Jiaobing TU

Dr. Jiaobing Tu received her B.Eng. in Materials Science and Engineering from Imperial College London in 2017 and her Ph.D. in Medical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2023, where she developed wearable bioelectronic technologies for continuous molecular monitoring. She subsequently conducted postdoctoral research in de novo protein design at the Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington. Dr. Tu joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the National University of Singapore as an Assistant Professor in 2026 and holds a joint appointment with the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), A*STAR. She is a recipient of the 2024 IUPAC–Solvay International Award for Young Chemists and the 2023 Materials Research Society Graduate Student Gold Award.

Research Interests

My research focuses on integrating computational protein design, materials science, and bioengineering to develop programmable protein–material interfaces. We seek to establish fundamental design principles governing how proteins interact with synthetic materials and how these interactions can be engineered to impart new functions to materials. Our long-term vision is to establish programmable proteins as a versatile materials platform for engineering adaptive and functional systems across biological and synthetic interfaces, with applications in biomaterials, bioelectronics, and molecular sensing.

Selected Publications

1. Tu, J., Min, J., Song, Y., Xu, C., Li, J., Moore, J., Hanson, J., Hu, E., Primon, T., Wang, T., Davoodi, E., Chou, T., Chen, P., Hsu, J., Rossiter, H. B. & Gao, W. A wireless patch for the monitoring of C-reactive protein in sweat. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 7, 1293–1306 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-023-01067-8
2. Tu, J.†, Yeom, J.†, Ulloa, J. C.†, Solomon, S. A., Min, J., Heng, W., Kim, G., Dao, J., Vemu, R., Pang, M., Kim, D.-H. & Gao, W. Stressomic: A wearable microfluidic biosensor for dynamic profiling of multiple stress hormones in sweat. Sci. Adv. 11, eadx6491 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adx6491
3. Tu, J.†, Flynn, C.†, Yeom, J., Wu, Z., Kelley, S. & Gao, W. Wearable biomolecular sensing nanotechnologies in chronic disease management. Nat. Nanotechnol. 20, 1491–1515 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02010-2
4. Min, J.†, Tu, J.†, Xu, C.†, Lukas, H., Shin, S., Yang, Y., Solomon, S. A., Mukasa, D. & Gao, W. Skin-interfaced wearable sweat sensors for precision medicine. Chem. Rev. 123, 5049–5138 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.2c00905
5. Wang, M., Yang, Y., Min, J., Song, Y., Tu, J., Mukasa, D., Ye, C., Xu, C., Heflin, N., McCune, J. S., Hsiai, T. K., Li, Z. & Gao, W. Wearable autonomous biomimetic sweat sensor for precision nutrition. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 6, 1225–1235 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-022-00923-0
6. Yu, Y., Li, J., Solomon, S. A., Min, J., Tu, J., Guo, W., Xu, C., Song, Y. & Gao, W. All-printed soft human–machine interface for robotic physicochemical sensing. Sci. Robot. 7, eabn0495 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abn0495
7. Tu, J. & Gao, W. Ethical considerations of wearable technologies in human research. Adv. Healthcare Mater. 10, 2100127 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202100127
8. Torrente-Rodríguez, R. M.†, Tu, J.†, Yang, Y., Min, J., Wang, M., Song, Y., Yu, Y., Xu, C., Ye, C., IsHak, W. W. & Gao, W. Investigation of cortisol dynamics in human sweat using a graphene-based wireless mHealth system. Matter 2, 921–937 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2020.01.021
9. Tu, J. & Gao, W. Spray-on magnetic skin for robotic actuation. Sci. Robot. 5, eabf1390 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abf1390
10. Tu, J., Torrente-Rodríguez, R. M., Wang, M. & Gao, W. The era of digital health: A review of portable and wearable affinity biosensors. Adv. Funct. Mater. 30, 2007197 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202007197

†Equal contribution.