Speaker: Professor Guangxue FENG


Institution: School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology


Hosted by: Professor Benzhong TANG


 

Abstract



Fluorescent organic nanoparticles possessing both imaging and therapeutic functions has attracted great research interests. Their shape, size, surface and optical properties can be precisely manipulated through integrated efforts of chemistry, materials, and nanotechnology for customized applications. In particular, when the imaging and therapeutic functions such as photodynamic or photothermal therapy are activated by localized photons, these theranostic nanoparticles increase the treatment efficacy with minimized damage to surrounding healthy tissues, which represent a promising noninvasive nanomedicine as compared to conventional theranostic approaches. As two major class of organic fluorophores, fluorogens with aggregation-induced emission characteristics (AIEgens) and conjugated polymers (CPs) with de-localized conjugation backbones have been the ideal candidates for the development of theranostic organic nanoparticles. In the present talk, the strategies to design organic nanoparticles based on AIEgens and CPs will be discussed. The sizes, shapes, and surface chemistry of these nanoparticles could be properly controlled to fulfil different biological requirements. Both the imaging and theranostic applications of these organic nanoparticles, such as cell tracking, vascular tracking, and image-guided photodynamic therapy etc. will also be discussed.


 

About the speaker



Dr. FENG Guangxue received his bachelor and Ph.D. degree from Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore. After working as a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. Liu Bin’s group in the same department for two years, he joined LuminiCell Pte Ltd as the Chief Research Scientist in Aug 2017, where he promoted the commercialization process of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) nanoparticles-based cell trackers and vascular trackers. Now, he is a Professor of School of Materials Science and Engineering at South China University of Technology. Dr. Feng received many awards, including NUS ‘President’s Graduate Fellowship’, ‘Outstanding Graduate Student Researcher’ award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Singapore Local Section, and ‘2014 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Student Abroad’. His research mainly focuses on the design of fluorescent organic nanomaterials for biological and biomedical applications, and he has published over 60 peer-review articles in well-recognized international journals with a total citation over 3000, and a h-index of 35 (Web of Science).