Group News

§ Dr. Yunxiang Xu joined our group as a postdoctoral associate. He got a BS degree in chemistry from Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, in 2003 and a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, China, in 2008.   Welcome on board! (November, 2009)

§ A joint paper entitled "Inorganic mercury detection and controlled release of chelating agents from ion-responsive PEG-liposomes" (with Prof. Yi Lu and Gerard Wong) with Rong  as a co-author is accepted in Chemistry & Biology. (October, 2009)

§ Hua developed a one-pot approach to make hybrid, brush-like polymers with poly(norbornene) backbone and polypeptide brush side chains by integrating controlled NCA polymerization and ROMP.  This work has been accepted in Journal of American Chemical Society (August, 2009). This is Hua's third first-authored JACS paper.  Congratulations, Hua! Prof. Yao Lin and post-doc Jing Wang at University of Connecticut, our collaborators on this project, were co-authors.  This work has been highlighted by Chemical and Engineering News  (Sept, 2009)

§ Yugang Bai joined our group.  Yugang received his BS degree in chemistry from Nanjing University, China, in 2009.  Welcome Yugang! (August, 2009)

§ The collaborative work with Professor Yi Lu and Gerard Wong's research groups for the development of aptamer-liposome delivery system for targeted breast cancer treatment has been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (July. 2009). Rong shared the first-authorship in this article.  This work has also been highlighted in news. See Illinois News Bureau, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, Science Codex, Chemistry World.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jianjun Cheng, professor of materials science and engineering, left; Rong Tong, graduate student, center, and Yi Lu, professor of chemistry, were on a team that developed a reversible method for delivering cancer drugs to tumor cells. | Photo by L. Brian Stauffer (July, 2009)

§ Dr. Nathan Gabrielson joined our group as a postdoc associate.  Nathan got his Ph.D. from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2009 with Prof. Dan Pack and has done extensive work in drug delivery and non-viral gene delivery.  Welcome Nate! (July, 2009)

§ Rong and Li's co-authored paper entitled "Nanopolymeric Therapeutics" has been published in MRS Bulletin, issue of June 2009 (June, 2009)

§ Jianjun Cheng received two NIH R21 grants, one from National Cancer Institute and the other from National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (April 2009).

§ Jianjun Cheng's teaching at the University of Illinois has been recognized through selection to the Unofficial List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by Their Students for course MSE470 "Design and Use of Biomaterials". Overall Teaching Evaluation 4.7/5. (April., 2009)

§ Rong received competitive Racheff-Intel Award.  Congratulations, Rong! (April., 2009)

§ Rong's paper on ring-opening polymerization mediated-controlled formulation of polylactide nanoparticles has been accepted in Journal of American Chemical Society (Feb., 2009).

§ Jianjun Cheng's teaching at the University of Illinois has been recognized through selection to the Unofficial List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by Their Students for course MSE498JC "Biomaterials and Nanomedicine" (October, 2008).  Overall Teaching Evaluation 4.9/5

§ Rong and Cheng's work on paclitaxel-initiated ring-opening polymerization for the preparation of polymeric nanoparticle for cancer drug delivery is highlighted by National Cancer Institute, NIH (Sept, 2008).

§ Cheng and Leland Chung's work on cyanine-dye mediated cancer targeting and therapy was featured in Bulletin of NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer (Sept, 2008).  [PDF]

§ Hua's work on controlled NCA polymerization and facile end group functionalization of polypeptides has been accepted in Journal of American Chemical Society (August, 2008).

§ Li is married.  Congratulations, Li! (July, 2008).

§ Jianjun Cheng and Hua Lu's provisional parent application on ”Controlled Ring-Opening Polymerization of NCA” has been filed (May, 2008)

§ Jianjun Cheng received a NSF (Chemistry Division) fund to develop organosilicon reagent mediated NCA polymerization (May, 2008)

§ Jianjun Cheng and Rong Tong filed an international patent application on polymeric nanoconjugates drug delivery (March, 2008). 

§ Rong's paper reporting paclitaxel-initiated ring-opening polymerization for the preparation of well-controlled nanoparticulate delivery vehicles has been accepted in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (Feb. 2008).

§ Jianjun Cheng received a NSF Career Award (DMR) to develop nanoconjugate drug delivery vehicles (Feb., 2008).

§ Rong's coauthored paper on developing oral insulin delivery has been published in Biomaterials (Dec. 2007)

§ Cheng received funding support from the Siteman Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence and Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (Dec. 2007).[Link]

§ Hua's work on developing metal-free strategy controlling NCA polymerization has been published on Journal of American Chemical Society (Oct., 2007).

§ Rong received a Poster Award from the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (May, 2007).[Link] 

§ Rong Tong received a Siteman Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (SCCNE) Student Fellowship (May, 2007).

§ Cheng's paper was ranked No.1 of the top 25 hottest articles downloaded in Biomaterials (May, 2007). [Link]

§ A patent on polymeric nanoparticle drug delivery (by Jianjun Cheng and Rong Tong) has been filed through UIUC Office of Technology Management. 

§ Jianjun Cheng received 2007 Prostate Cancer Foundation Competitive Award (Jan., 2007).

§ Jianjun Cheng's research with Langer and Farokhzad on prostate cancer treatment was highlighted in Forbes Magazine as one of the Top Five Nanotech Breakthroughs of 2006 (Dec. 2006). [Link]