Cai, Liheng - University of Virginia - Department of Materials Science and Engineering

个人简介

Dr. Liheng Cai is an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he currently holds joint appointments in the Department of Materials Science and the Department of Chemical Engineering, as well as courtesy appointments in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Cai’s career has been dedicated to bridging physical science and biomedical research. In 2006, he received his B.S. in Physics from Lanzhou University, China, where his undergraduate studies focused on particle and quantum field theory. After one year of experimental research in magnetic materials, he decided to switch his focus to research fields closer to biology. In 2007, he began his Ph.D. training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the mentorship of Prof. Michael Rubinstein in theoretical polymer physics. Simultaneously, he conducted research with Prof. Richard C. Boucher on experimental biophysics, applying soft matter principles and building instruments to better understand human lung defense. Dr. Cai received his Ph.D. in Materials Science in 2012, with a dissertation composed of two distinct areas: theoretical polymer physics and experimental biophysics. After completing his doctoral studies, Dr. Cai spent one year to build up an experimental laboratory focusing on human lung defense. During this period, he fully discovered his passion for research discoveries enabled by experimentation. This realization led him to transition fully from theory to experimental work. In 2013, he began his postdoctoral training with Prof. David A. Weitz on experimental soft condensed matter physics at Harvard University. In the meantime, he conducted research with Prof. Jeffrey Fredberg on cell mechanics and collective cell migration. Since 2018, he has led the Soft Biomatter Laboratory at UVA, where his research group focuses on understanding and controlling the interactions between soft (bio)materials and biological systems, with the mission of addressing critical challenges in sustainability and human health. In recognition of his research contributions, Dr. Cai has received North Carolina Impact Award, Harvard Postdoctoral Award for Professional Development, NSF CAREER Award, NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA R35), ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award, ACS PMSE Early Investigator Award, and UVA Research Excellence Award. He has also been recognized as a Soft Matter Emerging Investigator and an ACS Polymers Au Rising Star. EDUCATION AND TRAINING 2013-2017 Postdoctoral Fellow School of Engineering and Applied Science Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Mentors: David A. Weitz and Jeffrey J. Fredberg 2012-2013 Postdoctoral Researcher Department of Chemistry and Marsico Lung Institute, School of Medicine University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC Mentors: Michael Rubinstein and Richard C. Boucher 2012 Ph.D. in Materials Science University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC Advisor: Michael Rubinstein Thesis: Structure and Function of Airway Surface Layer of the Human Lungs& Mobility of Probe Particles in Complex Fluids 2006 B.S. in Physics (Summa cum laude) Lanzhou University, China PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS 01/2018 – Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering 01/2018 – Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering 01/2019 – Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering (by courtesy) 08/2024 – Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

