Xiao Wan

Xiao is a Training Fellow sponsored by National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). Before her DPhil training with Institute of Biomedical Engineering in University of Oxford, Xiao obtained her bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences followed by a master’s degree in Chemical Biology from Peking University in China. Xiao’s expertise is miniaturised human physiomimetic systems, creating artificial tissue to replicate physiological and pathological processes in the human body. Examples include but are not limited to microvasculature architecture, cancer angiogenesis microenvironment and neural stem cell niche. She uses mainly human-originated materials, including cell lines which were genetically modified to be immortal, and primary tissue and cells which reflect individual features. She designs and develops highly interdisciplinary modelling and analysis tools with her collaborators in UK and China, and her current work in TDI focuses on developing and adapting advanced 3D in vitro models for phenotypic screenings, facilitated via techniques such as co-culture, hydrogel engineering, perfused mini-bioreactors and microfluidic organs-on-chips. These models will bridge the current 2D monolayer in vitro models and conventional animal models by mimicking the dynamics of tissue growth, differentiation, phenotypic plasticity and interacellular, cellular-matrix communications in a 3D, heterogeneous perfusion environment. Xiao is also an active member of the US Radiation Research Society, and a reviewer for interdisciplinary engineering journals such as Biotechnology Letters.