Prof. Cheng DONG has been invited to give a seminar in the School of Chinese Medicine on 20 May, 2014. The title of his presentation was “Circulatory Tumor Microenvironment”.

Professor Cheng Dong (Brief Biographical Sketch):

Graduated in 1982 with an undergraduate major in Engineering Mechanics from Shanghai Jiao-Tong University, Prof. Dong received his Ph.D in Engineering Science and Bioengineering in 1988 from Columbia University. He is now a Department Head of the Penn State Biomedical Engineering Department, Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, also a Chang-Jiang-Scholar Chair Professor at Shanghai Jiao-Tong University.

Prof. Dong is currently a Member of the United States National Committee on Biomechanics (USNCB); a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE); a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES); a Council Member of the International Society of Biorheology (ISB); a Chair of the BMES Cellular & Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) Special Interest Group (SIG); a Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME);  a Member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and a Member of the American Physiological Society (APS). Dr. Dong is also a Managing Editor for Frontiers in Bioscience; an Associate Editor for BMES Annals of Biomedical Engineering; an Associate Editor for BMES Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering; and an Associate Editor for Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics; as well as an Editorial Member of the Chinese Journal of Medical Biomechanics. Prof. Dong has received several prestigious honors and awards, including the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Career Award, American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award, ASME Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award, BMES Harold Lamport Young Investigator Award, ASME Melville Medal, and ASME Best Journal Paper Award.

The major focus of Dr. Dong's research is to elucidate biomechanical, biophysical and biochemical aspects of cellular function in the circulatory systems, with particular interest in cellular biomechanics, cell adhesion, cell migration, cell signaling, systems biology, and multi-scale modeling of biological systems. Current research at Penn State includes studies of micro-hemodynamics, leukocyte rheology, intercellular and intracellular signaling, cancer immunology and metastases. In particular, he is investigating how fluid dynamics, adhesion kinetics and tumor microenvironment change leukocyte and/or endothelial immune functions which subsequently affect tumor cell extravasation in the microcirculation and subsequent metastasis.