Principal Investigator 

Ke Du, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
[email protected]
Chemical and Environmental Engineering
​Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering 
University of California, Riverside 
350B Bourns Hall of Engineering, Riverside, CA 92521
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Bio: Dr. Ke Du is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Riverside. He established his independent research lab in 2018 following postdoctoral training with Richard Mathies at the University of California, Berkeley. His research team focuses on molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases such as sepsis, in vivo bioimaging, and nanotoxicology. 

Dr. Du has received numerous honors, including the EIPBN Inaugural Early Career Award (2024) and the NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (2021). He was recognized as an Emerging Investigator by Lab on a Chip (2024) and Nanoscale (2025), and named a Global Rising Star in Sensing by ACS Sensors. His research is supported by federal agencies and industry partners, including NIH NIGMS, NIH NIAID, NSF CBET, NSF CMMI, USDA, DOE, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Mammoth Biosciences, and Biological Mimetics.

Beyond his research activities, Dr. Du serves as an Early Career Editorial Advisory Board member for Biomicrofluidics (AIP Publishing) and Sensors and Actuators Reports (Elsevier). He was appointed as a Special Issue Editor for Sensors and Actuators Reports, overseeing all special issues for the journal.
​​​Postdoctoral Scholar 
​Dr. Can Wang
[email protected] 
​Chemical and Environmental Engineering 
​Marlan and Bourns College of Engineering 
University of California, Riverside 
359B Bourns Hall of Engineering 
Bio: Can earn her Ph.D. in Environmental Health from China Medical University in China in 2019. After completing her Ph.D., she joined the Department of Toxicology at Sun Yat-sen University as a postdoctoral researcher, where she focused on environmental pollutant risks on mouse and zebrafish. In 2022, she joined the Center of Craniofacial Molecular Biology at the University of Southern California as a visiting scholar, where she focused on gene-environment interactions and molecular biology. Currently, she is focused on optogenetics in mouse models and investigating the environmental risks associated with nanoparticles using algae models.

Postdoctoral Scholar 

Dr. Xinye Chen
[email protected]
Chemical and Environmental Engineering
​University of California, Riverside 
359B Bourns Hall of Engineering 
Bio: Xinye obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2023 and returned to the 3N lab at UC-Riverside as a postdoctoral researcher. He invented the nano-sieve device which has been used for pathogen sensing and cell separation. In his free time, he likes playing basketball and training his golden retriever.
​​​Ph.D. Candidate 
​Jacob Waitkus
Ph.D. candidate
[email protected]
​Chemical and Environmental Engineering 
Marlan and Bourns College of Engineering
UC-Riverside 
359B Bourns Hall of Engineering 
Bio: Jacob is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate at UCR. His research is focused on localized surface plasmonic sensors for biomarkers detection as well as high precision 3D printing for in vivo applications. In his free time, he enjoys rock climbing and fishing. 
Ph.D. Candidate ​​
Henry Yuqing
Ph.D. candidate
[email protected]
Mechanical Engineering
Marlan and Bourns College of Engineering
University of California, Riverside 
359 Bourns Hall of Engineering 
Bio: Henry received his M.S. degree in mechanical engineering technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology. His project was using bottom-up approach to grow nanowires for antimicrobial applications. He previously worked with RIT Simone Center and a start-up company called "Intelleplant". He is a third year Ph.D. student in the 3N lab. Henry likes running, 3-D printing, and playing basketball. 
Ph.D. Student 
​Zhenxuan Yuan
Ph.D. student  
[email protected]
Chemical and Environmental Engineering 
UC-Riverside
359B Bourns Hall of Engineering 
Bio: Zhenxuan obtained his B.S. degree from the University of Science and Technology, China, majoring Environmental Science and Engineering. As an undergraduate student in USTC, he worked on label-free optical detection of pathogens in aquatic environments. He was also a visiting student at the University of Illinois in the summer of 2023, working on phosphate recovery on cell surface. 
Ph.D. Student 
Xiaoqian Jiang
Ph.D. student 
​[email protected]
Chemical and Environmental Engineering 
UC-Riverside 
359B Bourns Hall of Engineering 
Bio: Xiaoqian received both her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Jilin University, majoring in Clinical Medicine. She was also a visiting student at the University of British Columbia in the summer of 2019. Her previous research focused on developing a novel hydrogel to address the fast rate of infection and slow wound healing process associated with diabetic wounds. At UCR, she is developing CRISPR platforms for agriculture applications. She is also working on neurotoxin mechanisms with animal models.  

Ph.D. Student

Negin Bahadori 
Ph.D. Student
[email protected]
Chemical Engineering 
UC-Riverside
359B Bourns Hall of Engineering 
Bio: Negin joined UCR in 2025 as a Ph.D. student after obtaining her M.S. degree from LA Tech. She is combining theoretical and experimental approaches for the understanding of complex fluids in biomedical fields. 
M.S. Student 
​​Tyler Ng
M.S. student 
[email protected]
Bioengineering 
University of California, Riverside 
Bourns Hall B359 
Bio: Tyler is a 3rd year undergraduate student in the bioengineering department. He plans to pursue a M.S. degree after graduation. In the 3N lab, Tyler is exploring CRISPR and surface enhanced Raman scattering for cancer based detection. In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar, drawing, and research abstract concepts. 

Undergraduate Student

​Yaneth Larios 
Undergraduate Researcher
[email protected]
Bioengineering 
​UC-Riverside 
359B Bourns Hall of Engineering 
Bio: Yaneth is a RAMP scholar who is working on 3D printing for numerous applications such as microneedles and microfluidic mixer.  

Alumni

Orange color denotes students graduated with either a Ph.D. dissertation or M.S. thesis:

Dr. Xinye Chen (Ph.D. student), currently a postdoc scholar in our lab; 

Dr. Zhiheng Xu, currently visiting assistant professor at RIT;

Dr. Jiaxiang Ye, now a professor at Guangxi Medical University;

Dr. Bhaskar Sharma, now a scientist at Terrana Biosciences; 

Dr. Mengdi Bao (Ph.D. student), currently a senior engineer at Seagate Technology;

Dr. Yu Chang (Ph.D. student), currently a senior engineer in Lam Research;

Dr. Li Liu (Ph.D. student), currently a postdoc scholar at the University of Pennsylvania; 

Dr. Ruonan Peng (Ph.D. student), currently a scientist in Wondfo USA;

Kenny Hass (M.S. student), currently an engineer in Invenergy; 2021 RIT Best Thesis Award!

Dr. Qian He, currently a research engineer at Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute;

Jacob Waitkus (M.S. student), currently a Ph.D. student in our group;

Henry Yuqing (M.S. student), currently a Ph.D. student in our group;

Esmeralda Ruiz-Garcia (M.S. student);

Natalie Luu (M.S. student);

Rafi Karim (undergraduate student), now a scientist at Moderna;

Jiacheng He (undergraduate student), currently a design engineer at Apple; 

​David Saxum (senior design student), currently a research scientist at HRL Labs;

Alex Jiang (undergraduate student), now at Georgia Tech;

Grant Korensky;

Animesh Nanaware;

Sara Nafar; 

Justin Silva (M.S. student), now a manufacturing engineer at Blue Origin;

Chad ten Pas (M.S. student);

Samantha Chan (co-op researcher);

​Sam Jia (now an engineer at Aria FXE); 

Wimeth Dissanayake (high school student), now an undergraduate student at the University of Rochester;

​Hashir Awan (co-op researcher);

​Xiong-Wen Ke (visiting student);