Research Interests
Our research group is interested in the interface among microfluidics, nanotechnologies, cellular biology, and drug delivery. Specifically, we focus on the competitive kinetics of self-assembling processes to synthesize nano- and micro-particles with designed structures and functionalities in a scalable manner. Both numerical and experimental endeavor are implemented to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms and to provide heuristic parameters for these physical and chemical processes.
Self-assembled Toroidal-Spiral Micro-Particles (TSMP)
Toroidal Spiral Micro-Particles (TSMPs) self-assemble and self-load by the competitive kinetics of viscous flow, diffusion and a cross-linking reaction. The resultant spiral structure is expected to be particularly conducive to both high drug loadings and prolonged release profiles. |
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Thus, this work represents promising new biomedical applications enabled byfundamental fluid mechanics and transport phenomena. |
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Synergistic drug delivery system (SDDS) based on self-assembled nanoparticles
For extremely complex heterogeneous diseases, such as cancer and immunoinflammatory disorders, deliver of a single therapeutic agent or a simple combination of multiple therapeutic agents is not an efficient method of |
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| treatment. We aim to develop synergistic drug delivery system (SDDS) based on dynamic self-assembling nanotechnology to achieve precise control of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of multiple-drug delivery. |
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Hydrodynamics in multiphase microfludics
The multiphase microfluidics has a wide range of applications, from cell encapsulation and single cell analysis to drug screening and nanoreactor. The goal of our research is to understand the free-surface hydrodynamics in multiphase microfluidic systems including cell memberane, carrier-fluid phase, aqueous phase and solid surface. |
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Interactions of gold nanoparticles with proteins
Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have there unique applications in biomolecular imaging and bioengineering due to their optical and electrical properties. The complexes of GNPs and proteins not |
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only introduce the biocompatible surface functionalities to the nanoparticles but also provide a method for protein delivery. Our research group is interested in understanding the interactions between GNPs and proteins, specifically, the changes of the optical and electrical properties of the complexes and the structural conformations of the proteins. |
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