Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Prior to joining UWM, Dr. Cheng did his postdoc training at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and became a research scientist at University of Nevada Reno. He has contributed to developing quantitative assays for high content screening of organoid models. By using this model, he continued investigating organoid formation under the exposure of environmental factors. He also synthesized C60-nucleic acid probes (patent 10626469 issued by April of 2020) for identifying live foodborne microorganisms. Recently, he initiated development of breast cancer treatment by investigating organoid-fibroblast interactions.

Education

• PhD, Biomedical Engineering, University of South Carolina, 2013
• MS, Biochemical Engineering, Sichuan University, 201
• BS, Bioengineering, Nanjing University of Technology, 2006

Research Interests

• Bioimaging

• Cancer Microenvironment

• Nanotechnology

• Microbiome

Publications

Google Scholar Link

• Jabbari K, Winkelmaier G, Andersen C, Yaswen P, Quilici D, Furuta S,Cheng Q*, Parvin B*. Protein ligands in the secretome of CD36+ fibroblasts induce growth suppression in a subset of breast cancer cell lines. Cancers. 2021. 13(18):4521.
•  Cheng Q, Parvin B. Rapid identification of a subset of foodborne bacteria in live-cell assays. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 2020, 104(24):10571. Doi:10.1007/s00253-020-10970-9. PMID33185701.
•  Cheng Q, Jabbari K, Winkelmaier G, Andersen C, Yaswen P, Khoshdeli M, Parvin B. Over expression of CD36 in mammary fibroblasts suppresses colony growth in breast cancer cell lines. Biochemical and Biophysical, 2020, 526(1): 41:47.
•  Cheng Q, Parvin B. Organoid model of mammographic density displays a higher frequency of aberrant colony formations with radiation exposure. Bioinformatics. 2020. 36(7):1989-1993. .
•  Hu J, Liu S, Cheng Q, Pu S, Mao M, Mu Y, Dan F, Yang J, Ma M. Novel method for improving ardicrenin content in hairy roots of Ardisia crenata Sims plants. J Biotechnol. 2020; 311:12-18.
•  Cheng Q, Khoshdeli M, Ferguson BS, Jabbari K, Zhang C, Parvin B. YY1 is a cis-regulator in the organoid models of high mammographic density. Bioinformatics. 2020. 36(6):1663-1667.
•  Cheng Q, Parvin B. Buckyballs conjugated with nucleic acid sequences identifies microorganisms in live cell assays. J Nanobiotechnology. 2017. 15(1):78.
• Cheng Q,Bilgin CC, Fontenay G, Chang H, Han J, Parvin B, Stiffness of the microenvironment upregulates ERBB2 expression in 3D cultures of MCF10A within the range of mammographic density.  Scientific Report. 2016. 6:31680.
• Cheng Q, Aravind A, Buckley M, Gifford A, Parvin B. Functionalized Buckyballs forVisualizing Microbial Species in Different States and Environments. Scientific Reports. 2015. 5:13685.
• Cheng Q,Jabbarzadeh E. Carbon Nanotube-Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) Composite Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering Applications. Ann Biomed Eng. 2013. 41(5): 904-916.

Community Involvement

• Referee for Journal of Biomedical Materials Engineering Research Part A., Carbohydrate, Plant and soil, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, MDPI Diagnostic and MDPI Cells.
• NIH Review Panel: ZRG1 OTC1-M(80), 2022.
• Co-Founder of RiboFlare, developing microbial probes for food industry.
• Member of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Biomedical Engineering Society and IEEE.