Associate Vice President (Mainland Research Advancement)

Professor Dong Cheng is Associate Vice President (Mainland Research Advancement) and Chair Professor of Cell Engineering and ImmunoMedicine in the Department of Biomedical Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He also serves as the Director of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute (SZRI).

Professor Dong obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China in 1982. He further received his higher degrees from Columbia University, USA including a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics in 1984, as well as a Master of Philosophy degree in 1986 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1988, both in Bioengineering and Engineering Mechanics. Professor Dong joined the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), USA as Assistant Professor in 1992 and was promoted to Associate Professor and Professor in 1997 and 2003 respectively. He has been appointed as Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering since 2009 and also served as Department Head of Biomedical Engineering at Penn State during 2011-22.

Professor Dong is a Member of the United States National Committee on Biomechanics; a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE); a Council Member of the International Society of Biorheology; a past Chair of the BMES Cellular & Molecular Bioengineering Special Group; and a past Secretary of the US national Biomedical Engineering Council of Chairs. He is a Managing Editor for Frontiers in Bioscience; an Associate Editor for the BMES Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics; and an Editorial Member of the Journal of Medical Biomechanics and journal of Medicine in Novel Technology and Devices. He has received several prestigious awards, including the Faculty Career Award from the US National Science Foundation; Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society; Y.C. Fung Investigator Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Melville Medal and Best Journal Paper Award from ASME; and Harold Lamport Young Investigator Award from BMES.

A major focus of Professor Dong's research is to elucidate cellular functions in the circulatory system related to cell adhesion and migration, and study micro-hemodynamics, cellular biomechanics, inter-/intra-cellular signaling, cancer immunology and metastases. In particular, he investigates how fluid dynamics, adhesion kinetics and tumor microenvironment change leukocyte and endothelial immune functions which subsequently affect tumor cell extravasation and metastasis. In recent years, Professor Dong focuses on cell engineering and adaptive immunotherapies, using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immune cell mediated nanoparticle, drug, antibody or miRNA deliveries that target either brain tumors across the blood-brain barrier or inflammatory responses in regenerative tissues.