Biography:Huangxian Ju, Changjiang Professor, the director of State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Nanjing University; Fellows of the International Society of Electrochemistry, the Royal Society of Chemistry and Chinese Society of Chemistry. He received B.S., M.S. and Ph.D degrees from Nanjing University in 1986, 1989 and 1992, and then became a lecturer, associate professor and professor at Nanjing University in 1992, 1993 and 1999. His research interests include analytical biochemistry and nanobiosensing.

Prof Ju has published 943 papers (666 papers in journals with IF>5), 7 English books, 7 Chinese books, 20 chapters and authored 49 patents with more than 47300 citations in SCI journals and an h-index of 108 (GS h-index 120 and >54000 citations). He won the first outstanding achievement award of Chinese chemical sensors in 2019, 2022 Advanced Measurement Science Lecture Award of American Chemical Society, 3 first-class S&T prizes from Jiangsu Province Government, 3 first-class prizes in natural science from Education Ministry of China, 4 first-class S&T prizes from Chinese Association for Instrumental Analysis, 4 second-class and 2 third-class S&T prizes from Jiangsu Province Government.

He is also the director of Electroanalytical Chemistry Committee, vice director of Chemical Sensors Committee, and vice president of Analytical Instrument Branch Association, Chinese Society of Instruments; vice directors of Analytical Chemistry Discipline Committee and Organic Analysis Committee, Chinese Chemical Society; vice director of Biosensor Biochip Nanotechnology Committee of Chinese Society of Bioengineering; vice director of Analytical Pharmacology Committee of Chinese Pharmacological Society; chief editors of Frontiers in Chemistry: Analytical Chemistry (http://www.frontiersin.org) and targets (MDPI), associate editors of Sensors, Telomere and Telomerase, and Journal of Analysis and Testing.

Abstract:Briefly describe the emergence of nanobiosensing and the research field of analytical chemistry for life science, as well as the role of Ju’s research group in the development process of these fields. The research progress and development goals of life analysis chemistry in the detection of tumor markers and the application in disease diagnosis and treatment will be introduced.

 Biography: Yang Tian, Distinguished Professor of East China Normal University, is currently the Dean of School of Chemical and Molecular Engineering of East China Normal University. She was awarded the National Outstanding Youth Fund, "The distinguished lectureship award" by the Japan Chemical Society, the First Prize of the Chinese Society for Analytical Testing (first author), the First Prize of the Chinese Chemical Society for Women Analytical Chemists, and the First Prize of the Shanghai Natural Science Award (first author). Currently, she is the Associate Editor of Chemical Communications and the Associate Editor of Journal of Advanced Chemistry. Prof. Tian Yang’s team has been engaged in the field of chemical expression analysis of in vivo electrical signals for a long time, and has carried out in-depth and systematic work in the development of precise analysis and measurement strategies for biochemical molecules (such as enzymes and proteins), the establishment of long time stable and high spatial resolution imaging methods, and the development of new instruments for high-speed imaging analysis. He has published more than 160 papers,. All papers have been cited 12,000 times and selected as Elsevier China Highly Cited Scholar.

Abstract: Our group is interested in the development of biosensor for the detection of reactive oxygen species and metal ions as well as the pH value in the brain. Recently, by using a ratio Fe²⁺ electrochemical sensor based on Au-C≡C interface, it was first discovered that the uptake of extracellular Fe²⁺ into cortex and striatum was mediated by cAMP. which provided an insight understanding for the signaling pathway of Fe²⁺ entrance into neurons in the different regions of live brain. We also presented an electrochemo-physiological microarray (ECPM) for real-time recording of electrical signals and chemical signals for multiple ions in the deep brain of a free-moving rat without cross-talk. Furthermore, we constructed an anti-biological pollution fiber array to monitor the concentration of extracellular Ca²⁺ and the local potential of neurons in 7 different brain regions, and found that ROS has an impact on Ca²⁺ and neuronal death during stroke.

Biography:Zhuang Liu, Professor at Soochow University, received his bachelor’s degree from Peking 4University in 2004 and Ph.D. from Stanford University US in 2008. In 2009, he joined the Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University. His team is focused on interdisciplinary research in the field of biomaterials, and has published more than 400 academic papers, with a total of more than 90,000 citations and an H-factor of 165. He was Recipient of NFSC Distinguished Young Scholar Award, Leading Talent of the Ten Thousand Talents Program of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, Changjiang Distinguished Professor recognized by the Ministry of Education, Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE Fellow). He has also won academic honors such as the Xplorer Prize, China Youth Science and Technology Award, the First Prize of Jiangsu Science and Technology Award (the first accomplisher), and Biomaterials Science Lectureship. He has undertaken national key scientific research projects such as the innovative research group of the NSFC. Since 2015, he has been continuously selected as a Global Highly Cited Researcher (Materials and Chemistry). He is also the Associate Editor of Biomaterials, the flagship journal in the field of biomaterials, and an editorial board member of more than 10 international mainstream journals. Since 2019, he has actively promoted the clinical application and transformation of independent research results with many projects already in the stage of early-phase clinical research.

Abstract:Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment strategy that has developed rapidly in recent years. Unlike traditional chemoradiotherapy that relies on external power to "poison" tumor cells, immunotherapy attacks tumor cells throughout the body mainly by inducing the body’s own immune system. In recent years, a variety of immunotherapy techniques such as immune cell therapy and immune checkpoint blockade therapy have achieved encouraging clinical results in the treatment of some types of tumors. However, the universality of this type of treatment needs to be improved urgently, and there is room for further improvement in efficacy as well. Our group tries to combine nano-biomaterial technology with immunotherapy strategies. We construct new therapeutic biomaterials by utilizing biocompatible material systems and combine immunotherapy strategies with optical therapy, radiotherapy, local chemotherapy, biological therapy and other technologies for synergistic effects to achieve tumor-specific immune activation through local therapy and generate endogenous tumor vaccines, which effectively inhibit tumor metastasis and recurrence in animal experiments. On the other hand, we have also developed various biomaterials that can modulate the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment for synergizing immune checkpoint therapies or cell therapies for solid tumors. Some research results have entered the clinical transformation stage, the first innovative drug has entered the phase I clinical trial, and a number of early-phase clinical researches are underway.

Biography:Changfeng Wu received his Ph.D in Physics in Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics, and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and PhD in chemistry from Clemson University. He then conducted postdoctoral research at Department of Chemistry, University of Washington. He was a professor in the College of Electronic Science and Engineering at Jilin University from 2011 to 2016. He is currently a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Southern University of Science and Technology. His research is focused on the development of fluorescent probes, biosensors, and spectroscopic and imaging techniques for biomedical applications. 

