People

Principal Investigator

Wenwen Huang, Ph.D.

Tenured Associate Professor, Convenor of the Centre for Regeneration and Cell Therapy

The Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE), Zhejiang University, China

Affiliate with:
– Deputy Director, Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang Province, China
– Honorary Lecturer, Edinburgh Medical School, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, UK
– Adjunct Professor, Department of Orthopedics of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China
– Adjunct Professor, State Key Laboratory of Biobased Transportation Fuel Technology, Zhejiang University, China
– Adjunct Professor, Dr. Li Dak Sum and Yip Yio Chin Center for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China
– Adjunct Professor, Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China
– Adjunct Professor, Biomedical and Health Translational Research Centre of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University, China

ZJU Home Page | LinkedIn | Google Scholar | ORCID

Dr. Wenwen Huang is an active researcher interested in the predictive design, synthesis and functionalization of protein-based biomaterials for regenerative medicine and sustainable technology innovations. She received her bachelor’s degree in Physics from Peking University, her PhD in Biophysics from Tufts University, and postdoctoral training in Biomedical Engineering from the SITEP joint program at Tufts (BME) / MIT (CEE). She joined ZJE as a faculty member in October 2018. Her research on protein-based biomaterials has been highlighted in APS News, C&EN News, MIT News, Sohu.com – technology, etc. She was awarded the title of Zhejiang Province Outstanding Young Scholar and Jiaxing City Outstanding Scholar.

Staff

Piaoping Lu, Lab manager

Piaoping joined Huang Lab as the lab manager in 2024. Her responsibilities include managing the daily operations and safety of the laboratories, dealing with financial reimbursements, and ordering consumables and reagents. She completed her undergraduate degree in Business Administration at Shobi University in Japan.

Graduate Students

Kexin Nie, 2021 ZJU-UoE PhD student

Kexin began her research in Professor Huang’s lab as a PhD student at ZJE in 2021. Her research fields mainly focus on developing functional biomaterials with tunable mechanics and stimuli-responsive properties for musculoskeletal tissue regeneration. She received her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Zhengzhou University in 2021. She is currently working on developing interdisciplinary approaches to design and fabricate stimuli-responsive materials for artificial muscles with capabilities similar to, or even beyond, natural muscles. In her spare time, she enjoys listening to music, singing, traveling and dancing.

Kaiyue Zhang, 2022 ZJU PhD student

Kaiyue joined Professor Huang’s lab as a full-time PhD student at ZJE in 2022. Her research mainly focuses on bionanotechnology, including designing and exploring thermo-responsive recombinant protein polymers with active targeting and drug controlled release properties for multimodality cancer therapy. She received her master’s degree in nano-science and technology from Wang Chen’s group at NCNST in 2020. Her master’s thesis is about peptide modified thermal sensitive liposomes for tumor treatment. This drug showed high biocompatibility and antitumor effects in 4T1 tumor-bearing mice model. She is currently working on high throughput screening of de novo designed smart protein carriers for targeted cancer therapy. In her spare time, she enjoys jogging, swimming, reading and shopping.

Hang Zhao, 2022 ZJU PhD student

Hang joined Huang‘s Lab as a PhD candidate at ZJE in 2022. His research fields mainly focus on developing functional biomaterials with electrical and stimuli-responsive properties for a wide range of applications such as tissue regeneration, wearable devices and soft robotics. He received his master’s degree in material science from Shandong University in 2022. He is currently investigating the design and fabrication of silk-based biomaterials for soft electronics and soft robotics. In his spare time, he enjoys jogging.

Junhan Ou, 2023 ZJU PhD student

Junhan joined Huang Lab as a PhD student in ZJU Ph.D. program in 2023. Her research interests focus on the design, construction and application of functional hydrogels. She received her master’s degree in bioengineering from Tianjin University in 2022. She is currently investigating the hydrogels based on protein and DNA for developing the research of stem cells and regenerative medicine. In her free time, she enjoys exploring delicious restaurants, playing board games and watching movies.

Yuge Gao, 2023 ZJU-UoE PhD student

Yuge joined Prof. Huang’s lab in 2023 as a ZJU-UoE dual PhD student. She received her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Food Quality and Safety from Southwest University in 2023. Currently, she is working on how to use biochemical methods to customize the stimuli-responsive properties of protein-based hydrogels. In her spare time, she has a wide range of interests, including traveling, anime, movies and sports.

Dingyi Yu, 2024 ZJU-UoE PhD student

Dingyi joined Prof. Huang’s Lab in 2024 as a ZJU-UoE dual PhD student. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Marine Science from Shandong University in 2024. Recently, he is working on the application of protein materials for wound healing or other tissue repair. Outside of lab hours, he is a huge sports fan, especially basketball, running, and fitness.

Xinyi Yang, 2023 ZJU MSc student

Xinyi joined Professor Huang’s lab as a master student in 2023. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in pharmacology from Northeast Forestry University. Her undergraduate research focused on multi-omics, biosynthetic pathways, and metabolic engineering of various Chinese Medicinal Herb and their active compounds. In her spare time, she enjoys watching movies and listening to all kinds of music.

Qi Zhang, 2025 UoE MSc student

Qi joined Prof. Huang’s lab in 2025. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Medicine from Sun Yat-sen University in 2023. His project aims to develop recombinant protein-based hydrogels for wound healing. Outside of work, he enjoys music, traveling, and bodybuilding.

