Ninghao "Eric" Zhu | Assistant Professor

Ph.D. - 2022, Pennsylvania State University
Biomedical Engineering
B.Eng. - 2017, City University of Hong Kong
Biomedical Engineering

Contact information

3078 Engineering Hall
nzhu@k-state.edu

Integrative Biosensing and Tissue Engineering Laboratory

Professional experience

Ninghao (Eric) Zhu is an assistant professor in the Mike Wiegers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Kansas State University. He received a bachelor's in biomedical engineering at City University of Hong Kong in 2017, followed by a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 2022. After his postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University, he joined K-State as a tenure-track assistant professor in August 2024.

Research

Zhu’s research focuses on decoding human diseases via pioneering biosensing and tissue engineering technologies. He develops single molecule nanobiosensors to visualize the real-time RNA dynamics in live cells, revealing the disease mechanisms at the transcriptomic level and identifying potential therapeutic targets. Zhu recapitulates human disease models in vitro using tissue-engineered 3D organ-on-chip models. Focusing on modeling human microvasculature, his organ-on-chip models provide powerful platforms to study blood vessel inflammation and drug delivery. By integrating the cutting-edge technologies in biosensing and tissue-engineered human disease models, Zhu’s research provides crucial insights into the processes of cancer metastasis, Alzheimer's disease and aging. His work empowers the early disease diagnosis and the development of new therapeutic treatments.

Academic Highlights

Zhu has authored more than12 peer-reviewed publications, including papers in Nature Materials and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (PNAS). He serves as a frequent reviewer of Biosensors and Bioelectronics and SLAS Technology and has reviewed more than 25 manuscripts. He received the best conference paper award at the IEEE International Conference on Nano/Molecular Medicine and Engineering (IEEE-NANOMED) in 2021.