Abstract:Hydrophobic semiconductor polymers can form small and densely-packed Pdots that exhibit large absorption cross section, high fluorescence quantum yields, and good biocompatibility for biological imaging. We showed that the small photoblinking Pdots can image subcellular structures that breaks the optical diffraction limit. We further report two types of BODIPY-based polymer dots (Pdots) with narrow-band emission, pronounced fluctuations, and prominent photostability, thus enabling high-order, dual color SOFI nanoscopy. Single-particle and subcellular SOFI analysis reveals the superior performance of the BODIPY Pdots as compared to conventional Alexa dye labeled antibodies. In contrast with wide-field images, the spatial resolution (~57 nm) is enhanced by ~6.0-fold in 8th-order single-particle SOFI nanoscopy. A spatial resolution (~30 nm) was obtained by using multifunctional Pdots, high-order SOFI analysis, together with expansion microscopy. For in vivo imaging, we show that an ultrasensitive optical transducer can be used for wireless glucose monitoring via a smartphone. The optical transducer combines oxygen-sensitive polymer dots (Pdots) with glucose oxidase that sensitively detect glucose when oxygen is consumed in the glucose oxidation reaction. By judicious design of the Pdots with ultralong phosphorescence lifetime, the transducer exhibited a significantly enhanced sensitivity by one order of magnitude as compared to the one in a previous study. As a result, the optical images of subcutaneous glucose level obtained with the smartphone camera could be utilized to clearly distinguish between euglycemia and hyperglycemia. We finally describe NIR-II fluorescent Pdots for high contrast in vivo brain vascular imaging. By performing through-skull and through-scalp imaging of the brain vasculature of live mice, we quantitatively analyzed the vascular morphology of transgenic brain tumors in terms of the vessel lengths, vessel branches, and vessel symmetry, which showed statistically significant differences from the wild type animals. The bright NIR-II Pdots obtained through fluorination chemistry provide insightful information for precise diagnosis of the malignancy of the brain tumor. 

Biography:Liu Liwei, distinguished professor and doctoral supervisor at Shenzhen University. The winner of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shenzhen "Outstanding Youth Fund" winner, and Shenzhen local leading talent. She has been engaged in nonlinear optical microscopic imaging technology research for a long time, and has published over 80 SCI papers in top-tier journals such as Light Sci. Appl, Adv. Sci, and Opt. Lett in the past five years alone. Professor Liu has also successfully led more than 20 key research projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation, key projects, international shared housing projects, key research and development projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Shenzhen key projects. She has been granted more than 10 invention patents, with 2 patents already transferred. She has won the first prize of natural science of Jilin Province, the third prize of scientific and technological progress, the second prize of Shenzhen natural science, and the Wang Daheng Young and Middle-aged Scientific and Technological Personnel Award of the Chinese Optical Society. She is widely recognized as a leading expert in her field, and currently serves as the vice chairman of the Biomedical Photonics Committee of the Chinese Optical Society, the chair-designate of the Biomedical Photonics Branch of the Chinese Biomedical Engineering Society, the vice chairman of the Biophysical Society of Guangdong Province, and an editorial board member of China Laser Youth.

Abstract:Ensuring the health of individuals is a key imperative highlighted in the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Development. How to meet this demand presents a formidable challenge for scientists engaged in information science and related fields. Currently, the field of biomedical photonics has emerged as a branch of rapidly advancing information science, while also serving as an integral component of optical engineering and medical imaging. The rapid advancement and breakthroughs in this field are attributed to the support of optical imaging technology, particularly optical microscopic imaging technology.

In the past two decades, optical microscopic imaging technology has undergone rapid development and constant breakthroughs, providing a crucial tool for real-time dynamic observation of life systems and facilitating the transformation of optical microscopy from scientific research to clinical application. However, in the face of rapid technological development and increasing demand, it remains imperative to continuously explore and develop novel methods and technologies for addressing bottleneck issues encountered during practical applications of optical microscopic imaging, such as limited resolution, information acquisition, and imaging speed.

Our research group has conducted fundamental and applied research in the development and application of optical microscopic imaging technology for over a decade. The content encompasses a range of nonlinear optical microscopic imaging techniques, including fluorescence lifetime, two-photon excited fluorescence, second harmonic generation, stimulated Raman scattering, and others. These techniques enable imaging characterization at various levels spanning from molecules to cells, tissues, and in vivo. This report primarily presents the recent research endeavors of our research group in utilizing nonlinear optical microscopy imaging technology for biomedical applications.

Biography: Prof. Dan Ding received his PhD degree in Polymer Chemistry and Physics from Nanjing University in 2010. After a postdoctoral training in the National University of Singapore, he joined Nankai University in March 2013, where he is currently a professor in the College of Life Sciences and State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology. His current research interest focuses on the design and preparation of nanomedicines and new molecular imaging probes as well as exploration of their biomedical applications. So far, he has published more than 100 papers in the journals such as Nat. Commun., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater. and so on. His h-Index is 65.

Abstract: Development of efficient fluorescent probes with intense far-red/near-infrared (FR/NIR) emission (> 650 nm) is of great importance in biosensing and bioimaging research. To date, a large variety of materials, including organic dyes, fluorescent proteins and inorganic quantum dots (QDs), has been extensively studied for the purpose of FR/NIR fluorescence imaging. Organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, however, suffer from limited molar absorptivity and low photobleaching thresholds, while inorganic QDs are highly cytotoxic in an oxidative environment: this has greatly limited the scope of their in vitro and in vivo applications. Exploration of novel FR/NIR fluorescent probes with a high biological compatibility, strong photobleaching resistance, and efficient light emission is highly desirable for biosensing and bioimaging. Herein, we designed and synthesized new FR/NIR fluorescent probes based on semiconducting polymers or fluorophores with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics. We then explored the biomedical applications of these new fluorescent probes, which were demonstrated as very promising probes for in vitro and in vivo biosensing and bioimaging applications.

Biography:Professor Liu is Nanqiang Distinguished Professor, Doctoral Supervisor of Xiamen University, Winner of the National Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Chief Scientist of National Key Research And Development Program, Young Top-notch Talent of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, New Century Outstanding Talent of the Ministry of Education, Director of Chinese Society for Biomaterials and Secretary-General of the Imaging Materials and Technology Branch. He has been committed to the research of molecular imaging and drug delivery systems for a long time and has helped his graduate students publish more than 200 papers (H-factor 83 with more than 20,000 citations) in internationally renowned journals such as Nat Nanotechnol, PNAS, and JACS, etc. and participated in the compilation of 5 national textbooks and 18 English monographs. He has obtained more than 20 national patent authorizations, of which 7 have carried out enterprise technology transfer and clinical transformation, and won 9 national or provincial science and technology awards.

Abstract:Molecular imaging is an emerging interdisciplinary discipline in the 21st century, which provides real-time non-invasive dynamic in vivo imaging of physiological and pathological changes at the cellular and molecular levels to facilitate more accurate diagnosis of diseases and evaluation of curative effects. Combined with multi-functional nano-imaging probes, molecular imaging can achieve highly sensitive and high-specificity labeling, delivery and tracing of target molecules, and in the meantime break down the limitations of traditional medical imaging diagnosis, and truly move towards individualized accurate diagnosis and treatment. Focusing on the key scientific and technical issues of precision diagnosis and treatment of tumors, our research group has dived deeply into the systematic research of molecular imaging probes for a long time and has designed a series of innovative high-sensitivity multi-modal molecular imaging probes to improve the accuracy of cell/molecular imaging, tracing and monitoring, of which clinical translation has been carried out. A multifunctional biomedical drug delivery system was prepared by genetic engineering and in situ assembly technology, and a new tumor targeted drug delivery system and a new integrated strategy of diagnosis and treatment based on bionic cell molecular directional anchoring were established, so as to optimize tumor targeted therapy and real-time medical image monitoring to provide conditions for the model of individualized healthcare.

