Dr. Hongwei Chen is a Research Assistant Professor. He received his PhD in polymer science and engineering in 2005 from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and was a postdoctoral research fellow at USTC (2005-2007), Emory University, in Atlanta, Ga. (2008-2011), and the University of Michigan (2011-2012). His research faculty started as an Assistant Research Scientist in 2012 in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. He was promoted to Research Assistant Professor in 2018.
His research focuses on tumor-derived exosomes, tiny membrane vesicles (30-100 nm) secreted from cancer cells containing functional biomolecules such as lipids, proteins, RNA, and DNA, and those nano-vesicles' role in tumor immunity, immunosuppression, and tumor metastasis. The long-term goal of his research is to understand the molecular and cellular mechanism of tumor-derived exosome-mediated immunosuppression in tumor immunity, and to develop novel translational nanomedicine-based strategy to overcome immunosuppression and to enhance cancer immunotherapy.