Chien-Chi Lin, Purdue professor of biomedical engineering in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering in Indianapolis.

Chien-Chi Lin is a Purdue professor of biomedical engineering in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering in Indianapolis. The biomedical engineer takes full advantage of the collaborative opportunities available in Indianapolis with co-investigators and colleagues at the Indiana University School of Medicine as he focusses on creating new biomaterials for basic science and translational research, especially for therapeutically relevant areas such as type I diabetes, pancreatic cancer, and pluripotent stem cell differentiation; many of the materials created in his lab have received patent protection or are currently pending review. Professor Lin embraces his role as an educator as well as researcher, teaching students how to learn from proactive and creative thinking and how to consider the bigger economic and societal context of their work.

We sat down with Professor Lin for a chat.

Cancer Bioengineering and Tissue Regeneration

What is your research focus? What investigative avenues are you pursuing?

My research focuses on developing advanced polymeric biomaterials, particularly hydrogels, to study and engineer biological systems for applications in cancer bioengineering and tissue regeneration. Here are the key research areas in my lab:

• Cancer Engineering: My lab designs hydrogels with tunable physicochemical properties to mimic the extracellular matrix. These hydrogels are used to study cell-matrix interactions in the tumor microenvironment, particularly in pancreatic cancer. The goal is to elucidate molecular mechanisms governing cancer progression and identify novel therapeutic targets.

• Artificial Stem Cell Niches: The lab develops biomimetic hydrogels to create artificial stem cell niches, supporting the differentiation and growth of stem and progenitor cells. This research aims to advance tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. The current focus is to use dynamic hydrogels to engineer functional pancreatic organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells for modeling pancreatic diseases.

How helpful/important is it for you to be in Indianapolis?

Being in Indianapolis brings a long list of benefits for my research, particularly the proximity to Indiana University School of Medicine and the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. Many of my federally funded projects have IU School of Medicine co-investigators and colleagues on this campus offer complimentary expertise to advance the mission of my research. Affiliation with Purdue offers additional benefits, including the strong brand recognition of Purdue Engineering, the outstanding quality of the undergraduate and graduate students, and the physical resources that we begin to utilize (e.g., Purdue Proteomics Facility in Bindley Bioscience Center).

What is your philosophy of teaching?

As an educator, I embrace critical pedagogy that encourages students to tackle biomedical problems with consideration of a bigger economic and societal context. I have teaching experience at both undergraduate and graduate levels, but in recent years I have focused more on graduate level courses — Tissue Engineering, Engineering Principles for Biomolecular Interactions and Cancer Engineering. These courses cover not only the fundamentals of biomaterials science and engineering, but also advanced topics in immunotherapy, directed evolution, display technologies and cancer technologies. I make every effort to encourage students to connect each engineering principle with related biological phenomena and the most up-to-date progress in the related fields (e.g., CAR-T therapy, SARS-CoV-2 & COVID-19). I want my students to learn from proactive and creative thinking. Since the courses that I have taught are all closely related to my research, I have had the opportunity to incorporate and integrate various aspects of my research into the teaching of all three graduate-level courses.

Students today have access to many online resources that aid their learning. However, online resources cannot provide hands-on experience, technical communication and critical evaluation of literature. My own learning experiences have taught me that logical thinking is the key to understanding and solving complex engineering problems. Therefore, instead of directly lecturing students on the answers to questions and problems, I often guide the students with back-and-forth questioning/answering on selected topics. Students expect the instructor to communicate with them and not just deliver the contents. Hence, I devote an appropriate amount of lecture time to interacting with the students, from making frequent eye contact to asking them questions and encouraging them to express their opinions. Class participation has been a very important ingredient in all of my teaching. From students’ teaching evaluations, I have learned that students felt my passion for many subjects and subsequently they were encouraged to learn more and perform better.

What was your path like prior to present day?

Before I started my PhD program, I never thought I would become a professor. In fact, entering a PhD program was not what I had in mind during the end of my college years. I pursued an MS degree in Chemical Engineering because that’s what most of my peers did back in Taiwan. However, once I started my master’s degree research, I became fascinated by how engineering principles could be leveraged to solve biological problems. My MS thesis was on designing a continuous dialysis platform to facilitate protein folding. I thoroughly enjoyed the research topic, the literature search (in an actual library and used a copy machine to copy the papers of interests), and most importantly the trouble-shooting techniques that I learned during the process. After graduating with an MS degree and completing my compulsory military service, I worked as a research technician in a medical school for three years, gaining valuable experience in biomedicine. That’s when I decided that I would pursue a PhD degree in the U.S. I was trained as a chemical engineer with a BS and an MS degree and became a bioengineer during my PhD and postdoc years. These experiences paved the way for my independent faculty career first at IUPUI and now at Purdue where I have the privilege of running my own independent lab.

What about your future? What are you looking to accomplish in this field?

I am a biomaterial engineer by training and enjoy creating new biomaterials for basic science and translational research. After starting my own lab, I started to work on therapeutically relevant areas, including type 1 diabetes, pancreatic cancer and pluripotent stem cell differentiation. My lab has been creating original hydrogels over the last one and a half decades and many of the materials created in my lab have received patent protection or are currently pending review. My hope is that we continue to collaborate with academic and clinical researchers. I also hope to collaborate with industrial partners to expand the utility of our novel biomaterials in bioprinting space.

Might you share with us a little window into your personality; some distinctive trait, habit of mind, hobby/pursuit outside work…?

I am a calm person and enjoy working out at the gym when I have time. Outside of work, I spend some time learning everything about the universe (from the Big Bang to black holes). I like science fiction and horror movies. But nowadays, I spend the majority of my free time with my family, especially my two young children, Garrett and Elliott. I enjoy being a parent and cherish every minute with them.

Purdue University in Indianapolis launched on July 1, 2024, ending a long-standing collaboration between Purdue University and Indiana University at what was called Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Purdue University in Indianapolis is now part of Purdue University West Lafayette, with multiple locations throughout the city of Indianapolis. It bookends America’s Hard Tech Corridor, which extends from West Lafayette to downtown Indianapolis. And it positions our students, faculty and staff in close proximity to top businesses and leading industries, providing new and unique collaboration, executive education and internship opportunities. The master plan outlines a 50-year picture for Purdue’s presence in the capital city, which will transform Purdue’s urban expansion of its main campus to strengthen industry partnership, research and experiential learning with 16 new buildings on 28 acres with 4.5 million gross square feet, supporting up to 5,320 university residence beds and 15,000 students.