Sheng is a Professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego. He obtained a double major in Mathematics and Economics from Peking University, a PhD of Biostatistics with a PhD minor in Molecular Biology from Harvard University. He worked at Stanford University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign before moving to UC San Diego. He received an NIH Director's Pioneer Award, an NIH Catalyst Award in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, an NSF CAREER Award, and an Alfred Sloan Fellowship. He is a fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the director for NIH Common Fund 4D Nucleome Consortium Organizational Hub. He leads a Human Cell Atlas (HCA) seed network on single cell analysis of blood vessels. Nature featured his work in a Research Highlight. Eight of his previous trainees are contributing to science on tenure-track faculty positions.