Academic and Teaching Staff

Professor Tan, Youhua is a FULL Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof. Tan obtained his Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2005, and PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from City University of Hong Kong and University of Science and Technology of China in 2010, respectively. After completing the postdoctoral training in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he joined The Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Assistant Professor in 2015 and was promoted to tenured Associate Professor in 2021.

Prof. Tan's research is to unveil the roles of mechanical cues in tumor initiation and metastasis and develop new mechanomedicine and mechanotargeting strategies. His research has demonstrated that: 1) the mechanics of the tumor microenvironment regulate various malignant functions, including tumorigenicity, metastatic organotropism, and resistance to ferroptosis. In particular, local soft/stiff niches within the mechanically heterogeneous primary lesion instruct the metastasis of tumor cells into brain/bone tissue; 2) the softness/stiffness of tumor cells enhances/suppresses their self-renewal, tumorigenic, and metastatic potential; 3) contractile forces generated by tumor cells propagate to neighbouring cells to facilitate Notch activation and drug resistance; 4) circulating tumor cells mechanically adapt to fluid shear stress and survive in blood circulation by redistributing activated myosin into cytoplasm to disrupt the binding of myosin with actin and decrease the force transmission efficiency. The research findings have been published in a number of leading international journals, including Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Science Advances, PNAS, Advanced Science, The Innovation, Research, Oncogene, Nano Letters, Bioactive Materials, Acta Biomaterialia, etc. His research has been supported by many research grants (>HK$50 M).

• Ph.D. in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Sep 2005 – Jun 2010
• Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, China, Sep 2001 – Jun 2005

Present academic positions

• Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Jul 2026 – Present

Previous academic position

• Associate Professor (Tenured), Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Jul 2021 –Jun 2026
• Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Jul 2015 – June 2021
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, Mar 2011 – Jun 2015