People
Prof. Haogang Cai
Principal Investigator
Prof. Haogang Cai is currently an assistant professor in the Health Technology and Engineering Institute (Tech4Health) at NYU Grossman School of Medicine (NYUGSOM). He also holds a cross-appointment with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Prof. Cai received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University in 2016, under the supervision of Prof. Shalom Wind, and in close collaboration with Prof. Michael Sheetz in Biological Sciences and Prof. Michael Dustin at NYUGSOM. From 2016 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Daniel Lopez in the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory. With a multidisciplinary academic and training background, he is the author and coauthor of many publications, book chapters and patents, including articles in Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Materials, Nature Protocols, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, etc. His research interests include cell mechanobiology, metasurfaces and nanophotonics, biomedical engineering, nanotechnology and nanofabrication, etc.
Dr. Hao Wang
Research Scientist
Hao received his Ph.D. degree in 2017 from the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN) in Analytical Chemistry, under the supervision of Prof. Zachary Schultz. From June 2017 to October 2020, he was a postdoc associate working with Prof. Laura Fabris in Rutgers University on the development of plasmonic nanoparticles based biosensors for the detection of genetic sequences and opioid drugs. In 2021, he had a one-year stint working at Duke University on toxicological effects of metal oxides nanoparticles. He is the author and co-author of one book chapter and 14 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Chemical Science, Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, etc. His research interests centered around mechanistic understandings and biological imaging of cellular receptor activation, multifunctional intracellular sensors through designing biocompatible and anti-fouling nanomaterials, integrated plasmonic nano-devices for point-of-care diagnostics of diseases.
Dr. Ashish Pandey
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ashish received his Master’s Degree from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, in 2011. Then, he worked as a Research fellow at DDIT University, India. In 2013 he joined Sabanci University as a researcher, and has worked in the field of Biosensors till 2017. He then joined Prof. Mark Schvartman’s group at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, as a Ph.D. scholar, and completed his Ph.D. in 2022. He is the author and co-author of several peer-reviewed research and review articles in reputed journals such as Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Chemical Engineering Journal, Nanoscale, Sensors and Actuators B, Soft matter, etc. His research interests include, Nano- and micro-fabrication, Nanotechnology, Immunotherapy, Mechanobiology, Biosensors and Lab on chip.
Dr. Gregory Roberts
Postdoctoral Fellow (Joint appointment with Shoham Lab)
Greg received his PhD in applied physics from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in August (2023) working under Professor Andrei Faraon. His work focused on pioneering the development of volumetric photonic metamaterials with applications in improving efficiency and augmenting capabilities of modern image sensors. Before Caltech, Greg worked for an augmented reality company called Magic Leap as an embedded software engineer following his Bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley in electrical engineering and computer science. His current research interests center around exploring how novel biomedical imaging, optical sensing, and light-based 3d printing systems can be enabled via metaoptics design techniques. Outside of the lab, Greg enjoys running, triathlons, playing soccer, and hiking.
Nanzhong Deng
PhD Student
I graduated with my Bachelor of Engineering in 2019 from Department of Material Science, Zhejiang University in China and then received my M.S. degree at the University of Oklahoma in the States in 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Chuanbin Mao and Prof. Christina R. Bourne. In 2021, I worked at the Strategic Investment Department of ByteDance Ltd. as a Bio-Tech analyst intern. In 2022, I worked for AstraZeneca (China) as a Management Trainee. Now I am pursuing my Ph.D. degree at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, NYU. My main research interests are Mechanobiology, Bio-sensing and Biomaterials. Stay Hungry! Stay Foolish!
Yue Xiao
Undergraduate, NYU.
Isabella Viera
Undergraduate, NYU.
Lab Alumni
Dr. Arash Nemati
2023. Postdoctoral Fellow. PhD from National University of Singapore.
Dr. Ofra Zidon
2021-2022. Visiting researcher, Hadassah University Medical Center, Israel.
Xinye Chen
Summer 2021. Visiting PhD student, UC Riverside.
Nicola Kubzdela
Summer 2022. Master student. Electrical Engineering, Stanford University.
Aliha Nisha
Spring, Summer 2022. Undergraduate. Bioengineering, NYU Abu Dhabi.
Hsuan-Ming Chi
Summer, Fall 2022. Master student. Biotechnology, NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
Hazim Saleem
Summer 2023. Undergraduate. Chemistry and Biotechnology, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany.