Professor Younan Xia is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Hopkins well reputed for his extensive experience and work with nanomaterials. He was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering, a significant accomplishment. In an interview with The News-Letter, he discussed his research and shared some of his insights.
Hailing from a background in chemistry, Professor Xia’s research primarily focuses on nanomaterial development. In addition to studying the fundamental science involved — such as the morphology explaining the specific shapes and sizes formed — his lab has a major emphasis on finding their applications. For instance, they are involved in energy conversions using fuel cells, an essential innovation to minimize pollution. Additionally, nanomaterials have countless biomedical uses from being efficient carriers for delivering drugs to even regenerative medicine.
This has been a special area of interest for Professor Xia, especially using scaffolding materials. For example, they can be used to enable stem cells to develop and differentiate, thus benefiting nerve repair. Rotator cuff repair is also another key area of his work, finding ways to resolve joint issues that begin to develop for those 60 years old and above.
“We are trying to find an efficient way to attach tendons to the bone surface to form a strong junction. Right now, the challenge for this rotator cuff repair is really the similarity between these two, even the materials at the interface. Tendon is kind of soft, bone is kind of rigid. If you just put tendon on bone the interface is not stable, it's not robust. It can be detached very easily. So we're trying to find some scaffolding material that can really help that interface to recover,” he explained.
Xia, who recently joined the Hopkins faculty, highlighted the University’s strong biomedical research focus and School of Medicine as key factors supporting his research endeavours. He looks forward to more strongly implementing translational efforts through the medical school over the next few years, including the commercialization of some of the materials his lab is working on.
“One of them is about electrospun nanofibers. You can make fibers very, very thin diameters. Those fibers can be aligned, and basically can guide cellular migration used for wound management. They can be used in the hospitals as patches to allow the wound to close as quickly as possible, to avoid infection.”
His past experiences working with research that grew to become of major interest to industry has served as a useful background for these ventures. His academic background, rooted in working with soft lithography under the guidance of George M. Whitesides has also helped build the bridge to his current work with shaping softer matter in nanomaterials. Reflecting on his journey, Xia highlighted what he found to be the essential qualities of a scientist.
“During this process, you have to have a good understanding… otherwise, you're going to become a technician, right? The difference between scientists and technicians is really the scientific understanding. As a scientist, you always know what you are doing, you don't just repeat things manually and mechanically.”
When speaking specifically about the recent honor of being elected to the National Academy of Engineers, Xia emphasised that his key driving force remained a scientific curiosity and desire to benefit the community rather than awards. He looks forward to carrying out his projects and ensuring his research remains impactful.
“For me, it's really in your curiosity and interest, right? [Wanting] to solve some problem, [wanting] to understand something and trying to get something useful to society. So that's really the driving force… This national academy thing is a good recognition. It's a good thing to have, [but it] should not become your personality.”