研究领域

Polymers and Soft Matter Advanced Biomanufacturing Biomaterials Bioengineering

近期论文

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Daniel A. Rau, Myoeum Kim, Baoxing Xu, Li-Heng Cai Modular soft stretchable low-cost elastomers for stereolithography printing structures with extreme dissipative properties Working paper Baiqiang Huang, Shifeng Nian, Li-Heng Cai A universal strategy for decoupling stiffness and extensibility polymer networks Journal Article. In: Science Advances, vol. 10, pp. eadq3080, 2024. Zhi Jian He, Baiqiang Huang,, Li Heng Cai Bottlebrush polyethylene glycol nanocarriers translocate across human airway epithelium via molecular architecture-enhanced endocytosis Journal Article. In: ACS Nano, vol. 18, iss. 27, pp. 17586–17599, 2024. Myoeum Kim, Shifeng Nian, Daniel A. Rau, Baiqiang Huang, Jinchang Zhu, Guillaume Freychet, Mikhail Zhernenkov, Li-Heng Cai 3D printable modular soft elastomers from physically cross-linked homogeneous associative polymers Journal Article. In: ACS Polymers Au, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 98–108, 2024. Jinchang Zhu, Yi He, Yong Wang, Li-Heng Cai Voxelated bioprinting of modular double-network bio-ink droplets Journal Article. In: Nature Communications, vol. 15, pp. 5902, 2024. Zhi Jian He, Catherine Chu, Riley Dickson, Kenichi Okuda, Li-Heng Cai A gel-coated air-liquid-interface culture system with tunable substrate stiffness matching healthy and diseased lung tissues Journal Article. In: American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology, vol. 326, no. 3, pp. L292–L302, 2024. Shifeng Nian, Shalin Patil, Siteng Zhang, Myoeum Kim, Quan Chen, Mikhail Zhernenkov, Ting Ge, Shiwang Cheng, Li-Heng Cai Dynamics of associative polymers with high density of reversible bonds Journal Article. In: Physical Review Letters, vol. 130, no. 22, pp. 228101, 2023. Jinchang Zhu, Li-Heng Cai All-aqueous printing of viscoelastic droplets in yield-stress fluids Journal Article. In: Acta Biomaterialia, vol. 165, no. 2023, pp. 60–71, 2023. Shifeng Nian, Baiqiang Huang, Guillaume Freychet, Mikhail Zhernenkov, Li-Heng Cai Unexpected folding of bottlebrush polymers in melts Journal Article. In: Macromolecules, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 2551–2559, 2023. Jinchang Zhu, Yi He, Linlin Kong, Zhijian He, Kaylen Y. Kang, Shannon P. Grady, Leander Q. Nguyen, Dong Chen, Yong Wang, Jose Oberholzer, Li-Heng Cai Digital assembly of spherical viscoelastic bio-ink particles Journal Article. In: Advanced Functional Materials, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 1–11, 2022. Shifeng Nian, Li-Heng Cai Dynamic mechanical properties of self-assembled bottlebrush polymer networks Journal Article. In: Macromolecules, vol. 55, no. 18, pp. 8058–8066, 2022. Shifeng Nian, Jinchang Zhu, Haozhe Zhang, Zihao Gong, Guillaume Freychet, Mikhail Zhernenkov, Baoxing Xu, Li-Heng Cai Three-dimensional printable, extremely soft, stretchable, and reversible elastomers from molecular architecture-directed assembly Journal Article. In: Chemistry of Materials, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 2436–2445, 2021. Yinan Shen, Huayin Wu, Peter J. Lu, Dianzhuo Wang, Marjan Shayegan, Hui Li, Weichao Shi, Zizhao Wang, Li-Heng Cai, Jing Xia, Meng Zhang, Ruihua Ding, Harald Herrmann, Robert Goldman, Fred C. Mackintosh, Arturo Moncho-Jordá, David A. Weitz Effects of vimentin intermediate filaments on the structure and dynamics of in vitro multicomponent interpenetrating cytoskeletal networks Journal Article. In: Physical Review Letters, vol. 127, no. 10, pp. 108101, 2021. Jing Xia, Li-Heng Cai, Huayin Wu, Frederick C. MacKintosh, David A. Weitz Anomalous mechanics of Zn2+-modified fibrin networks Journal Article. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 118, no. 10, pp. e2020541118, 2021. Shifeng Nian, Zhouhao Fan, Guillaume Freychet, Mikhail Zhernenkov, Stefanie Redemann, Li-Heng Cai Self-assembly of flexible linear-semiflexible bottlebrush-flexible linear triblock copolymers Journal Article. In: Macromolecules, vol. 54, no. 20, pp. 9361–9371, 2021. Yue Zhang, Mengtian Yin, Yongmin Baek, Kyusang Lee, Giovanni Zangari, Li-Heng Cai, Baoxing Xu Capillary transfer of soft films Journal Article. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117, no. 10, pp. 5210–5216, 2020. Yongcheng Wang, Ting Cao, Jina Ko, Yinan Shen, Will Zong, Kuanwei Sheng, Wenjian Cao, Sijie Sun, Li-Heng Cai, Ying Lin Zhou, Xin Xiang Zhang, Chenghang Zong, Ralph Weissleder, David Weitz Dissolvable Polyacrylamide Beads for High-Throughput Droplet DNA Barcoding Journal Article. In: Advanced Science, vol. 7, no. 8, pp. 1–8, 2020. Ruihua Ding, K. -C. Kuo-Chan Hung, Anindita Mitra, L. W. Lloyd W Ung, Daniel Lightwood, Ran Tu, Dale Starkie, Li-Heng Cai, Linas Mazutis, Shaorong Chong, D. A. Weitz, J. A. Heyman Rapid isolation of antigen-specific B-cells using droplet microfluidics Journal Article. In: RSC Advances, vol. 10, no. 45, pp. 27006–27013, 2020. Xing Zheng Wang, Chen Jing Yang, Li-Heng Cai, Dong Chen The rheology property of organogels based on 3D helical nanofilament bnetworks self-assembled by bent-core liquid crystals Journal Article. In: Acta Physica Sinica, vol. 69, no. 8, pp. 86102, 2020. Li Heng Cai Molecular understanding for large deformations of soft bottlebrush polymer networks Journal Article. In: Soft Matter, vol. 16, no. 27, pp. 6259–6264, 2020. Shifeng Nian, Huada Lian, Zihao Gong, Mikhail Zhernenkov, Jian Qin, Li-Heng Cai Molecular architecture directs linear-bottlebrush-linear triblock copolymers to self-assemble to soft reprocessable elastomers Journal Article. In: ACS Macro Letters, vol. 8, no. 11, pp. 1528–1534, 2019. Bobby Haney, Dong Chen, Li-Heng Cai, David Weitz, Subramanian Ramakrishnan Millimeter-size Pickering emulsions stabilized with Janus microparticles Journal Article. In: Langmuir, vol. 35, no. 13, pp. 4693–4701, 2019. Brian Button, Henry P. Goodell, Eyad Atieh, Yu-Cheng Cheng Chen, Robert Williams, Siddharth Shenoy, Elijah Lackey, Nathan T. Shenkute, Li-Heng Cai, Robert G. Dennis, Richard C. Boucher, Michael Rubinstein Roles of mucus adhesion and cohesion in cough clearance Journal Article. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 115, no. 49, pp. 12501–12506, 2018.