 Thank you very much. It's my great pleasure to introduce Dr. Meng Deng from Ag and Biological Engineering. Dr. Deng joined us here at Purdue in 2014, and I think as a theme, maybe a discussion for all of our associate professors today, very interdisciplinary. So Dr. Deng has a PhD from University of Virginia in chemical engineering, not in agricultural or biological engineering, and also works in multiple scales across engineering as well. So we will certainly hear about his research in his research focus on engineering polymeric biomaterials that facilitate and control cell responses and differentiation, particularly in animal tissues and including humans. And so you'll see some examples of that today. Dr. Deng has a passion for translating his research into functional and practical technologies that have commercial applications. And as part of these efforts, he founded a Dipo Therapeutics to commercialize some of the work from his research. He's been recognized for his entrepreneurial efforts. He was one of two more inventor fellow nominees from Purdue University in 2017 and received the Entrepreneurship Fellow Silver Award also in 2017. In addition to all of his research in entrepreneurial activities, Dr. Deng also teaches a graduate level course that's cross-listed between biomedical engineering and ag and biological engineering in the topic area of tissue engineering. And he also teaches one of the core undergraduate courses in our biological engineering program on enzyme and microbial kinetics. Dr. Deng, I'm looking very forward to your presentation and I hope you will all join me in welcoming him to the podium. Thank you so much, Nate. Thanks to the organizers for putting this together. So it's my great pleasure to be here to share with you my work in terms of developing cell-instructive biomaterials for cellular and the regenerative engineering. Given the limited time I have today, I wanna give a broad stroke what we do and how it actually combines different areas in terms of material science, by engineering, cell biology and translational medicine to move forward. Yeah, so our research focused on three thrust areas, advanced biomaterials, cell engineering and regenerative engineering. So in advanced biomaterials, we focus on rational design of new materials, new polymers, polymer composite by exploring synthetic chemistry and the study of cell-materials interactions. In cell engineering, we're interested in understanding basic cellular processes and engineering effective ways to modulate cell function. In regenerative engineering, we hope to develop biomagnetic samples for regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues, which involves bones, skeletal muscles as well as their tissue interfaces. So as you can see, there are natural synergies among the three thrust areas and our research spans from fundamental science to translational research. You're welcome to look into our research website at the regenerativemetre.com for more details about our research work. So in particularly, we're actually a more interesting understanding how different material physical chemical and cues affect the cells. So we can actually integrate the knowledge into the rational design of cell-instructive biomaterials. So just to give an example, taking our recent work in skeletal muscle regenerative engineering as an example, so we actually take the top-down-based scaffold engineering approach. We examine the tissue properties in the hierarchy structures to review the micro and the nanoscale features. So we can actually create a synthetic matrix mimic the tissue properties. In this case, we have a skeletal muscle that is made of oriented muscle fibers providing this cellular microenvironment. So actually, accordingly we can create a synthetic aligned fiber matrices that mimic that anisotropic organization of the native muscle fibers. Interestingly, we actually will see the muscle cells on this synthetic fiber matrices. The cells actually can sense the topography, align their body according to the direction of the fibers. And interestingly, this is after just seven days of culture. You can see that the robust form the mild tubes on this fiber matrices. So essentially by further actually tailoring that the fiber diameter and the structures we can, we can fine-tune the cellular response in terms of the cell proliferation differentiation for different generation applications. So next I'm going to switch gear to talk about our work in terms of dealing with the problem too much fat. More specifically, too much bad fat, too much energy storing wet fat, which leads to problems such as obesity, diabetes. So essentially in our body we have another type of fat that was discovered, is called actually brown fat or good fat. It's essentially in contrast to this energy storing wet fat, brown fat can burn excessive energy by generating heat. It's part of a natural defense mechanism for protecting us in conditions such as cold. So our idea is actually to harness that physiologic differences between these two types of fat to tackle the problem in terms of too much bad fat. So essentially we have developed platform technology that is made of non-achieving nanoparticles that can be injected directly to fat to induce the natural conversion of the fat. So the nanoparticles are about 200 nanometer in diameter so actually they can get into the cells and combining this small molecule, not chipiter and