Biography:Fan Zhang received his Ph.D. degree in 2008 in Department of Chemistry, Fudan University. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the University of California, Santa Barbara, he was promoted as Professor in Fudan University in 2013. Till now, he has published more than 100 papers as corresponding/first author, including Nat. Nanotechnol., Nat. Maters., Nat. Protoc., Nat. Rev. Bioeng. ,Nat. Commun., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater., Nano. Lett. with over 75,000 citations, H Index 144. Over 40 papers were selected in ESI "Highly Cited Papaers". In 2018-2023, he was selected as the High Cited Researchers of Clarivate Analytics. He was also elected as the fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 2023. Also, he won the first prize of Shanghai Science and Technology Awards in 2023, the Xplorer Prize in 2022, the Recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Young Changjiang Scholar of the Ministry of Education and Top Young Talents of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the National. He is currently the special chief editor of Frontiers in Chemistry (Nanoscience), the associate editor of Current Nanoscience, the editorial board member of Science China Chemistry，Chinese Chemical Letters, Acta Chimica Sinica, Nano Biomedicine and Engineering and Analysis & Sensing (Wiley).He is also the advisory board member of Particle & Particle Systems Characterization (Wiley) and Small Structures (Wiley).

Abstract:Fluorescent imaging and sensing with high spatio-temporal resolution and sensitivity allow the direct visualization of dynamic biological interests at different levels of components from the molecules, cells in vitro to the tissues, organs in vivo. Disastrous light attenuation and background autofluorescence in tissue at conventional imaging window of 400-900 nm have limited this technique for in vivo analysis, but they both decrease at progressively longer wavelength. Over the past decade, advances in the development of functional fluorophores operating in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II; 1000–1700 nm) have allowed the investigations of deep anatomical features in vivo with high resolution and sensitivity. However, inhomogeneous signal attenuation due to biological matter hampers the application of multiple-wavelengths NIR-II probes to multiplexed imaging. Here we present lanthanide-doped NIR-II nanoparticles with engineered luminescence lifetimes for in vivo quantitative imaging using time-domain multiplexing. To achieve this, we devise a systematic approach based on controlled energy relay that creates a tunable lifetime range spanning 3 orders-of-magnitude upon a single emission band. We consistently resolve selected lifetimes from the NIR-II nanoparticle probes at depths up to 8 mm in biological tissues, where signal-to-noise ratio derived from intensity measurements drops below 1.5. We demonstrate that robust lifetime coding is independent of tissue penetration depth, and we apply in vivo multiplexing to identify tumour subtypes in living mice. Our results correlate well with standard ex vivo immunohistochemistry assays, suggesting that luminescence lifetime imaging could be used as a minimally invasive approach for disease diagnosis.

Biography:Prof. Shengliang Li received his Ph.D. degree in nanomedicine from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology and Sun Yat-Sen University, spent four years in a postdoctoral appointment at the Institute of Chemistry of Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Houston Methodist Research Institute, and joined the City University of Hong Kong as a senior research associate. In 2021, he was appointed a professor at Soochow University of China. His major research focuses on the design and synthesis of functional light-harvesting materials and the exploration of their applications in cancer theranostics, chemical biology, and environmental health.

Abstract:Conjugated materials, mainly including conjugated oligomer and polymer, have a π-electronic delocalized structure and high extinction coefficient, thus offering advantageous light-harvesting performance with which to develop efficient photoelectronic devices mainly including photovoltaic cells, organic electroluminescence, and organic transistors. To receive biomedical applications, past studies have used molecular engineering strategies (mainly including D-A pairing, atom substitution, intermolecular charge-transfer, etc.) to program conjugated functional materials, by which the conjugated materials with strong near-infrared (700-1700 nm) absorbance performances were prepared and developed water-dispersed nanoparticles. Based on the molecular design, we realize a series of tumour-targeted cancer theranostics pathways, such as photoacoustic imaging, NIR-II fluorescence imaging, Raman imaging, photothermal therapy, and photodynamic therapy, with highly efficient performance. Thus, we developed high-performance cancer theranostics with imaging guidance, to receive new nanomedicine with high efficiency and low side effects. Our work provides a new horizon on the design of conjugated materials for deep-tissue theranostics in the NIR-II window.

Biography:Bujie Du, Professor of South China University of Technology. Dr. Du got her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Beijing Institute of Technology in 2014, Ph.D degree in chemistry with mentor of professor Jie Zheng from University of Texas at Dallas (USA) in 2019 and then worked as Postdoc researcher with collaborator of professor Robert Langer in Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2019 to 2021. In December 2021, Dr. Du as professor joined the School of Clinical Research of the Second Affiliated Hospital of South China University of Technology. Her research focuses on the fundamental understanding of nano-bio interactions of renal clearable nanomaterials in the body and their biomedical applications in noninvasive diagnosis and targeted treatment of diseases (renal injury, hepatic injury, cancer etc.). As the first author or corresponding author, Dr. Du has published multiple works in well-known international scientific journals, such as Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Reviews Materials, Angewandte Chemie International Edition and ACS Nano and she is also leading multiple national projects, such as National Natural Science Fund for Excellent Yong Scientists and the National Key Research and Development Program of China.

Abstract:Renal clearable nanoparticles have been drawing much attention as they can avoid prolonged accumulation in the body by efficiently clearing through the kidneys. While much effort has been made to understand their interactions within the kidneys, it remains unclear whether their transport could be influenced by other organs, such as the liver, which plays a crucial role in metabolizing and eliminating both endogenous and exogenous substances through various biotransformation processes. Here, by utilizing renal clearable IRDye800CW conjugated gold nanocluster (800CW4-GS18-Au25) as a model, we found that although 800CW4-GS18-Au25 strongly resisted serum-protein binding and exhibited minimal accumulation in the liver, its surface was still gradually modified by hepatic glutathione-mediated biotransformation when passing through the liver, resulting in the dissociation of IRDye800CW from Au25 and biotransformation-generated fingerprint message of 800CW4-GS18-Au25 in urine, which allowed us to facilely quantify its urinary biotransformation index (UBI) via urine chromatography analysis. Moreover, we observed the linear correlation between UBI and hepatic glutathione concentration, offering us a noninvasive method for quantitative detection of liver glutathione level through a simple urine test. Our discoveries would broaden the fundamental understanding of in vivo transport of nanoparticles and advance the development of urinary probes for noninvasive biodetection.

Biography:Prof. Ai is currently a Professor at the National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University; and an Adjunct Professor of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University. Prof. Ai is an elected Fellow of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE), the Chinese Society for Biomaterials (CSBM), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Prof. Ai serves on a few editorial boards including Biomaterials, JBMR-A, Regenerative Biomaterials, etc. and the Board of Governors for Acta Materialia, Inc.

