Associate Professor

Class 1954 Career Development Chair

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research interest:

1. Cell dynamics during cancer growth

2. Mechanical heterogeneity of cancer cells and ECM

3. Nonlinear mechanical properties of the ECM and its effects on cancer cell behavior

Research interests:

1. Equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium physics of cytoplasm.

2. Developing new methods and instrumentation to measure the mechanics and dynamics of the cell.

Wenhui received her B.Eng. in Renewable Energy Engineering in 2018 from Xi’an Jiaotong University in China. Currently, she is working on collective cell migration on curved biological surfaces. She likes skiing, running and cooking in her spare time.

Fan obtained his BS from Beihang Unversity and MS from Tsinghua University. His previous works include medical robotics, triboelectric nanogenerators, microplasma. He started his PhD at MIT in 2019, and currently is working on instrumentation regarding Mechanics of tumors.

Haiqian is a MechE graduate student. He is working on understanding spatial and temporal organization of multicellular systems.

Camille earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Florida in 2021. She is currently studying the non-linear mechanics and role of intermediate filaments within the cytoskeletal network. In her free time she likes to paint, read, and explore.

Lani received her S.B. in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Computing from MIT in 2021. Her previous experience includes product design and quality assurance for biological settings. She is currently working to characterize the cell mechanics of aging. 

Elise earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Yale in 2018. Her work is focused on generating functional tissue engineered models of mucosal barrier tissues, co-advised with Prof. Linda Griffith. Her primary interest is in the interplay of cell-generated mechanical forces with differentiation, regeneration, and morphogenic pattern development.

Joseph is a fourth-year MechE undergraduate student with an interest in studying solid-mechanics. He loves arthropods and is working on the characterization of their soft membranes.