Wenji Dong
Meet Wenji Dong, assistant professor of bioengineering in the School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering. He teaches cellular bioengineering, a class that includes a hands-on lab component.
What is bioengineering, exactly?
Bioengineering combines engineering principles and equipment with biology and medicine.
Bioengineers develop devices for medical treatment, instruments for monitoring biological processes, and even space suits worn by astronauts. It was bioengineers who developed the first artificial heart in 1982, so the field is not new — but it is rapidly growing.
How it matters
He is studying how the heart is regulated and controlled, which is critical to preventing, diagnosing, and treating myocardial diseases.
For instance, recently a Southern Indiana senior basketball player collapsed and died during a game. Although he'd had no indication of illness, autopsy results showed he had a heart problem — a silent genetic mutation that was ultimately fatal.In Dr. Dong's laboratory at WSU, he and his research assistants are developing a test to detect proteins in the blood that show up when a person has this type of silent heart problem.
Right now Wenji is working on several multi-disciplinary research projects that involve cardiac muscle biology and mechanics, protein chemistry and engineering, fluorescence techniques, computer modeling, and nanoscale biosensor design.
Students in the lab: it's not just an exercise
Wenji is passionate about getting students engaged in bioengineering.
Students who work in his lab learn biochemistry, motor genetics, and biophysics techniques. They're exposed to the cardiovascular system, protein biochemistry and molecular biology, and use a broad variety of techniques that prepare them for many different career opportunities.
They get to design and fabricate nanoparticles and vesicle particles, and modify these particles with fluorescent probes, learn and apply fluorescence spectroscopy techniques to sensor construction, develop assay for drug screening, and perform computer modeling for cardiac myofilament activation and deactivation.
"You can do so much with a career in bioengineering," says Wenji. "Like work to develop lab protocols for hospitals, produce instruments for diagnostics, or work with a manufacturer to produce medical instruments or a new drug.
"You can imagine what you can do with bioengineering and medical research."
"Imagine what you can do with bioengineering and medical research."