Yao Wang

University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Dr. Yao Wang has a multidisciplinary research background in organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and cancer cell biology. She obtained her PhD in 2016 from the School of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Since then, she has been working as a postdoctoral fellow in the Cellular and Genetic Medicine Unit led by Prof. Peter Gunning in the School of Medical Sciences at UNSW. Her current research focuses on developing rational and synergistic combinational chemotherapeutic strategies based on the cellular functions and molecular interactions of multiple oncogenic targets using established or clinically used drugs, to drive rapid clinical translation and improvements in survival and quality of life for cancer patients.

Yunfeng Chen

The Scripps Research Institute, Department of Molecular Medicine

Dr. Yunfeng Chen is a MERU (Medolago-Ruggeri) Foundation post-doctoral fellow and an American Heart Association postdoctoral awardee. His research is on the mechanobiology of the vascular system. By studying the molecular mechanisms of platelet adhesion and mechanosensing, he investigates how platelet physiology and pathology are regulated by the mechanical force of the blood flow, and how biomechanical defects of platelets are associated with vascular diseases like arterial thrombosis and atherosclerosis. A cutting-edge force spectroscopy method, Biomembrane Force Probe, is used to characterize the binding kinetics, conformational dynamics and activation of molecules at the single-molecule level, as well as cell mechanosignaling at the single-cell level. By combining bioengineering approaches with molecular biology and preclinical tests, he aims to find potential ways to modify and correct the biomechanical defects in platelets and plasma proteins, so as to alleviate and even treat vascular diseases, abiding by the concept of ‘vascular mechano-medicine’.

Yunduo Zhao

The University of Sydney, School of Biomedical Engineering

Mr. Yunduo Zhao is an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded PhD candidate, and a graduate research assistant at the newly launched School of Biomedical Engineering. Working as a biomedical engineer for years, Yunduo has developed extraordinary expertise in computational biology simulation, high performance computing, and virtual reality technologies. His research unites the fields of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation. Correlating hemodynamics modelled by CFD on platelet clotting microfluidic devices with MD simulated platelet integrin behaviours, he is elucidating the molecular insights underlying platelet clot formation under pathological hemodynamic condition, and the mechanical force effect on platelet adhesion at nanoscale. A cutting-edge protein-derived peptide docking simulation is utilized by extracting the key amino acids on the receptor-ligand binding area, to guide the synthesis of potential inhibitors to reduce platelet adhesion and aggregation. Integrating virtual protein design, big data mining, and molecular biology prediction, his computational mechanobiology platform promises in silico design of new anti-thrombotic therapeutics. Beyond basic science research, he has showed prominent passion and talent in computational vision technology. As well as developing an immersive virtual reality web-streaming and artificial intelligent cruising algorithm, he also started up a company to implement High-Altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in the field of disaster relief and infrastructure fault detection.