Gao's group focused on the development of MRI contrast agents, interface between nanotechnology and biotechnology/medicine. This interdisciplinary research field has great potential for early detection and analysis, accurate imaging and diagnosis, and disease treatment and management.
MRI has a critically important role in molecular imaging and clinical diagnosis. Approximately 35% of clinical MR scans need contrast agents to improve their sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy. The aim in our group is to develop high-performance MRI contrast agents to improve the sensitivity, spatial resolution, and accuracy in molecular imaging and diagnostic analysis.On the one hand, We developed octapod iron oxide nanoparticles as high-performance T2 contrast agents, iron oxide nanoplates as T1 contrast agents for highly efficient magnetic resonance angiography, T1-T2 dual-modal contrast agents to improve the accuracy of cancer imaging and diagnosis.
On the other hand, 19F MRI is emerging as a excellent complement to conventional 1H MRI because 19F MRI has high sensitivity, low biological background, and broad chemical shift range. The specificity and sensitivity of 19F MRI could be further boosted with activatable 19F-containing probes. We had designed and synthesized many activatable 19F-containing probes for visualization of biological targets in living subjects and continuously do reseaerch on this emerging and promising field.
Interest has grown in the use of nanomaterials (e.g., magnetic, semiconductor, and noble metal) as probes for bioanalysis and diagnosis, particularly in vitro diagnostics (IVD). With the advantages of high volume/surface ratio, surface tailorability, multifunctionality, and intrinsic properties, nanoprobes have tremendous applications in the areas of biomarker discovery and analysis (e.g., DNA/RNA, enzymes, peptides), diagnostics of infectious diseases (e.g., bacteria an virus), and cancer detection. The distinguishing features of nanoprobes for in vitro use, such as harmlessness, ultrasensitivity, multiplicity, and point-of-care use, can bring a bright future of nanodiagnosis.Now we fouce on the DOTA-branched organic frameworks for its high performance and stabilities for biomedical applications.
Chemotherapy is the dominant treatment modality for cancer, yet it is limited by poor biodistribution and severe side effects in patients. The rising of nanotechnology has provided a versatile platform for cancer treatment. Because of their large surface-to-volume ratio, high flexibility for surface tailoring, and excellent capacity for multifunction, nanoparticles have recently emerged as a promising carrier for delivery of multiple drugs (e.g., DOX, PTX, ATO, and CPT) with many advantages including improved drug solubility, controllable release of drugs, and reduced systemic toxicity, which provides a potential solution for the problems of conventional therapy. The goal is to develop new drug delivery systems incorporating cancer diagnosis, real-time drug release monitoring, and high therapeutic efficiency, which can open up new venues in cancer treatment and management.
Autophagy plays a key role in human health and disease, especially in cancer and neurodegeneration. Many autophagy regulators are developed for therapy. Diverse nanomaterials have been reported to induce autophagy. However, the underlying mechanisms and universal rules remain unclear. Our current emphasis is to investigate the relationship between physicochemical properties (e.g., size, charge, morphology, surface modification, and dispersity) of nanoparticles and the cell autophagic effects.