Jiawei Yang is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at WPI. He received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences from Harvard University and completed postdoctoral training at MIT and Boston Children's Hospital. He joined WPI in 2024.
The Yang research group focuses on developing soft material systems for deep-tissue implantable therapeutics and biosensing. We leverage the interdisciplinary efforts in multiscale material design and engineering, chemical principles, soft materials mechanics, biological processes, and ultrasound technology to design, control, and develop the system. We aim to understand the design principles for functional implantable systems, fundamental in vivo mechanics and physics of soft materials, biointeraction control, and the synthesis-property-performance relationships. We further use the understanding to optimize the system to enable tissue-specific implants/prostheses, deep-tissue biointeraction for augmenting therapeutic efficacy, and a wireless, real-time biosensing platform for disease monitoring and management. The optimized systems can be integrated with existing and emerging medical devices to enhance the efficacy, safety, longevity, and disease monitoring capability of implantable therapies, such as bioelectronic therapy, regenerative medicine, and targeted drug delivery, to improve the quality of life and lifespan of patients.
Ongoing projects include: (i) tissue-specific bioadhesives for implantation, (ii) bio-inspired long-lasting and mechanically durable anti-biofouling/anti-fibrosis coatings, and (iii) deep-tissue bioelectronics.
