Dr. Niu obtained his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences from the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBS) in late 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Woody W.Y. Chan. During his study, his research interest mainly focused on the induction and characterization of neural crest stem cells derived from pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) using a megacolon mouse model.

After graduation, Dr. Niu joined Dr. Stanislav Tomarev’s laboratory in the National Eye Institute at National Institutes of Health, U.S.A. as a postdoctoral fellow in 2018, where he started his research on the application of stem cells on the glaucoma treatment. During this period, Dr. Niu tried to apply human iPSC-induced neural crest stem cells on different glaucoma animal models in order to figure out the behavior of the transplanted neural crest stem cells in the eye environment. Starting from May 2021, Dr. Niu has been working as a postdoc associate in Dr. Matthew Greenblatt’s laboratory at Weill Cornell Medicine, U.S.A to discover new stem cell types in bone tissues.

Dr. Niu is convinced that the training on stem cell research received in his Ph.D. study at SBS has laid down a concrete foundation for his current research work and career development. He aspires to be an independent researcher with his own research team in the future.

Dr. Niu (last row) with Dr. Greenblatt (2nd row, left) and his lab mates at Weill Cornell Medicine

Dr. Niu (left)