1) Phenolic-mediated assembly
We focus on using polyphenol to integrate plasmonic materials thus to develop multifunctional biomaterials. We also use polyphenol networks to fabricate versatile structures, including nano-urchins and nanopatch. My topic is about how nanomechanical properties of such structure can influence its biomedical performance.
In this part of work, I was mentored by Dr Jiajing Zhou, former postdoctoral researcher in Jokerst Lab @UCSD, who is now an amazing assistant professor @Sichuan University (ChengDu, China).
Related projects are as following
prj1 Targeted responsive Au-polydopamine nanocapsules for cancer therapy (Mentored by Dr Jiajing Zhou)
➡️ Engineered an Au-PDA core-shell system, with tunable size, via supramolecular template-assisted assembly.
➡️ Characterized the nanocapsules using UV-vis spectroscopy, TEM, and SEM.
➡️ Designed and synthesized an αvβ3-targeting peptide and assembled peptide nanocapsules via Michael addition.
🌟 First-suthor manuscript in preparation, aiming at Angewandte Chemie.
prj2 Fluorescent poly-benzene-1,4-dithiol (pBDT) microparticle (Mentored by Dr Jiajing Zhou)
➡️ Engineered pBDT nanoparticles and microparticles with tunable morphology by using different sovents.
➡️ Observed solvent-independent fluorescence of pBDT and collected its spectrum using CLSM.
➡️ Explored in vitro fluorescence in macrophage.
🌟 Co-first-suthor manuscript in preparation, aiming at Nature communication.
prj3 Biodegradable calcium phosphate nanoparticles for inducing cyto-osmotic pressure changes (Mentored by Tengyu He, Ph.D. candidate)
➡️ Used polyethylenimine as a patterning agent for Ca/P nanoparticles, via a precipitation method.
➡️Analyzed element compositions of Ca/P nanoparticles using ICP-MS and EDX.
➡️ Studied the nanoparticles’ in vitro release profile via a dynamic flow method to reduce particle accumulation.
🌟 He, T., Bradley, D.G., Xu, M., Ko, S.T., Qi, B., Li, Y., Cheng, Y., Jin, Z., Zhou, J., Sasi, L. and Fu, L., 2022. Bio-Inspired Degradable Polyethylenimine/Calcium Phosphate Micro-/Nano-Composites for Transient Ultrasound and Photoluminescence Imaging. Chemistry of Materials, 34(16), pp.7220-7231.