UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Xiaojun “Lance” Lian, associate professor of biomedical engineering, is set to be the Symbiotic podcast’s final guest for 2022 when he appears at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 28 on the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences’ livestream page.
Lian, an award-winning stem cell engineer, has advanced his field in a multitude of ways. Methods developed in his lab have radically improved yields, increased the accuracy of differentiation, shortened the time needed to produce cells, and lowered the cost of production.
His process for producing cardiomyocytes from stem cells has become the new gold standard internationally, and he has successfully produced pancreatic beta cells capable of making insulin. Additionally, Lian’s lab has tackled the problem of immune system rejection, engineering universal therapeutic cells that can enter a patient’s body without being detected as foreign material.
Lian’s work has produced patents licensed by major biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including one exploring a potential treatment for cardiac patients.