As William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, Cui's primary research focus is on the interactions between neural tissue and smart biomaterials. This field of study is applied toward the better understanding of the neural tissue/material interface and neural tissue engineering.  Dr Cui’s research interests lie in neural engineering with special focuses on neural electrode-tissue interface, neural tissue engineering, central nervous system drug delivery, and biosensors.