Keyue Shen

Keyue Shen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering of USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He is a Full Member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering (2001) and Master of Science in Biophysics (2004) from Tsinghua University of China. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University in 2010. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), from 2010-2014. He joined the USC faculty in 2015.

Dr. Shen received an MGH Fund for Medical Discovery Award in 2012, a Broad Innovation Award in 2016, a Marni Levine Memorial Research Career Development Award from STOP CANCER in 2017, an NIH Trailblazer Award in 2017, and a Rising Star Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society-Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Conference in 2020. His research interests are in developing in vitro microengineered models of hypoxic tumor microenvironments and stem cell niches for applications in immune and cancer therapeutics, imaging-based biomarkers for cancer and stem cells, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based models and approaches for clinical and basic research applications.

• (PQ5) Microenvironmental Regulation of Mitochondrial Heterogeneity in Cancer Metastasis
  NIH · R01CA220012 · Sep 20, 2019 – Aug 31, 2024 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Artificial Stromal Cell for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Expansion
  NIH · R21EB024748 · Aug 1, 2017 – Apr 30, 2021 · Role: Principal Investigator

• Ultrasound priming gated by solid tumor hallmarks to guide CAR-T therapy. Sci Adv. 2026 Jun 12; 12(24):eaed0666.. View in PubMed
• Tissue regenerative medicine: Clinical advances, challenges, and opportunities. APL Bioeng. 2025 Dec; 9(4):040902.. View in PubMed
• Consensus guidelines for cellular label-free optical metabolic imaging: ensuring accuracy and reproducibility in metabolic profiling. J Biomed Opt. 2025 Feb; 30(Suppl 2):S23901.. View in PubMed
• Precision Epigenetic Reprogramming: CoREST Inhibition Sensitizes STK11-Mutant Tumors to Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy. Cancer Res. 2025 Oct 15; 85(20):3821-3822.. View in PubMed
• Microfabricated Organ-Specific Models of Tumor Microenvironments. Annu Rev Biomed Eng. 2025 05; 27(1):307-333.. View in PubMed
• A micro-metabolic rewiring assay for assessing hypoxia-associated cancer metabolic heterogeneity. Bioact Mater. 2025 Jun; 48:493-509.. View in PubMed
• Profiling paracrine interactions between hypoxic and normoxic skeletal muscle tissue in a microphysiological system fabricated from 3D printed components. Lab Chip. 2025 01 14; 25(2):212-224.. View in PubMed
• Label-free metabolic optical biomarkers track stem cell fate transition in real time. Sci Adv. 2024 05 10; 10(19):eadi6770.. View in PubMed
• Hypoxic 3D Tumor Model for Evaluating of CAR-T Cell Therapy In Vitro. Methods Mol Biol. 2024; 2748:119-134.. View in PubMed
• Cleanroom-Free Microfluidic Device for Natural Induction of Hypoxia in 2D and 3D Tumor Models. Methods Mol Biol. 2024; 2755:227-247.. View in PubMed
• Ectopic Expression of a Truncated Isoform of Hair Keratin 81 in Breast Cancer Alters Biophysical Characteristics to Promote Metastatic Propensity. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2024 02; 11(5):e2300509.. View in PubMed
• Quantifying COVID-19 policy impacts on subjective well-being during the early phase of the pandemic: A cross-sectional analysis of United States survey data from March to August 2020. PLoS One. 2023; 18(9):e0291494.. View in PubMed
• Intracellular and microenvironmental regulation of mitochondrial membrane potential in cancer cells. WIREs Mech Dis. 2023 May-Jun; 15(3):e1595.. View in PubMed
• Recapitulating Tumor Hypoxia in a Cleanroom-Free, Liquid-Pinning-Based Microfluidic Tumor Model. ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2022 07 11; 8(7):3107-3121.. View in PubMed