Prof. Ai is focusing on design and application of magnetic nanobiomaterials for molecular imaging and drug delivery. He developed sensitive magnetic resonance imaging probes based on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and paramagnetic molecules. He also investigated how theses nanomaterials interact with biological cells, especially macrophages. One of his probes is archived in Molecular Imaging and Contrast Agent Database (NIH’s National Library of Medicine). Most of his work was carried out under clinical magnetic resonance imaging scanners. Besides, Prof. Ai is active in promoting international biomaterials academic exchanges through organizing meetings, symposia and workshops, and currently he is a committee member of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

Abstract:Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) probes are important tools for discovering small pathological changes with functionality analysis. MRI nanoprobes are generally composed of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles or paramagnetic molecules. These nanoprobes can be self-assembled into micelles, vesicles and other nanostructures.

These regulated MRI diagnostic agents are categorized as pharmaceuticals. Biosafety, T1 or T2 relaxivities, in vivo contrast enhancement performance are key design guides when choosing paramagnetic (e.g., non-gadolinium molecules) components, polymer shell, and targeting ligands. The focus of probe structural design is mainly aimed on how to improve the imaging sensitivity. Clinically related magnetic fields (usually 1.5 and 3.0 T), scan sequences, and scanners are also important to consider when designing the nanoprobes. Key limitations and design considerations of paramagnetic nanoprobes will be discussed in this talk.

Biography:He received his bachelor’s, master’s (supervisor: Prof. Li Tao) and Ph.D. degrees (supervisor: Prof. Hong Xuechuan / Academician Zixin Deng) from Huazhong Agricultural University (2005), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (2007) and School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wuhan University (2015). Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Imaging Center/Canary Center for Cancer Early Diagnosis at the Stanford School of Medicine, United States (Supervisor: Professor Zhen Cheng). Research Assistant, Shanghai Institute of Material Medical, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Supervisor: Prof. Caiguang Yang). In 2017, he officially joined Central China Normal University as Professor / Doctoral Supervisor and he was awarded the National Science Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars, " Distinguished Professor of Guizi Scholar Program", head of the Creative Research Group Project of Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation, editorial board member of Chinese Chemical Letters, member of the Special Committee of Optical Sensing and Diagnosis and Treatment of the Chinese Optical Society, and won the Third Prize of the 2023 Hubei Provincial Natural Science Award (ranking first) and the First Prize of the 2023 Shanxi Provincial Science Cooperation Award (ranking third). The research direction of the research group is the spectral measurement of pathogenic microorganisms. At present, he is mainly engaged in rapid diagnosis, spectral analysis and molecular imaging research of emerging infectious diseases. Using fluorescence spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy as research methods, the research group cross-integrates supramolecular self-assembly, host-guest chemistry, second near-infrared(NIR-II) fluorescence, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) and other technical means, and has established a new platform and reagent for the optical analysis of pathogens in vitro, in vivo and clinical samples with high sensitivity, good accuracy and high throughput, and has achieved systematic innovative results. In the past five years, he has been the last corresponding author in the internationally renowned academic journals PNAS, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Nat. Commun., Angew. Chem., Chem. Soc. Rev., Adv. Funct. Mater., Anal. Chem. et al. and has have published a number of high-level academic papers, 8 of which have been selected as ESI highly cited papers.

Abstract:Although fluorescence spectroscopy has become one of the key tools for ex vivo and in vivo detection of related pathogenic microorganisms, the accuracy of its measurement still faces a series of problems and challenges. Based on this, the research group, starting from the construction of new optical reagents, comprehensively improved the accuracy of spectral analysis by improving all aspects of spectral detection such as sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratio and the number of spectral channels so as to lay the foundation for accurate detection of pathogens.

Biography:Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Soochow University, selected into Changjiang Youth Scholars Program of the Ministry of Education. In recent years, he’s engaged in scientific research in the field of nanobiomedicine by starting from the field of materials science and combining with the advantages of multidisciplinary research. A variety of inorganic nanomaterials and their composite functional materials have been developed, and the biological effects of metal ions and synergistic immunotherapy have been systematically studied by using their unique optical, electrical, acoustic, magnetic and X-ray absorption properties. Since 2009, he has published a total of 260 academic papers in international academic journals, with a total of 30,516 SCI citations and an SCI "H-index" of 92, in 130 of which he was the first/corresponding author. He has been selected as the "Global Highly Cited Researchers List" (Materials) and "China Highly Cited Researchers" (Materials) for seven consecutive years from 2017 to 2023. He is Associate Editor of the internationally renowned journal Journal of Nanobiotechnology (IF=10.6, Q1).

Abstract:Cancer is one of several major malignant diseases that threaten human health. So far, progress in prevention and treatment has been limited, and new therapeutic mechanisms need to be developed to improve cancer treatment outcomes. In the report, I will introduce the synthesis of a series of inorganic nanozymes by various chemical methods, and use their special physicochemical properties such as optics, magnetism, acoustics, electricity, catalysis, etc. to be applied to new tumor treatment and tumor combination treatment under image guiding. At the same time, most of these materials will remain in the body for a long time, which may cause certain long-term toxic effects. We utilize the biological effects of metabolizable functional nanomaterials for synergistic ionotherapy. Most of the nanomaterials can be metabolized from the body, reducing their toxicity, and greatly expanding the application of inorganic functional nanomaterials in tumor with high efficiency and low toxicity.

Biography:Prof Shi is the vice Dean of the School of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Deputy Director of the Institute of Imaging Medicine, Soochow University. He received his M.S. from Soochow University (China) in 2006, and completed his Ph D study in National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2012. After graduation, he then moved to Stanford University (USA) for post-doctoral study from 2012 to 2014. In October 2014, he joined Soochow University as full professor. His research interests mainly include (1) developing smart probes for bioimaging application; (2) exploring multimodal and multifunctional probes for tumor diagnosis and treatment; (3) designing novel drug candidates (including radioactive drug candidates) for treatment of tumor and other diseases. To date, he has published 75 peer-reviewed journal articles with the majority appearing at the top journals, such as Nat. Commun., JACS, Angew. Chem., Adv Mater., etc. He has received multiple prestigious awards including the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2023), National Youth Talent Program (2016) and Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talent Plan of Jiangsu Province (2017). Prof. Shi is currently the editorial board members for Proteomics and Proteomics Clinical Applications, and the members of Medical Imaging Engineering and Technology Branch of Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering and Nanotechnology Professional Committee of Chinese Anti-cancer Association. He has undertaken nearly 10 projects including the National Key Research and Development Plan, the Training Program of the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Key Research and Development Program of Social Development of Jiangsu Province.

