Xiaoping Bao, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, has been selected for the 2023 BMES-CMBE Rising Star Junior Faculty Award as part of the 2023 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) - Cell and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) Conference taking place January 2-6, 2023 in Indian Wells, California. This highly-competitive award recognizes exceptional junior principal investigators in the field of cell and molecular bioengineering. 

"I am honored and humbled to receive the 2023 Biomedical Engineering Society Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Junior Faculty Rising Star award. I am also proud of my research team who deserve equal praise for their accomplishments,” Bao said of the award. 

The CMBE special interest group’s goal is to “maintain its multidisciplinary character and central research focus, and is committed to supporting new investigators within the field.” The group selects faculty at the rank of assistant professor or recently-tenured associate professor for the rising star recognition. 

As part of the award, Bao will provide a podium presentation of his research abstract included with his submission in a special session at the annual conference. Bao’s research is focused on improving the treatment for the most common type of brain tumor - Glioblastoma (GBM). The effectiveness of current methods is limited due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) that is designed to protect the central nervous system, but also inadvertently protects the cancer cells as well during treatment. The research team demonstrated the successful engineering of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) with synthetic chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and directing them to become CAR-neutrophils and can cross the blood-brain barrier to penetrate tumors. Researchers also tested and concluded that hPSC-derived CAR-neutrophils could also be used as an effective drug carrier, and serve as a new dual chemoimmunotherapy. CAR neutrophil-mediated drug delivery may provide an effective and universal strategy for specific targeting of solid tumors.

Bao will be recognized, along with the other recipients of the award, at the conference Gala dinner.