Zhengyu Wang, 2025 UoE MSc student
Zhengyu joined Dr. Huang’s lab as a master student in 2026. She graduated from Qingdao Agricultural University and obtained Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science and English. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and sleeping.

Ziru Yuan, 2025 UoE MSc student

Ziru Yuan joined Professor Huang’s lab as a master’s student in 2025. She graduated from China Medical University and during her undergraduate years, she was involved in the analysis of the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine on ulcerative colitis. Currently, she is participating in the research on the design of oral insulin hydrogels. In her spare time, she enjoys singing and traveling.

Undergraduate Students

**Bo Yu, 2022 ZJU-UoE undergraduate student:** Bo joined Professor Huang’s lab as an undergraduate student at ZJE in 2022. He is currently main assisting Hang in his scientific research tasks. Outside of his research tasks, he enjoys playing basketball and video games.

**Xincheng Sun, 2022 ZJU-UoE undergraduate student:** Xincheng joined Professor Huang’s lab as an undergraduate student at ZJE in 2023. He is currently assisting Kaiyue in her scientific research tasks. Outside of his research tasks, he enjoys reading fictions and listening to music.

**Haoran Fan, 2023 ZJU-UoE undergraduate student:** Haoran joined Professor Huang’s lab as an undergraduate student at ZJE in 2023. He is currently working with Xinyi on her research project. Outside his research work, he enjoys playing basketball and street dance.

**Yiyu Liu, 2023 ZJU-UoE undergraduate student:** Yiyu joined Professor Huang’s lab as an undergraduate student at ZJE in 2024. She is currently working with Yuge, Maiyong and Shutong on student research training program. In her spare time, she enjoys watching movies and traveling around.

**Maiyong Zhang, 2023 ZJU-UoE undergraduate student:** Maiyong joined Professor Huang’s lab as an undergraduate student at ZJE in 2025. She is currently working with Yuge, Yiyu and Shutong on student research training program. In her spare time, she enjoys playing video games.

**Boxiang Zhang, 2023 ZJU-UoE undergraduate student:** Boxiang joined Professor Huang’s lab as an undergraduate student at ZJE in 2024. He is currently working with Junhan. Outside of his research tasks, he likes football and kart racing.

**Dongfang Xiao, 2023 ZJU-UoE undergraduate student:** Dongfang joined Professor Huang’s lab as an undergraduate student at ZJE in 2023. He is currently working with Zhao Hang. Outside of his research tasks, he likes badminton and music.

**Ke Zhuo, 2024 ZJU-UoE undergraduate student:** Ke joined Professor Huang’s labs as an undergraduate student at ZJE in 2025. He is currently working with and assisting Dingyi on his project. Outside of his research tasks, he likes listening to music and watch TV series.

Alumni

Staff

– 2020: Siqi Zuo (PhD student in Zhejiang University)

PhD Students

– 2025: Xinchen Shen (Faculty at Zhejiang Chinese Medical University)

– 2024: Jing Ting (Faculty at Northwest Normal University)

Master Students

– 2025: Jingyi Tian (R&D engineer in Tofflon Qianchun Biotech); Zhang Fan (PhD student in Macao University); Leyi Zhou (MSc student in ZJE); Cheng Qiu (Research assistant in Westlake University)

– 2024: Jiajia Zhang (R&D engineer in Meidian Biotech); Jiawei Hong (Research assistant in Zhejiang University); Jialong Song (R&D scientist in Adlai Nortye); Xubin Hu (MSc student in ZJE); Tian Xie (MSc student in ZJE)

– 2023: Li Hu (PhD student in University of Macau); Hongda Wei (PhD student in Tsinghua University); Ziheng Bai (PhD student in ZJE); Zijun Zhang (Functional Expert in Johnson & Johnson); Siyu Liu (MSc student in ZJE)

– 2022: Sicheng Zhou (PhD student in Zhejiang University); Rui Li (PhD student in Zhejiang University); Junting Lu (PhD student in University of Hong Kong)

Undergrad Students

– 2025: Shihan Xiong(PhD student in Zhejiang University); Renfei Yan (PhD student in Westlake University); Huayang Gao (BMS student in ZJE)

– 2024: Tianle Zhang (MSc student in University College London); Jiaxin Liu (BMS student in ZJE); Yizhou Yuan (BMI student in ZJE); Chentao Li (PhD student in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

– 2023: Boxuan Wu (PhD student in Zhejiang University); Lele Li (PhD student in Zhejiang University); Jingqi Qi (PhD student in University of Washington); Youlin Chen (BMS student in ZJE); Ximeng Zheng (MSc student in University of Pennsylvania)

– 2022: Yujie Zhou (MSc student in Zhejiang University); Zijin Wang (PhD student in Zhejiang University); Hao Huang (PhD student in Zhejiang University); Liuyi Wu (MSc student in University of Edinburgh); Yitang Huang (MSc student in National University of Singapore)

– 2021: Dewei Kong (PhD student in National University of Singapore); Yicong Ma (PhD student in Peking University); Yixin Dai (PhD student in Zhejiang University); Youcheng Yang (MSc student in University of California, Los Angeles); Wenyuan Zhu (MSc student in University of Zurich); Zeen Xu (Staff in Zhejiang University); Yongkang Yi (PhD student in Zhejiang University)

– 2020: Yiyang Yan (PhD student in Zhejiang University); Qingyuan Xia (PhD student in University of California, Irvine)