Abstract:Sensitive imaging and efficient therapy are the urgent needs for clinical diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors. Molecular imaging technology is expected to provide an effective solution for this purpose. Therefore, developing advanced molecular imaging probes with high accuracy and efficiency is the key to achieve accurate tumor diagnosis and treatment. We have successfully applied the traditional photochemical reactions to biomedical research and carried out series of studies: 1) developing new construction methods for stimuli-responsive imaging probes with improved specificity and sensitivity for accurate tumor diagnosis and therapy, which provides an idea for using low-dose probe to achieve high sensitive and efficient tumor theranostics; 2) novel smart probes that can be spatiotemporally induced by certain stimuli to covalently anchor within tumors has been designed and proposed, which overcomes the difficulty of the low enrichment efficiency and short retention of conventional probes, achieving long-term tumor imaging and treatment; 3) the quantitative analytical method based on ratiometric photoacoustic imaging was explored. Taking advantage of its deep tissue penetration and high accuracy for in vivo quantitative analysis, dynamic visualization and accurate quantification of tumor-associated key biomolecules in deep tumor tissues were realized in living mice, which may offer a safe and non-invasive solution for tumor efficacy evaluation in future.

Biography:Dr. Lin Yuan is currently a Professor of College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering at Hunan University. He received his BS in 2006 at University of South China and PhD in 2013 at Hunan University. From 2014 to 2015, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the National University of Singapore. His current research interests focus on the developing functional dyes and probes for biomedical application. Till now, he has published more than 100 papers as corresponding/first author, including J. Am. Chem. Soc., Nat. Commun., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. He is currently the special chief editor of Frontiers in Chemistry (Supramolecular chemistry), the editorial board member of Chinese Chemical Letters, and Chemosensors.

Abstract:Fluorescent dyes/probes have enabled much progress in the broad range of biomedical fields, such as cell and in vivo imaging. However, many commercially available dyes suffer from small Stokes shifts and low brightness, resulting in poor signal-to-noise ratio and self-quenching on current microscope configurations. Over the past decade, we proposed a synergic design strategy to equip commonly used fluorophores with large Stokes shift, high photostability and brightness, for intracellular imaging with high-resolution and signal-to-noise ratio; we also developed some near-infrared (NIR) organic fluorophores with high stability and optically tunable group to create activatable NIR fluorescent probes for in vivo sensing and high contrast imaging; On the basis of the synergic regulation of fluorophore and recognition unit, we constructed some reversible fluorescent probes to realize dynamic monitoring and quantitative analysis of targets in cells and in vivo. These probes have been successfully applied in live-cell and in vivo sensing and imaging, providing excellent tools to elucidate biological functions of disease-associated targets.

Biography:Jinbin Liu is a professor at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology. His research interests mainly focus on the luminescent metal nanoprobes for imaging. He has been supported by the High-Quality Overseas Professionals Youth Project, the National Science Foundation for Outstanding Young People and Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Guangdong Province. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China (Supervisor: Professor Zhaoxiang Deng) in 2010. After four years’ postdoctoral research at The University of Texas at Dallas (co-supervisor: Professor Jie Zheng), he joined South China University of Technology as a professor to start his independent career in July 2014. As first or corresponding author, he has published more than 60 papers including J. Am. Chem. Soc. (3 papers) and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (10 papers), and obtained 13 authorized Chinese invention patents. He was guest editor of Chinese Journal of Chemistry and Frontiers in Chemistry, editorial board member of Targets and Journal of Analytical Testing, and special invited young editorial board member of Spectroscopy and Spectral Analysis.

Abstract:Luminescent metal (e.g., Au, Ag and Cu) nanoprobes with ultra-small size (d < 3 nm) and special metal core and ligand layer (such as Au0 core/AuI-S shell) structure, exhibit unique optical properties and physiological behaviors, and have become a new type of imaging probes with great clinical translation potential in the field of biological imaging. In recent years, our research group has focused on the scientific problems of "bright", "specific" and "safe" luminescent metal nanoprobes and their precise biological imaging. A new cross-linked self-assembly method was proposed to significantly improve the emission quantum yield of the probes, which laid a foundation for highly sensitive biological imaging. A new system of in situ functionalization of the probe was established, which achieved breakthroughs in imaging performance such as high targeting, high penetration and high specific signal recognition of the probe in complicated living environments (cells and living organisms). It opened the research on the in vivo biological interaction mechanism of the probe, providing key experimental support for the biosafety of the probe, and promoting the basic research and clinical translation of efficient and safe luminescent metal nanoprobes for imaging.

Biography:Wu Aiguo is Researcher, winner of NNSF National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, member of the 100 Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the International Federation of Biomaterials Science and Engineering Societies (FBSE), Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB), and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). He is currently Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of NIMTE, CAS, Director of Chinese Society for Biomaterials (CSBM), Deputy Director Member of the Branch of Materials Biology and Smart Diagnosis and Treatment Technology of Biophysical Society of China (BSC), the Nano-Oncology Professional Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association (CACA), the Ultrasound Molecular Imaging Professional Committee of the Chinese Association of Ultrasound in Medicine and Engineering (CAUME), and the Nano-Biomedical Engineering Branch of the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering (CSBME), and member of the Analytical Chemistry Committee of Chinese Chemical Society.

Focusing on the research of molecular imaging detection probes, biomaterials and related instruments and equipment, he has formed an original research system and made systematic contributions to the development of MRI probes, fluorescent probes, contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging probes and NPY-targeted imaging visualization probes and instruments for tumor treatment, and published over 300 articles in Science Adv, Adv Mater, Anal Chem, Nano Lett, ACS Nano and Chem Soc Rev, which has been cited more than 20,000 times. He has won the first Global Nanobiotech Youth Innovation Award of Nano Research journal (2018), the special prize of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Society for Analysis and Testing (2/10), and twice the first prize of Ningbo Science and Technology Award (2016, 1/7; 2023, 1/5), etc. He has published 4 monographs (Wiley, China Science Press, etc.), and has been recognized as Yearly Top 2% of Scientists in the World released by Stanford University for multiple years. He has obtained 122 patents in China, Europe and the United States (including 4 in the US and Europe), and has led the formulation of one national and one group standard.

Abstract:Surface Raman Enhancement Spectroscopy (SERS) has been widely used in biomedical analysis and imaging detection and other fields. Usually based on noble metal nanomaterials, SERS technology can obtain high Raman enhancement factor, but its detection stability is poor. It is often the case that the Raman enhancement factors of different SERS hotspots differ by several orders of magnitude so that it is difficult to ensure the consistency of sensing detection. For common semiconductor nanomaterials, although the Raman stability is good and the repeatability is guaranteed as well, the Raman enhancement factor is not high, which makes it difficult to be applied in the field of clinical sensing and detection. The team of NIMTE CAS, through years of research effort, has succeeded in improving the reinforcement factor based on semiconductor micro and nano materials by modulating the materials’ performance to a level that is comparable to that of the noble metal nanomaterials usually used. Furthermore, effective detection of various tumors may be achieved through the combination of various tumor markers, with the effective detection rate of clinical blood samples of more than 90%, which is proven effective application. In this representation, the latest work progress on Raman enhancement mechanisms and the detection stability and specificity will be explained in detail.

