Prof. Xin ZHAO is a Professor at the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Her research interest is on Translational Regenerative Medicine, where she integrates multi-disciplinary approaches including material science, cell biology, engineering and medicine to modulate cell microenvironments, control cell behaviours and generate tissue-engineered organs, for addressing clinical issues.

So far, she has published >100 articles (with h-index of 64 in Google Scholar, 8 of which are ESI highly cited paper) in prestigious journals including Nat. Mater., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Chem. Rev., Mater. Today, Adv. Funct. Mater., Biomaterials, Small. She is recognised in the list of “Highly Cited Researchers 2022” by Clarivate Analytics and “The World’s Top 2% Scientists 2023 & 2024” by Stanford University, for her significant research impact. She is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars 2021, President’s Award-Outstanding Young Researcher 2022, the Mid-Career Award of Chinese Association for Biomaterials 2022, and the Biomaterials Award for Young Investigator 2024 by Elsevier Ltd. Her research product “Biomimicking Photocrosslinkable Nanocomposite Bone Grafts” has won the Silver Medal at the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva 2021, 2023 TechConnect Global Innovation Award and the Gold Medal at the 6^th China (Shanghai) International Exhibition of Inventions 2023. This research product has also secured financial support from the Incu-Bio Programme (HK$ 4 million) from The Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and TSSSU-O from Innovation and Technology Comission (HK$ 500 k) for clinical translation of the revolutionary materials. Another project " 3D printed Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) bone scaffolds" won the Prize of the Croatian Union of Innovators and Silver Award at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival (SVIIF) 2024, and gold medal of International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva 2024. Additionally, she has successfully attracted over 20 grants (⁓23 million) as principal investigator from the Hong Kong RGC (including the highly competitive CRF, NSFC-RGC), HMRF, ITF, NSFC, etc. She is also a founding editor of Engineered Regeneration, associate editor of Mater. Today Bio and Bio-Des. Manuf., and guest editor for 11 other journals.

Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, Tissue Engineering, Cell Micro-environment, Microfluidics