Dr. Kyung Sung is a biomedical engineer with expertise in developing functional and practical microscale in vitro tools for medical and biological applications. Dr. Sung’s main research interests lie in studying cell-materials interactions and exploring cell behavior in various tissue microenvironmental conditions. Dr. Sung received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 2007 at the University of Michigan, and worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also worked as a Principal Investigator before she joined the FDA in 2015. She also worked as a patent examiner in Biotechnology at the US Patent and Trademark Office. During her previous research, she used principles from tissue and microsystems engineering to develop tissue-like structures such as blood vessels and mammary ducts in microfluidic channels to develop new practical tools to conduct cancer research in vitro. The microscale in vitro systems provide unique capabilities when studying complex interactions occurring in tissue microenvironment, by providing more precise controls of biochemical and biomechanical factors than traditional platforms. She has been able to create innovative opportunities and strategies for researchers to explore biology in different ways – particularly in understanding the role of the tissue microenvironment in regulating cellular functions.