Biography:Ping Hu, Researcher and Doctoral Supervisor of Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Excellent Youth, Shanghai Outstanding Academic Leader (Youth), Shanghai Young Top-notch Talent, Youth Climbing Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Outstanding Member of Youth Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Distinguished Research Backbone of Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2013, Dr. Hu received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Chemistry, Fudan University. Her current research interests are focused on nano-liquid biopsy, nano catalytic immune regulation, and tumor depolymerization therapy. She has published more than 60 SCI papers about her research results of the past five years in international high-impact academic journals in the fields of chemistry and materials such as Nat. Rev. Mater., Chem (2 papers), J. Mater. Am. Chem. Soc. (6 papers), Adv. Mater. (4 papers), Natl. Sci. Rev., Nat. Commun., etc. She has been authorized 9 Chinese invention patents, one of which has been transformed and two have been approved for clinical trials. She has presided over more than 20 projects of Young Scientist Fund (YSF), general projects and Excellent Youth projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as various talent projects of Shanghai and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and participated in 5 important scientific and technological research projects such as the National Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology as a core researcher.

Abstract:The incidence and mortality of cavity tumors such as colorectal cancer and bladder cancer remain high. For patients with low bowel cancer, anus-preserving surgery is difficult and accompanied by serious complications such as obstruction, which brings great pain to patients with advanced bowel cancer. The recurrence rate of bladder cancer in five years after surgery is at 85% or even higher, most patients need to undergo multiple electroresections, and postoperative perfusion chemotherapy has serious toxic side effects, which affects the quality of life of elderly bladder cancer patients, and it is urgent to develop new technologies for safe and efficient treatment of cavity tumors. We invert the traditional treatment concept of killing cancer cells, and propose the world’s first new technology of tumor depolymerization therapy, which depolymerizes the cavity tumor and excretes it from the body, so as to achieve the purpose of safe and efficient tumor removal, and provide a new solution for the treatment of clinical colorectal cancer, bladder cancer and other malignant cavity tumors.

Biography:Dai Yunlu is Associate Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, and Recipient of the Excellent Young Scholars Fund, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). He received his Ph.D. degree from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014 and was engaged in postdoctoral research from 2014 to 2018. He served as Assistant Professor (independent PI) at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau from August 2018 to August 2022 and Associate Professor since August 2022. Based on the construction of metal-coordinated biomaterials, Dr. Dai Yunlu’s research team has successfully constructed a controlled-release drug system with tumor targeting, long circulation time and tumor microenvironment response through controllable assembly with anti-cancer drugs and metal ions with specific functions, which combines traditional cancer treatment methods and cancer immunotherapy organically in a metal-coordinated nanomedicine system to significantly improve the effect of cancer treatment, providing a new design concept for the research and development of tumor treatment biomaterials. He has published more than 60 research papers in internationally renowned journals such as Nat. Commun., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater. as First/Corresponding Author.

Abstract:Metal-coordinated materials are an innovative type of biomaterials that can be used for drug loading, coating and delivery. Most anticancer drugs have issues such as poor stability, dose-related toxicity, and short circulation times. In order to solve these issues, we synthesized a series of polyphenol derivatives (pegylated polyphenol derivatives, cisplatin-polyphenol derivatives, etc.) as assembly modules, introduced therapeutic natural polyphenols and anticancer drugs and metal ions with specific functions for molecular design and structural assembly, and constructed a multifunctional metal-phenolic nanomedicine system with tumor targeted, long circulating and tumor microenvironment responsive drug release. In addition, the traditional cancer treatment methods and cancer immunotherapy were organically combined in the metal-phenolic coordinated nanomedicine system to significantly improve the therapeutic effect, with efforts made to delve into its internal biological mechanism. This report will talk about some of the recent advances made by the research group in the field of cancer therapy using coordination-based biomaterials.

Biography:Dong Wang, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, leader of the scientific research team of "Flexible Electronic Materials and Devices", Top-Notch Talent in Hainan Province, and Secretary of the "Leading Innovative and Entrepreneurial Faculty" Branch of the CPC Party, Hainan University. In 2014, he received his Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry and Physics from Xiamen University. From 2012 to 2013, he went to the University of Cincinnati/Wake Forest University School of Medicine in the US for doctoral study on a national public fund for collaborated doctoral cultivation. From 2015 to 2017, he was engaged in postdoctoral research at the School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. From 2017 to 2019, he was a visiting researcher at School of Materials Science and Technology, Tsinghua University. He’s mainly engaged in functional fibers, conductive gels, flexible sensing materials and devices, neuroelectrophysiological recording and analysis and other interdisciplinary scientific research. He has presided over the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2), the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation Innovation Research Team Project, High-level Talent Project, Youth Project, Key R&D Project of Hainan Province, Hainan University Collaborative Innovation Research Center Project, High-level Talent Scientific Research Start-up Funding Project, etc., and participated in 1 major special sub-project of Science and Technology Innovation 2030 "Brain Science and Brain-like Research". He has published in Science Adv., Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater. (3), Adv. Energy Mater., Nano Energy, etc. more than 20 research papers as the first author or corresponding author with a total impact factor > 300 and more than 3600 citations. He’s in possession of 6 authorized invention patents. He is a member of the Organoid and Brain-like Chip Branch of the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering, Vice Chairman of the Young Editorial Board of MedMat., and Editorial Board Member of journals such as BMC Biomedical Engineering and Applied Research.

Abstract:An ideal wearable physiological signal monitoring device should have mechanical properties, biocompatibility, signal sensitivity and stability that match human tissues. Researchers have conducted innovative research on the challenges of neural signal recording and body surface sensing detection and developed a new type of poly (co-isopropylacrylamide) interpenetrating network hydrogel with excellent electrical conductivity, antiswelling, antibacterial resistance and biocompatibility, which is suitable for body surface stress sensing and electrophysiological signal recording. Combined with optogenetics and electrophysiology technology, transparent and flexible hydrogel neural electrodes were developed to realize the synergistic regulation of light and electricity. In addition, an integrated wearable sweat sensing patch has been developed for real-time monitoring of stress biomarkers. Microfluidic-assisted elastomer fiber preparation strategies have also been developed to fabricate silicone fibers with multiple functions, demonstrating the potential for application in wearable sensors and actuators. These achievements have led to the development of implantable nerve electrodes and wearable healthcare sensing devices.

Biography:He obtained his PhD degrees from Zhejiang University in 2007. In 2012, he joined Institute of Advanced Materials, NanjingTech University as a Full Professor. And in 2022, he was promoted to vice president of Jiangsu Normal University. He has published more than 300 papers, with citation by >35,000 times (H-index~103), edited and published 3 books in English and Chinese. The current research involves biophotonics and bioelectronics, flexible electronics. His scientific achievements have been honored by many prestigious scientific awards in China, including "Ten thousand plan" - National high level talents special support plan (2017), Distinguished Young Scholar of China (2015), National Science Foundation (2015), and so on.

Abstract:Cancer (also known as malignant tumor), has become a leading cause of mortality worldwide with complicated pathogenesis and easy recurrence. Many efforts have been made to develop high-efficiency, low-toxic approaches to diagnose and treat cancer. Compared to traditional cancer therapies, such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, phototherapy including photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT), has attracted extensive attention in recent decades due to low toxicity, high selectivity, low invasiveness and synergistic surgery. Aiming at the characteristics of micro-environment in tumor, we designed and developed a series of near-infrared organic photosensitizers based on BODIPY and DPP. Through molecular structure modification, the intramolecular HOMO-LUMO energy level and the singlet to triplet energy level gap have been controlled to improve near-infrared absorption, singlet oxygen yield, photothermal conversion efficiency of photosensitizers. It is important for organic semiconductor photosensitizers to explore tumor targeting, optical imaging performance, which can achieve Photoacoustic/fluorescence imaging-mediated tumor-targeted multimodal therapy with single or multiple stimuli response. In addition, the vascular blocker has been covalently coupled with organic semiconductor photosensitizer to synergistic tumor treatment through effectively destroying the intravascular blood vessels and cutting off the supply of nutrients at the tumor site, which can inhibit tumor metastasis and reduce the probability of recurrence.

