1. Biomaterials for Multi-Tissue Regeneration and Tissue Engineering.
2. Functional Genomic Approaches to Study Musculoskeletal Biology and Regeneration.
3. Computer-Vision-based Approaches for Cell Detection and Tracking.

Musculoskeletal Biology and Tissue Engineering

1. Wang, D., Zhang, X., Huang, S., Liu, Y., Fu, B.S., Mak, K.K., Blocki, A.M., Yung, P.S., Tuan, R.S., & Ker, D.F.E.^*, (2021) Engineering Multi-Tissue Units for Regenerative Medicine: Bone-Tendon-Muscle Units of the Rotator Cuff. Biomaterials, 272, 120789, doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.120789 .
2. Wang, D., Ker, D.F.E.^#*, Ng, K.W., Li, K., Gharaibeh, B., Safran, M., Cheung, E., Campbell, P.G., Weiss, L.E., & Yang, Y.P. (2021) Combinatorial Mechanical-Gradation and Growth Factor-Biopatterning Strategy to Spatially Control Bone-Tendon-like Cell Differentiation and Tissue Formation. NPG Asia Materials, 13, 26, doi.org/10.1038/s41427-021-00294-z .
3. Zhang, X., Wang, D., Mak, K.K., Tuan, R.S., & Ker, D.F.E.^*, (2021) Engineering Musculoskeletal Grafts for Multi-Tissue Unit Repair: Lessons from Developmental Biology and Wound Healing. Frontiers in Physiology, 12, 1287, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2021.691954/full .
4. Shanjani, Y., Siebert, S.M., Ker, D.F.E., Mercado-Pagan, A.E., & Yang, Y.P. (2020) Acoustic Patterning of Growth Factor for 3D Tissue Engineering. Tissue Engineering Part A , 26 (11-12), 602-612, doi.org/10.1089/ten.tea.2019.0271 .
5. Ker, D.F.E., & Yang, Y.P. (2019). Ruminants: Evolutionary past and future impact. Science (Perspective), 364(6446), 1130-1131. doi: 10.1126/science.aax5182.
6. Ker, D.F.E.^#*, Wang, D.^#, Behn, A.W., Wang, E.T.H., Zhang, X., Zhou, B.Y., Mercado-Pagan, A.E., Kim, S., Kleimeyer, J., Gharaibeh, B., Shanjani, Y., Nelson, D., Safran, M., Cheung E., Campbell, P., & Yang, Y.P.* (2018). Functionally Graded, Bone- and Tendon-Like Polyurethane for Rotator Cuff Repair. Advanced Functional Materials, 28(20), 1707107, doi: 10.1002/adfm.201707107 .
7. Ker, D.F.E., Chu, B., Phillippi, J.A., Gharaibeh, B., Huard, J., Weiss, L.E., & Campbell, P.G. (2011). Engineering spatial control of multiple differentiation fates within a stem cell population. Biomaterials, 32(13), 3413-3422, doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.01.036 .
8. Ker, D.F.E., Nain, A., Weiss, L.E., Wang, J., Suhan, J., Amon, C., & Campbell, P.G. (2011). Bioprinting of Growth Factors onto Aligned Sub-micron Fibrous Scaffolds for Simultaneous Control of Cell Differentiation and Alignment. Biomaterials, 32(32), 8097-8107, doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.07.025 .

Computer Vision-Aided Study and Expansion of Stem Cells

1. 1. Nishimura, K., Wang, C., Wantanabe, K., Ker, D.F.E., Bise, R. (2021) Weakly Supervised Cell Instance Segmentation under Various Conditions. Medical Image Analysis, 73, 102182, doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102182
   2. Ker, D.F.E., Eom, S., Sanami, S., Bise, R., Pascale, C., Yin, Z., Huh, S., Osuna-Highley, E., Junkers, S.N., Helfrich, C.J., Liang, P.W., Pan, J., Jeong, S., Kang, S.S., Liu, J., Nicholson, R., Sandbothe, M.F., Van, P.T., Liu, A., Chen, M., Kanade, T., Weiss, L.E., & Campbell, P.G. (2018). Phase contrast time-lapse microscopy datasets with automated and manual cell tracking annotations. Scientific Data, 5, 180237, doi: 10.1038/sdata.2018.237.
   3. Ker, D.F.E., Weiss, L.E., Junkers, S.N., Chen, M., Yin, Z., Sandboth, M.F., Huh, S., Eom, S., Bise, R., Osuna-Highley, E., Kanade, T., & Campbell, P.G. (2011). An Engineered Approach to Stem Cell Culture: Automating the Decision Process for Real-Time Adaptive Subculture of Stem Cells. PLoS ONE, 6(11), e27672, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027672 .

1. * Corresponding / Co-corresponding author

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1.  Co-first author

1. General Research Fund [PI; 2023-2025]: “Facile Connective Tissue Engineering: A 3D-Printed Monolithic Scaffold with Compliant and Growth Factor-Immobilized Regions to Reduce Stress and Induce Multi-Tissue Formation”.
2. Health@InnoHK [PI; 2022-2027]: “Engineering Vascularized Muscle Flaps for Skeletal Muscle Repair”.
3. Health Medical Research Fund [PI; 2021-2024]: “3D-printed, mechanically-graded and growth factor-biopatterned polyurethane for rotator cuff repair”.
4. Early Career Scheme [PI; 2021]: “A semi-automated computer vision-based pipeline for label-free cell instance segmentation in musculoskeletal tissue engineering”.
5. Innovation Technology Fund Tier 3 [PI; 2019-2020]: “Repairing tendon injuries with tissue mimetic biomaterials”.
6. CUHK – Faculty Innovation Award [PI; 2019-2023]: “Multi-tissue engineering of myotendinous graft for rotator cuff repair”.
7. Stanford University Spectrum MedTech [PI; 2017]: “Development of a hybrid suture anchor-tendon graft for rotator cuff repair”.
8. AO Foundation Start-up Grant [PI; 2014-2017]: “Development of a functionally graded polyurethane biomaterial for rotator cuff injury”.