• Manipulation and Mechanical Deformation of Leukemia Cells by High-Frequency Ultrasound Single Beam. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. 2022 06; 69(6):1889-1897.. View in PubMed
• A Pillar-Free Diffusion Device for Studying Chemotaxis on Supported Lipid Bilayers. Micromachines (Basel). 2021 Oct 16; 12(10).. View in PubMed
• E-Cadherin Regulates Mitochondrial Membrane Potential in Cancer Cells. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Oct 09; 13(20).. View in PubMed
• Engineering a Vascularized Hypoxic Tumor Model for Therapeutic Assessment. Cells. 2021 08 26; 10(9).. View in PubMed
• Membrane-bound SCF and VCAM-1 synergistically regulate the morphology of hematopoietic stem cells. J Cell Biol. 2021 10 04; 220(10).. View in PubMed
• Medulloblastoma uses GABA transaminase to survive in the cerebrospinal fluid microenvironment and promote leptomeningeal dissemination. Cell Rep. 2021 Jul 27; 36(4):109475.. View in PubMed
• Medulloblastoma uses GABA transaminase to survive in the cerebrospinal fluid microenvironment and promote leptomeningeal dissemination. Cell Rep. 2021 06 29; 35(13):109302.. View in PubMed
• Engineered in vitro tumor models for cell-based immunotherapy. Acta Biomater. 2021 09 15; 132:345-359.. View in PubMed
• Bioengineering tools for probing intracellular events in T lymphocytes. WIREs Mech Dis. 2021 07; 13(4):e1510.. View in PubMed
• CCR2-targeted micelles for anti-cancer peptide delivery and immune stimulation. J Control Release. 2021 01 10; 329:614-623.. View in PubMed
• Non-invasive Optical Biomarkers Distinguish and Track the Metabolic Status of Single Hematopoietic Stem Cells. iScience. 2020 Feb 21; 23(2):100831.. View in PubMed
• Spatial Regulation of Mitochondrial Heterogeneity by Stromal Confinement in Micropatterned Tumor Models. Sci Rep. 2019 08 01; 9(1):11187.. View in PubMed
• Evaluating CAR-T Cell Therapy in a Hypoxic 3D Tumor Model. Adv Healthc Mater. 2019 03; 8(5):e1900001.. View in PubMed
• A Microdevice Platform Recapitulating Hypoxic Tumor Microenvironments. Sci Rep. 2017 11 09; 7(1):15233.. View in PubMed
• A cost-effective micromilling platform for rapid prototyping of microdevices. Technology (Singap World Sci). 2016 Dec; 4(4):234-239.. View in PubMed
• Suicide Gene-Engineered Stromal Cells Reveal a Dynamic Regulation of Cancer Metastasis. Sci Rep. 2016 Feb 19; 6:21239.. View in PubMed
• Resolving cancer-stroma interfacial signalling and interventions with micropatterned tumour-stromal assays. Nat Commun. 2014 Dec 09; 5:5662.. View in PubMed
• Modulation of cellular stress response via the erythropoietin/CD131 heteroreceptor complex in mouse mesenchymal-derived cells. J Mol Med (Berl). 2015 Feb; 93(2):199-210.. View in PubMed
• CD28 and CD3 have complementary roles in T-cell traction forces. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Feb 11; 111(6):2241-6.. View in PubMed
• Cross talk between CD3 and CD28 is spatially modulated by protein lateral mobility. Mol Cell Biol. 2014 Mar; 34(6):955-64.. View in PubMed
• Substrate rigidity regulates human T cell activation and proliferation. J Immunol. 2012 Aug 01; 189(3):1330-9.. View in PubMed
• Self-aligned supported lipid bilayers for patterning the cell-substrate interface. J Am Chem Soc. 2009 Sep 23; 131(37):13204-5.. View in PubMed
• Nanoengineering of Immune Cell Function. Mater Res Soc Symp Proc. 2009 Jan 01; 1209.. View in PubMed
• Microcontact printing of proteins for cell biology. J Vis Exp. 2008 Dec 05.. View in PubMed
• Micropatterning of costimulatory ligands enhances CD4+ T cell function. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Jun 03; 105(22):7791-6.. View in PubMed
• Local presentation of L1 and N-cadherin in multicomponent, microscale patterns differentially direct neuron function in vitro. Dev Neurobiol. 2007 Nov; 67(13):1765-76.. View in PubMed

• Lenz, Heinz-Josef
• Priceman, Saul
• Declerck, Yves
• Wang, Pin
• Abouelenein, Mohamed
• Wang, Rongfu