Presenter: Prof. Dejian Zhou (University of Leeds)
Topic:Polyvalent multifunctional nanoparticles for ultrasensitive biosensing and dissecting multivalent protein-sugar interactions
Time: 3:00 p.m., June 20th (Thursday)
Location: Conference Room B, BLDG 909-1F
Abstract
A great healthcare challenge currently facing the society is to find solutions to some of the most devastating diseases, such as cancer, which alone accounts for >12 million yearly deaths worldwide. In this regard, early diagnosis is critical to improve patient survival. This requires ultrasensitive and specific sensors that can detect and quantitate trace amount of specific biomarkers.1 To address this challenge, we have been pursuing a polyvalent multifunctional nanoparticle (PMN) strategy to exploit multivalency and further integrate the unique functions of nanoparticles to achieve greatly enhanced binding affinity, specificity and multi-functionality. In this talk, I will share some of our ongoing work on the development of, (1) a magnetic nanoparticle-enzyme based ultrasensitive sensor for label-free quantification of specific DNA targets down to the low aM level. It can quantitate cancer specific single base mutant in large excess of the wild-type gene background down to 0.7%;2 (2) a glycan-quantum dot based PMN for dissecting the binding mode and potently blocking multivalent protein-sugar interactions underpinning the HIV/Ebola virus infections.3
1)Giljohann & Mirkin. Nature, 2009, 462, 461; b)Zhang & Zhou, Expert Rev. Mol. Diagn. 2012, 12, 565.
2)Garcia et al. Nanoscale, 2011, 3, 3721; b) Zhang et al., Nanoscale, 2013, 5, 5027; c) Zhang et al., Anal. Chem. 2013, 85, 9238; d) Lapitan et al., Nanoscale, 2019, 11, 1195.
3)Guo et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 4738; b) Guo et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 11833; c) Poole et al. to be published.
Biography
Dejian Zhou is Professor of Nanochemistry and a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) based at School of Chemistry, University of Leeds. Prof. Zhou obtained his BSc (Chemistry) in 1990 and PhD in 1995, respectively, both from Peking University. He pursued further postdoctoral research at Cranfield University and then moved to University of Cambridge. He joined University of Leeds as a Senior Lecturer in 2007 and was promoted to full Professor in Nanochemsitry in 2018. He has published some 135 peer reviewed papers, 2 book chapters (total citation count: 4889; H-index: 40) and two research highlights on the BBC.Prof. Zhou sits on the International Advisory Board of Particle & Particle System Characterization, serves as an Associate Editor for Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal and several other journals.
Contact: Prof. Le He
Editor: Ming Lu