RESEARCH INTERESTS

Qizhi Chen joined Monash in 2008 after working as a postdoctoral associate in the National Heart and Lung Institute at the Imperial College London, during which she initiated a novel heart patch from a synthetic elastomer, poly(glycerol sebacate). Previously she was also employed by the University of Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong. During the course of her PhD studies at the Imperial College London, she independently pioneered a novel Bioglass®-derived scaffold for bone tissue engineering. This scaffold promises to go a long way towards clinical applications. Dr Chen has diverse research interests and is going to develop a multidisciplinary research group. Her current research activities/interests include, but are not limited to:

• Bone tissue engineering. Combinatorial approaches are developed to address the most challenging issues in the field of bone tissue engineering, including bone regeneration at load-bearing sites and angiogenesis of artificial bone constructs, with hybrid biomaterials, novel scaffolding techniques, signalling molecules and stem cells being involved. The final goal of this research is the clinical applications of bone tissue engineering.
• Myocardial tissue engineering. Myocardial infarction (MI), also known as a heart attack in common parlance, is the single most common cause of death and disability. This research aims to develop a translatable approach, i.e. heart patch, for the treatment of patients with heart attack. This project will involve three elastomers as heart patch materials, including poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS), polyurethane (PU) and poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC). An important aim of these studies is to design heart patches and to develop surgical strategies in a scientifically rational manner, i.e. biomechanics modelling.
• Dynamic Bioreactor. The goal of this research is to develop a “beating” or “breathing” bioreactor mimicking not only the physiological environment but also the mechanical environment in vivo, with a focus on the mechano-directed differentiation of embryonic stem cells and cellular biomechanics.
• Nanobiotechnology
  • Target-specific anti-cancer drug delivery
  • Non-viral gene delivery system
  • Dynamic imaging of a beating heart using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with nanosized magnetic particles

Bioglass®-derived bone scaffold	Human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes  beating on a heart patch material, PGS (Flash movie)

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