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Dr. Xin Zhao is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). She obtained her PhD at University College London, UK and postdoc training at Harvard University, USA, before joining PolyU. Her research interest is on Translational Regenerative Medicine, where she integrates multi-disciplinary approaches including material science, cell biology, engineering and medicine to modulate cell microenvironments, control cell behaviors and generate tissue-engineered organs, for addressing clinical issues.

    So far, she has published >100 articles (with h-index of 38 in Google Scholar, 6 of which are ESI highly cited paper) in prestigious journals including Nat. Mater., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Chem. Rev., Mater. Today, Adv. Funct. Mater., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Biomaterials, Small. She has successfully attracted over 10 grants (⁓11 million) as principal investigator from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC), Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), Innovation and Technology Fund of Hong Kong (ITF), National Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, private company, etc. She is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (優青, 2021, only 25 recipients in Hong Kong and Macau each year), Faculty Award of 2019 (only 3 were selected from over 150 academic staff of the Engineering Faculty of PolyU) and the Engineering Research Grant Achievement Award of 2019 (only 8 were selected from over 150 academic staff of the Engineering Faculty). With only 4 participants selected from Asia, she represented Hong Kong in the prestigious Asia Pacific Research Network Fellowship Program in 2018. In 2020, she also represented PolyU as the K. C. Wong Education Foundation visiting scholar to deliver talks in mainland China. Moreover, she has been shortlisted for the “Nature Research Awards for Inspiring Science” in 2019 (10 shortlisted from >150 applicants globally) and her project “Biomimicking Photocrosslinkable Nanocomposite Bone Graft” has won the Silver Medal at the Special Edition 2021 Inventions Geneva. She is also a founding editor of Engineered Regeneration, associate editor of Bio-Des. Manuf., and guest editor for 11 other journals.

• Bachelor of Engineering, South China Normal University
• Master of Science, University of London
• Doctor of Philosophy, University of London