From Rural Roots to Translational Medicine
As a young boy in rural China, Binbin Ying, Ph.D., excelled in mathematics, physics and chemistry. During his undergraduate studies in China, he spent much of his time preparing for the highly competitive national exam that would allow him to attend graduate school.
“I was lucky and got an offer from one of the top three engineering universities in China and their biomedical engineering program was the top one in China at that time,” Dr. Ying said.
While studying to earn his master’s degree at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, Dr. Ying began working on medical device design.
“We had a really cool project designing a miniaturized machine with the capability of cooling and heating the tumor,” he said.
Dr. Ying was able to follow the project from early development through commercialization and clinical trials, witnessing how biomedical engineering could directly improve patient care.
“That’s the moment that made me really excited to leverage my engineering skills to help society,” he said.
The drive to help others would eventually come full circle during his biomedical engineering studies. After earning his master’s degree, Dr. Ying pursued a Ph.D. at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he furthered his research in biomaterials, bioelectronics, and soft robotics.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ying found himself in the midst of an unusual predicament.
“I had to wrap up my thesis project and also take care of my little child who could not attend daycare at that moment,” he said. “Luckily, I finished my Ph.D. smoothly, with strong support from my wife, and was also lucky to be funded by a prestigious postdoctoral research program in Canada.”
While he interviewed with multiple leading universities, he ultimately selected the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the guidance of Giovanni Traverso, M.D., the Director of the Laboratory for Translational Engineering and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Traverso, also a practicing gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was the ideal mentor for Ying’s interest in translational medical devices for gastroenterology.
“One of my close family members had been diagnosed with late-stage colorectal cancer,” Dr. Ying said. “I wanted to do something to help my family and later on to impact the whole society – that is the reason I chose to work with Dr. Giovanni Traverso.”
Under Dr. Traverso’s guidance, Dr. Ying helped develop e-GLUE, a soft, electroadhesive biomaterial that can safely stick to the intestinal wall for extended periods. This breakthrough material has potential uses in stopping GI bleeding, delivering drugs directly to diseased tissue, controlling inflammation, monitoring intestinal health, and even assisting in post-surgical cancer care.
As his first year at MIT ended, Dr. Ying was evaluating whether he needed to wrap up his postdoc research in two or three years. Thankfully, luck was once again on his side.
In 2023, Dr. Ying was selected as a Banting Postdoctoral Researcher for his project e-GLUE: Innovating electroadhesive hydrogels for prolonged gastrointestinal mucosal retention. He was one of just two dozen individuals selected globally in the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) category for this prestigious award.
The award allowed Dr. Ying to remain at MIT conducting research for an additional two years, this time with two advisors – Dr. Traverso and Robert Langer, D.Sc., David H. Koch Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering at MIT. Under the guidance of two advisors, Dr. Ying was able to expand his research even further.
“My research spans from biomaterial to medical robots to ingestible bioelectronics,” he said. “I want to leverage my previous expertise in mechanical engineering, mechatronics, robotics, and biomaterials to design the next generation medical device.”
Dr. Ying describes his idea as a soft medical device, that can safely and gently interface with the body’s delicate tissues. One of his recent concepts, which is essentially a tiny robot, would be ingested by a patient as a capsule and then adhere to the intestinal lining for continuously monitoring intestinal health. Dr. Ying hopes that this smaller, less invasive device could be utilized during procedures, endoscopes and post-procedure monitoring, especially for patients who have had a gastrointestinal tumor removed.
“If we can design something that can be in the local region of a removed tumor, we can have something that signals to the patient and the doctor that the tumor may be growing back,” he said.
This project is one of the key directions Dr. Ying is hoping to expand upon as an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at UT Southwestern. In addition, he is developing soft robotic endoscopes designed to provide more comfortable and precise examinations for patients with gastrointestinal cancers.
“There are so many translational and clinical opportunities at UT Southwestern that can I leverage to help patients,” Dr. Ying said. “I’m really excited to join UT Southwestern BME and I work with an interdisciplinary team of engineers and physicians.”
Outside of research, Dr. Ying’s family is embracing their new home in Texas, and his 7-year-old son is already looking forward to watching the Dallas Mavericks and cheering for Cooper Flagg in person.