Dr. Ngan F. Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University and Principal Investigator at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Dr. Huang completed her BS in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a PhD in bioengineering from the University of California Berkeley & University of California San Francisco Joint Program in Bioengineering. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a postdoctoral scholar in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University. Her laboratory investigates the interactions between stem cells and extracellular matrix microenvironment for engineering cardiovascular tissues to treat cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases. Dr. Huang has authored over 100 publications and patents, including reports in Nat Med, PNAS, and Nano Lett. She has received numerous honors, most recently including the Society for Biomaterials Mid-Career Award, the Alan Hirsch Mid-Career Award in Vascular Medicine from the American Heart Association, and the inaugural Elena Aikawa Trailblazer award from the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology. She has been inducted as a fellow of the American Heart Association as well as the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Her research is funded by the NIH, Department of Defense, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, American Heart Association, and Department of Veteran Affairs.
Dr. Huang's laboratory aims to understand the chemical and mechanical interactions between extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and pluripotent stem cells that regulate vascular and myogenic function. The fundamental insights of cell-matrix interactions are applied towards stem cell-based therapies with respect to improving cell survival and regenerative capacity, as well as engineered vascularized tissues for therapeutic transplantation. Current projects focus on various aspects of mechanical and physical factors on tissue regeneration.
