Biomaterials and Nanomedicine is an interdisciplinary field at the forefront of science, converging nanotechnology, biomaterials science, and modern medicine. It focuses on designing and engineering novel nanostructures and biomaterials to address key challenges in medical diagnostics and therapeutics. The FUNSOM Biomaterials and Nanomedicine research team aligns its efforts with global trends in the field, leveraging multidisciplinary expertise in nano-chemistry, materials science, biomedicine, and computational biology. The team's research spans several critical areas: developing nano-biochip-based in vitro detection technologies for highly sensitive identification of disease biomarkers; constructing multifunctional nanoprobes for advanced multi-modal bioimaging; designing novel organic/inorganic biomaterials for intelligent drug delivery systems; and exploring new biomaterial-based strategies for immunomodulation to enhance treatment efficacy against various diseases. Concurrently, the team is dedicated to investigating the fundamental biological interactions and biosafety profiles of both nanomaterials and biomaterials within biological systems, providing a critical foundation for their clinical translation. The overarching goal is to drive innovation in medical technologies, improve disease diagnosis and treatment outcomes, and ultimately contribute significantly to human health.

Their main research directions are:

1. Drug carrier development

Pharmaceuticals often face challenges such as poor stability in vivo, susceptibility to denaturation and inactivation, short biological half-life, difficulty in crossing physiological barriers, and low bioavailability. Inorganic, polymeric, and biologically derived biomaterials are widely used as targeted drug carriers to enhance local drug concentration at disease sites while reducing distribution in other organs, thereby improving efficacy and minimizing toxicity. By designing functional biomaterials and developing novel drug delivery systems, we aim to achieve targeted, controllable, and efficient delivery of various drugs—including small molecules and biomacromolecules such as proteins, peptides, and nucleic acids—for the effective treatment of major diseases like cancer and inflammation.

2. Immunomodulation and disease immunotherapy

Immunoengineering is an emerging interdisciplinary field focused on positively activating or negatively regulating immune responses through bioengineering, particularly using biomaterials, to prevent or treat a variety of immune-related diseases. Leveraging a multidisciplinary background, our team develops novel immunotherapy strategies for cancers, infections, inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related conditions. We aim to explore highly specific and low-toxicity biomaterial-based immunotherapies with clinical translation potential, enhancing the efficacy and clinical response rates of immunotherapies.

3. Fluorescent probes and bioanalytical detection

Early diagnosis of tumors and other major diseases is crucial for the selection and effectiveness of treatment plans. Our research team will further develop highly sensitive and specific biochemical analysis platforms to track fundamental cellular and molecular activities in living systems. These platforms will provide new tools and methods for detecting and analyzing relevant signals, enabling highly sensitive, specific, and reproducible analysis of key biomolecules, with potential applications in clinical medicine and practice.

4. Multimodal molecular imaging

Nanomaterials play a significant role in molecular imaging. For instance, silicon-based nanomaterials are regarded as promising fluorescent bio-probes due to their excellent biocompatibility. We will further develop functional nanomaterials as probes for multimodal molecular imaging to track fundamental cellular and molecular dynamics in vivo. Additionally, we aim to advance the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) chips in sensing. Finally, we will continue to explore the clinical use of novel functional nanomaterials in early tumor diagnosis and molecular imaging.

5. Biological effects of materials

As the application of biomaterials in biomedicine expands, systematically studying their interactions with biological systems and evaluating their potential toxicity has become an urgent issue. Our team will assess the biological effects and biosafety of biomaterials at the molecular, cellular, and in vivo levels, laying the foundation for further expanding the use of biomaterials in biomedical applications.

Editor: Danting Xiang