In order to show the positive impact of the ADMIRE Programme on the career development prospects of the Fellows, this series – entitled Where Are They Now? – looks at what the Fellows have been doing since the end of their Fellowship. In this edition Dr Josephine Wu describes her journey the US, to Ireland to the UK, to take up a prestigeous Academic fellowship at Queen Mary University.

Josephine Wu completed a BS in Bioengineering at the University of California at Berkeley before embarking on a PhD under the supervision of Professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic at Columbia University in New York. Through this work, Dr Wu developed significant skills on engineering spatiotemporal cues to direct more native-like cartilage and bone tissue formation, using perfusion bioreactors, optogenetics, and adult stem cell technologies.

Following the successful completion of her PhD, Dr Wu joined the group of Professor Daniel Kelly at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) as an ADMIRE Fellow in 2022. She built on her interest in developmentally inspired tissue engineering, using 3D bioprinting and cell spheroid building blocks as supporting technologies to mimic features of physiological tissue formation. Dr Wu had exciting opportunities to present her work to the research community both locally and internationally, including at the School of Engineering Inaugural Research Day at TCD, the Gordon Research Seminar on Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering in Castelldefels, Spain, and the World Biomaterials Congress in Daegu, South Korea. She also engaged in public outreach activities throughout the fellowship period, for example lab tours and career discussions with transition year students, hands-on demonstrations at European Researchers' Night, and primary school visits with Engineers Ireland.

During the ADMIRE Fellowship, Dr Wu generated foundational data and developed research independence which laid the groundwork for her successful application to the Wellcome Trust Early Career Award (ECA) in 2024. This grant, which provides €800,000 of support over 5 years, leverages Dr Wu’s unique skillsets to pursue the idea that bioprinting and optogenetics can be used as complementary spatiotemporal patterning strategies to improve engineered tissue functionality.

Dr Wu has recently started as an Academic Fellow in the School of Engineering & Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London, where she will undertake this work and prepare for transition to a faculty position.