polymer matrix allows to develop a standard release formulation to minimize the number of injections. Here I'm going to show you a video of the journey of engineered nanoparticles. So leverage the well-established application of injective medicines. Nanoparticles show as purple here. When the particles are in conflict with fat cells, they can actually quickly get into the fat cells. Obviously we're optimizing the nanoparticles in the surface properties as well as the size so that they can get into the cells quickly. After the inside cell, they release the drug payload, not chipiter in this case, to inhibit not signaling and promote the expression of brownie markers such as UCP1 and coupling protein one here leads to the fat cell conversion. That's our basic idea behind technology. Over the years this work is actually conducted in collaboration with Xu Hongkuan Animal Science. Over the years we have damaged the efficacy of this technology using both small rodents as well as recently large animals in pigs. So what, we have a cool technology. So this is what we learned at the NSFi Corp's kickoff meeting in Detroit. The mentor would ask, so we were so excited to share our cool technology the mentor would ask. So what, got out of your comfort zone, which is normally office. And so this is what we did. Our team consists of myself, my post-doc, goes there, as well as our business mentor, Wade. So we went out, talked to customers, which includes patients, doctors, primary care physicians, endocrinologists, physicians, as well as different companies, insurance company from two companies. That was quite intense process. So eight weeks we interviewed more than 100 customers. But the process was worthwhile. So what we learned is not only actually the discussions with those customers provide the important insights into our business canvas, but also actually helped us validate the technology market fit. So at the end, our decision was a goal. So I obtained the express license by working with OTC, those wonderful people there. We actually got that the process done very quickly at the end of December, 2016. So obviously, to be honest, I had no idea what that entails back then. But fortunately for me, as part of the Purdue EIA program, we stands for Entrepreneurial Learning Academy. So that process was quite helpful. And we obviously submitted a grant immediately to compete for funding. So luckily we received the NIH SBR grant and along with the matching fund from Elevate Venture, as well as the CEO world from PRF, which are critical to help us survive at the beginning. So we just closed our 2.2 million seed run. We're raising our serious A funding to cover the next steps in terms of our development. And it's an exciting time with Adipo. We have experienced professional team in terms of bringing different areas of activities, including technology development, business management, manufacturing, CMC, regulatory, pre-clinical and clinical development. It really takes a village. And Adipo was actually recently named as the winner of the Elevate Nexus Day-Wake Pitch Competition. Also recently submitted our phase two SBR grant to obtain non-diluted funding to support our work. And Adipo technology was also highlighted by the HPE process, one of the three technology to manage weight, especially by boosting that energy expenditure to bring that energy balance back to the normalcy. So journey continues. It's an exciting time as we continue our efforts to move the clinical translation of technology to benefit the patients. So over the course of my career, I have been so fortunate to have many great teachers in my life who helped shape my life today. So essentially the significant impacts that I received from those wonderful teachers have really made me to contribute to the learning process of others. I learned from my PhD of weather. Life is not important, except in an impact as it's on other lives. So essentially there's an old Chinese saying, give me a fish, you feed him for one day. Teaching him how to fish, you feed him for his whole life. That's essentially my belief in my teaching. I teach both graduate course and the graduate course at Purdue. At the graduate level, I teach polymer bio materials, which is cross-laced with BME. We have great added a textbook for this class and this textbook covers the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of different polymer bio materials. And over the past two years, I've been working with the Purdue online engineering team to convert this course into online hybrid version so that the students who are working in the street can also take this course simultaneously. At the undergraduate level, I teach AB370, which is biological and microbial kinetics and interaction engineering. It's a fun course and also it's great to work on new class each year and interact with them throughout the learning process. All the process there also helped me learn, improve my teaching as well, which resulted in a number of teaching recognitions. Obviously the work I present today results from hard work and the dedication of this wonderful group of individuals. So we have a diverse group of students coming from different backgrounds who always seek aspiring undergraduate students to take part in our research efforts and to enhance their learning as well, while they actually take in the courses. So here is actually an example. It was Carter and Maggie actually, were the