Jackie Ying

Jackie Y. Ying was Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, and Executive Director of Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, A*STAR, Singapore. She is Chief Innovation and Research Officer of King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Saudi Arabia. She serves on the Board of Directors of Saudi Arabia’s Research, Development and Innovation Authority, and the Board of Trustees of Princeton University.

Prof. Ying has authored over 400 articles (53,040 citations, h index: 109). She is ranked #18 globally in biomedical engineering by ScholarGPS. She has won numerous awards for her research in bioengineering and nanomaterials, including the Mustafa Prize – Top Scientific Achievement Award (2015) and King Faisal Prize in Science (2023). She has been elected to German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, U.S. National Academy of Inventors and U.S. National Academy of Engineering. She is featured on the first Forbes 50 Over 50 Global list of women trailblazers (2025).

Prof. Ying has over 200 primary patents, 42 of which have been licensed. She has served on the Board of Directors and/or Advisory Boards of 10 start-up companies and 2 venture capital funds. One of her spin-off companies, SmartCells, Inc., developed a technology capable of auto-regulating insulin release depending on the blood glucose levels. Merck acquired SmartCells in 2010, with milestone-based aggregate payments in excess of US$500 million to further develop this nanomedicine for clinical trials. Prof. Ying also co-founded Curiox Biosystems, which successfully miniaturized high-content drug screening assay in the form of droplet microarray. Curiox went IPO on KOSDAQ in 2023.