Biography:Jiaguo Huang is a professor in School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Sun Yat-Sen University. He obtained a four-years BSc in Pharmacy and a three-years Master degree in Medicinal Chemistry, working in the fields of molecular imaging and imaging agents/probes. Following on from this, he successfully applied to undertake a 4 year PhD as part of the FP7 Marie Curie program “NephroTools”, where he was based in University of Heidelberg (Germany) and involved into the collaboration of a network of researchers in Europe. After that, he has been a postdoc fellow for one year at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) with Prof. Norbert Gretz and four-years at the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) with Prof. Kanyi Pu. and he is now a full professor in School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Sun Yat-sen University since Aug 2021. His research interests in chemistry and biology, molecular imaging and diseases diagnosis, development of biomaterials assays and biomedical instrumental analysis. He has a passionate interest in multidisciplinary research, which is reflected by his chosen education and career paths to date.

Abstract:Molecular optical imaging manifests an indispensable tool for noninvasive and real-time detection of disease progression and therapeutic responses in living organisms. However, due to the low tissue penetration depths of light, their in vivo sensing applications are mainly limited for superficial imaging in preclinical settings. To address these limitations, we develop renal-clearable optical probes (RCOPs) with biomarker-triggered near-infrared fluorescence turn-on response. In rodent models, RCOPs can accumulate at the disease site and react with disease-associated biomarkers to liberate excretable fluorogenic fragments for noninvasive longitudinal urinalysis or fecalysis in vitro. The signal intensity of activated RCOPs in urine is associated with the expression level of biomarkers in the site of disease, which allows early diagnosis and prediction of diseases therapeutic effects. Our RCOPs platform is more promising for clinical translation than optical imaging as it bypasses the limited tissue penetration of optical imaging.

Biography:Kai Liu, Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, National Outstanding Young Scholar, Executive Deputy Director of Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education, head of the innovation team of the Ministry of Education, leader of the Ministry of Education Central Universities Outstanding Youth Team, Chief Scientist of the key science and technology project of national defense, expert in the compilation of guidelines for cutting-edge biotechnology of key special projects of the National Key R&D Program, selected into the National High-level Young Talent Program, Leading Talent of Lu Jiaxi International Team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Daxing New National Gate. Long focused on synthetic biology and application research of materials, he has published 170+ papers with his research results highlighted and featured more than 150 times by Nature, ScienceDaily, People’s Daily Online, Guangming.com, Science and Technology Daily and other media. He’s applied for 60+ invention patents, more than 40 of which have been authorized and 3 achievements have completed transformation and engineering demonstration application. He won the first prize of China Rare Earth Science and Technology, the first prize of Science and Technology of Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, Young Innovator Award of Nano Research, NWO Rubicon Award of Netherlands, and Youth Innovation Award of Life Chemistry of Chinese Chemical Society. He also serves as Director of the Chinese Rare Earth Society, Vice Chairman of Cross-Expert Committee of Chemistry and Biotechnology of Rare Earth Materials, member of Expert Advisory Committee of Beijing Collaborative Innovation Platform of Rare Earth New Materials Technology Innovation Center, Associate Editor-in-Chief of ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, Editor of Engineering, the journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and editorial board member of ACS Applied Bio Materials, etc.

Abstract:Compared with small molecule drugs, protein preparations have the advantages of high activity, strong specificity, low toxicity and clear biological function, etc. but they also have disadvantages such as short half-life and uncertain effect on mutant diseases. Based on this, the key scientific problems to be solved around the development of artificial protein preparations are: (1) how to expand the multi-module molecular motifs of functional proteins, develop cross-scale collaborative assembly driven by multiple chemical forces, and improve the stability and long-term effect of artificial protein drugs; (2) how to design protein molecules to achieve in vivo microenvironment perception, allosteric response, targeted delivery and controllable release, and reduce non-specific tissue accumulation and excessive immune activation; (3) How to develop a new method of real-time, dynamic and cross-scale monitoring of the in vivo delivery process to realize the in vivo identification, tracking and measurement of artificial protein preparations. Our team has developed molecular engineering and biosynthesis technologies, optimized the design of and altered protein preparations, and realized the highly efficient synthesis and collaborative assembly of artificial proteins driven by multiple molecular effects, studied the perceptual enhancement, targeted delivery and controllability of long-term release and of nanoproteins in different physiological and pathological microenvironments and explored the long-acting action mechanism with high targeting for preliminary realization of the application of molecularly engineered proteins in multiple disease models.

Biography:Wang Zhongliang, Second Degree Professor at Xidian University, Leading Professor of Huashan Scholars Program, Doctoral Supervisor, Vice President of School of Life Science and Technology (presiding over the work), Chief Scientist of the National Key R&D Program, National High-Level Talent, leader of the key scientific and technological innovation team in Shaanxi Province, member of the Education Guidance Committee of the Ministry of Education, Vice Chairman of the Youth Council of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, etc. In recent years, he has been mainly engaged in medicine-engineering interdisciplinary research on smart molecular probes, smart drug delivery, smart cell live drugs and precise diagnosis and treatment of major diseases, and has presided over the National Key R&D Program of the MOST, major research programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and key national cooperation and general projects, etc. As the first or corresponding author, he has published more than 70 SCI papers in internationally renowned journals such as Chem Soc Rev, Acc Chem Res, Nat Commun, PNAS, Angew Chem, Adv Mater, ACS Nano, Sci Bull, etc., of which 1 has been selected as top 0.1% ESI hot paper, 5 selected as top 1% ESI highly cited papers, and 5 selected as journal covers. He has also edited or participated in the publication of 4 textbooks or monographs. He has been authorized 2 US inventions and 12 Chinese inventions, transformed 3 patents, and won the first prize of Hainan Science and Technology Progress Award, the first prize of China Medical Science and Technology Award, and 1 special prize of Shaanxi Universities and Colleges Science and Technology Research Outstanding Achievement Award, Shaanxi Youth Science and Technology Award, China Oncology Young Scientist Award, etc.