first students I recruited at Purdue while I was still setting up the lab in Bingley. So they have worked on electro spinning, as you can see here, as well as a skeleton muscle regeneration project. And Helena was actually the biology honors student who has been with me since her freshman year has worked on own regeneration work. It's now completing her medical school at Ohio State. And this is our lab hosting the four H.E. students for Hands-On by Matius Labs. So over the years, it's really great, gratifying to see them grow and pursue their own big dreams. With that, I'd like to thank all the members of my lab and the medical team. So with COVID, this is a real picture that we have just taken. We got feedback from FDA and was of guidance from FDA on our plan moving forward. And also like to thank my wonderful mentors, collaborators and colleagues for their advice, help and support. And also I'd like to thank my funding source. Lastly, I'd like to thank my family, who else being my cheerleaders. So it's great to have their support and be here where I am today. Thank you so much. I'd like to take any questions you may have. Wonderful, are there any questions from the audience or online? Very interesting. I was wondering, since you do a lot of work on the research side on mammalian cells, how has, I mean, you're sitting in a interdisciplinary facility, Bentley by Science. And then you're also working with colleagues in animal sciences. How much is that environment allowed you to, I mean, how critical is small animal, large animal tests to your success? And how does Bentley contribute as an interdisciplinary center towards that? Thank you, Marvin. So essentially, as I mentioned, so I was setting up a lab in Bentley. So Bentley is actually a very unique place to encourage interdisciplinary research. So I like the idea in terms of no silo, right? The disciplines between science, the waters are disappearing. I mean, to tackle challenges in life science, medicine these days, you really need to have interdisciplinary team. For me, I think one of the important aspects was actually being in the Bentley, actually being able to collaborate with others who far from different backgrounds, in terms of, and also we have great Bentley Science team to support in terms of a different core facility as well, which help conduct experiments. And another thing, so while we love Bentley, I still missed the time there, but it's also exciting time for us actually to, we recently moved back to ABE building. We're on the fifth floor, which is a great facility. The collaboration synergy is just great to be able to actually collaborate with colleagues in the same department as well. I think a very important aspect in the collaboration is really that synergy among the disciplines, in our case, that we need not only the research, the tools in terms of nanotechnology and material science, but also cell biology, development biology as well as other parts in the clinical medicine to actually develop functional products that may hopefully benefit the patients in one day. I'll stop asking questions and just listen, but well, I need to lodge another complaint because every time Nate or Bernie talk to me, it says, you know, well, Meng is doing great. It's like, you don't have to tell me that. I know I'm doing okay. Says, no, no, no, you, Meng. So, you know, our names are certain similarities, but clearly your standard of excellence is way higher than mine. And, you know, I did pull therapeutics. One question is glad to see IEDC programs, PRF programs have been of use and congratulations on the commercialization success. Who are your customers? Thank you so much. First of all, it's just been so fortunate to be in the supportive college and also, you know, I still remember that when I first got this SBR grant, I don't know what to do, to be honest, because that takes a significant chunk of my time, you know, so to be able to do that. And really the supportive leadership as well as the department have really made this happen in terms of to allow me to actually embark on this journey. But to answer your questions about the customers, so we're actually currently based on our market feedback talking with leading physicians. So our current patient essentially are those type of diabetes who are overweight as our initial customer base. But obviously we believe the platform technology we have with other potential indications will also keep being in line as well. We have other candidate assets that also under development with IP protections that once we get this first line of product finalized secured that we'll be ready for the launch of the next generation. So are you thinking of directly selling to the end user or your direct customers will be device medical device companies or other therapeutic companies? Good question. So essentially our current plan is actually we're trying to develop assets through the approved concept clinical studies more specifically phase two clinical studies. So after that we'll actually license our technology to the big farmers in terms of as the next steps for phase three and the commercialization. We're already in active discussion with five different forms of companies of interest including Lily, Nova as well as Albee in terms of to start the discussion about collaboration, the partnerships in the future. Excellent. Any final questions online in the chat? No. All right. Thank you very much.