Xi (Charlie) Ren

Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh PA

Carnegie Mellon University
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Biography

Xi Ren (Charlie) was trained as a developmental biologist during his graduate study focusing on the vascular and hematopoietic systems. Moving from vascular development to vascular engineering, he joined the Laboratory for Organ Engineering and Regeneration at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2012. He became Instructor in Surgery at Harvard Medical School in 2016. During this time, he developed systematic strategies for engineering functional vasculature based on decellularized organ scaffolds. He joined the faculty of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 2017.

Areas of Expertise

extracellular matrix engineering

vascular engineering

whole organ decellularization

cardiopulmonary engineering

Regenerative Therapy

Biomaterial-Cell Interactions

Vascular Biology

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Biology

developmental biology

Organ Engineering

Organ Donation

Accomplishments

Dean’s Early Career Fellow

In recognition of his innovation and research breakthroughs. Nontenured faculty are considered for the award by the Engineering Review Committee after being nominated by their department heads. Fellows receive discretionary funding that lasts for three years or until they are named full professors.

National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award

The NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program awards grants to “early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

This is a five-year grant for research into the role of the extracellular environment in lung tissue maturation during embryonic development and lung tissue regeneration after surgical procedures.

Education

Peking University

Ph.D.

Cell Biology

Peking University

B.Sc.

Biological Science

Research Focus

Overview

Research in the Ren Lab works at the interface of biomaterial and stem cell engineering, with the goal of providing regenerative therapeutic solutions to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs. The extracellular matrix is an essential niche component that maintains tissue homeostasis and drives tissue regeneration upon injury. We are developing biologically selective and chemoselective approaches enabling extracellular matrix modulation and functionalization to boost injury repair in vivo and whole-organ bioengineering in vitro. In parallel, we are working to decipher inter-organ and intra-organ endothelial heterogeneity, and thereby to engineer organ-specific vasculature. One of our main model systems is the lung.

Research Interests: vascular engineering; extracellular matrix engineering; cardiopulmonary engineering; whole organ decellularization and regeneration