Abstract:Cancer has gradually become the number one killer of human health due to its high incidence and low survival rate. How to identify tumors and achieve early and accurate diagnosis and treatment of tumors are key to improving the survival rate of cancer patients. However, it is difficult to achieve early diagnosis and precise treatment of small tumors with existing methods, and molecular imaging provides new opportunities due to its high sensitivity and good specificity. However, improving the barrier crossing and target identification of probes are challenging issues that need to be solved urgently. The author is the first in the world to put forward (1) a new binary collaborative biomimetic strategy for rabies virus, and construct a magnetic-optical dual-mode sensing probe that can effectively cross the BBB to achieve efficient and accurate diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases; (2) a new mechanism of torsion-induced dis-aggregation (TIDA) amplified by bioorthogonal sensing, and construct a near-infrared fluorescent smart sensing probe to achieve highly sensitive bioorthogonal imaging detection of tumors; (3) construct a series of intelligent probes with single or double marker sequence response for the metabolic markers of the tumor micro-environment, which realized the high-sensitivity and high-specificity image visualization of small lesions below 1mm, and effectively reduced the false-positive and false-negative rates of early diagnosis, which has important application value in the early diagnosis of tumors, precise intraoperative navigation, and drug efficacy evaluation and development, etc.

Biography:Ye Mingzhou is Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor, National High-Level Young Talent, member of the One-Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Distinguished Young Talent of Jiangsu Province, talent of the "Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Plan" of Jiangsu Province, and leading talent of Gusu Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program. He received his bachelor’s degree from the School of Materials and Chemical Engineering of Zhejiang University in 2009 and his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Chemical Engineering of Zhejiang University in 2015. From 2015 to 2021, he conducted postdoctoral research at the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Zhejiang University, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Ye joined the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, CAS in September, 2021 as a PI. His research focuses on the exploration and development of innovative nanodelivery system to enable efficient immunotherapy for tumors and inflammation-related diseases. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals such as Nat. Nanotechnol., Matter，Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., J. Control. Release, and has filed 4 patents in the U.S. He has led several projects including the The Science Fund Program for Distinguished Young Scholars (Overseas), the One-Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China General Project and participated in the sub-project of the National Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology. He has also made invited reports at academic conferences such as the Chinese Biomaterials Conference, China Nanomedicine, etc. and received the first prize of the Henan Provincial Medical Science and Technology Award.

Dr. Mingzhou Ye is a professor at the Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his BA and PhD degrees from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Zhejiang University, and conducted postdoctoral research at the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Zhejiang University, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Ye joined the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, CAS in 2021 as a PI. His research focuses on the development of innovative nanomedicines designed for the controlled release of various drug molecules, aiming to precisely regulate the disease microenvironment, thereby enabling efficient immunotherapy for tumors and inflammation-related diseases. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals such as Nature Nanotechnology, Matter, Advanced Materials, and Advanced Functional Materials, and has filed 5 patents in the U.S. and China. Dr. Ye has led several projects including the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, Jiangsu Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the National Natural Science Foundation of China General Project, and received the first prize of the Henan Provincial Medical Science and Technology Award.

Abstract:Immune imbalance is a key pathogenic mechanism in a range of major diseases. Consequently, immunotherapy has become an increasingly important treatment approach, though it still faces significant limitations. Nanomedicines, with their characteristics of targeting, stimuli responsiveness, and multifunctionality, can load a variety of immunomodulators and controlled release at the disease site, giving them a natural advantage in immunotherapy. The speaker aims to explore the effects and mechanisms of different bioactive molecules in inflammation regulation, utilize nanocarriers to encapsulate and deliver these molecules, and target inflammatory tissues to achieve precise immune modulation, thereby enabling efficient immunotherapy for tumors and a range of inflammation-related diseases

Biography:Professor Lianhui Wang received his PhD degree from Zhejiang University, after which he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore and postdoctoral researcher as well as assistant professor in Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB, NUS). In June 2005, he was hired as a professor in the Advanced Materials Laboratory of Fudan University. Since 2011, he has joined Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and is now a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, the State Key Laboratory of Organic Electronics and Information Display, and the State Key Laboratory of Biointelligent Materials and Diagnosis and Treatment Technology. He has long been engaged in teaching and research in the fields of photoelectric nano-materials, bio-optoelectronics and nano-biological medicine. He presided over more than 30 scientific research projects at national, provincial and ministerial levels. Besides, He has published more than 300 papers in prominent academic journals as Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, JACS, etc., which have been cited more than 25,000 times by SCI articles. He has been selected as Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars, winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and leading talent of the Ten Thousand Talents Program, etc.

Abstract:In recent years, the incidence rate of major cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in China has been increasing and hitting more young people year by year, which seriously threatens the lives and health of the people. In view of the urgent needs of clinical treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and tumors, this work focuses on the research on precise design and controllable assembly technology of smart micro-nano materials/machines for biomedical diagnosis and treatment. Through strategies such as confined interface self-assembly, DNA programmable self-assembly, and biological self-assembly, three types of smart micro-nano materials, including DNA self-assembly materials, cell-liposome fusion materials and cell biomimetic materials were constructed. A variety of smart micro-nano drug delivery machines or vaccines for thrombosis drug carriers and tumor treatment have been developed, and their good efficacy of thrombosis and tumor treatment have been verified in live animal experiments, which provides new ideas for the treatment of major diseases.

Biography:Zonghai Sheng, Ph.D., is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He serves as the deputy director of the Advanced Detection Materials and Medical Imaging Devices Research Center, and is a recipient of the Guangdong Special Support Plan for Youth Top-notch Talent and Shenzhen High-level Talent. His research focuses on molecular imaging and molecular probes. He has led four National Natural Science Foundation projects and two key projects from the Ministry of Science and Technology. In the past five years, he has published over 30 papers as a corresponding author in international journals, including Nature Biomedical Engineering, with more than 10,000 citations and a single paper cited up to 489 times. Six of his papers have been selected as ESI Highly Cited Papers. He has successfully transferred 13 patents to industry, and his X-ray-activated probe for radiotherapy dose quantification imaging has entered clinical research. His achievements have been recognized with the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Award (Second Prize) and the Shenzhen Natural Science Award (Second Prize). He also serves as the vice chair of the Nanomedicine and Engineering Branch of the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering and is a youth editorial board member of Research, Exploration, iRADIOLOGY, and BMEMat.

Abstract:Radiotherapy is one of the three primary modalities for cancer treatment. Accurate detection and imaging of radiotherapy dose boundaries are crucial for achieving precise radiotherapy. This report highlights our team’s latest advancements in utilizing nanoprobes and devices for tumor radiotherapy dose monitoring, including: (1) For in situ quantitative detection of intraluminal radiotherapy doses, we proposed a novel integration of X-ray-activated rare-earth long-persistent luminescent probes with implantable devices. This innovation efficiently converts the X-ray signals received within tumor tissues into electrical signals in situ, addressing the medical challenge of in situ measurement of tumor radiotherapy doses, and providing a new tool for the formulation and optimization of radiotherapy plans; (2) To address the low sensitivity of clinical radiotherapy dose verification films, we developed X-ray-activated rare-earth long-persistent luminescent films. This solution overcomes the limitations of commercial radiotherapy dose detection probes, such as low sensitivity, narrow linear range, and high deviation, and marks the first successful application of nanoprobes in quantitative imaging of clinical radiotherapy doses, offering a new technology for tumor radiotherapy dose verification; (3) We introduced a new approach for photoacoustic visualization of radiotherapy dose imaging, overcoming the reliance on large MRI equipment required by existing gel dosimeters, and have preliminarily achieved qualitative photoacoustic imaging of radiotherapy doses.