chang is an accomplished scientist with a wealth of educational and professional experience. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. After completing her postdoctoral research at Stanford University and Affymetrix Corp. and industrial R&D laboratories including Maxmedia, Chang accepted academic appointments from the University of California, Irvine to be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and Department of Biomedical Engineering. In 2004, she accepted a position as an Associate Professor at the Genomics Research Center at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, and in 2010, was promoted to Professor. Ying is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Co-Chair of the Taiwan Science & Technology Hub at Stanford University.
Chang’s research focuses on the development of biomimetic smart materials and interfaces. Her goal is to create engineering methodology to fabricate both bio- and non-biological materials with novel functionality inspired by the natural world. She has also worked on rare cell isolation, purification, and maintenance by smart surfaces and microfluidics. In particular, Chang has studied the co-culture systems such as circulating tumor cells in blood, and stem cells in primary cells. Her research has demonstrated the applicability of non-biological originated interfaces on controlling cell fate and uncovering novel properties, which in turn provide unique applications.
Chang’s expertise and ambition have proven to be invaluable asset to both academia and industry. Her early invention in circulating tumor cells platform has led to a startup company, Cellmax Life in 2013, later developed to a liquid biopsy company focused on cancer screening with a proprietary technology for detecting precancer and cancer cells in a single blood sample. Based on applying material science to biology & medicine as the core competency, she recently founded Acrocyte Therapeutics in 2020. With the unique R3CE, a robust 3D culture platform made of synthetic biocompatible polymer coatings, single cell proliferation is applicable for clinical specimen even if the cell counts are low such as CTCs or stem cells.
Highlights of her research include integrated nanomaterials, microfluidics, and bioreactors to control stem cell fates for tissue engineering and liquid biopsy for cancer diagnostics and precision medicine.
