BS, 1988, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
PhD, 1994, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, 1994-97, Northwestern University
I am the James Franck Professor of Chemistry and a member of the UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology, and the Ludwig Center for Metastasis Research at the University of Chicago. I obtained my BS from the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, China and my PhD with Professors Gregory S. Girolami and Ralph G. Nuzzo at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After an NSF postdoctoral fellow with Professor Tobin J. Marks at Northwestern University, I started my independent academic career at Brandeis University in 1997. I moved to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001 and rose through the ranks to become the Kenan Distinguished Professor in 2011. My group relocated to the University of Chicago in 2013.
My research focuses on designing molecular materials for human health and sustainability. My group has explored how these materials can be applied to a wide range of present-day concerns, including nonlinear optics, catalysis, uranium sequestration, solar energy, and cancer radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. I initiated our nanomedicine research efforts in 2004 and over the past 15 years, my group has pioneered the development of two novel classes of molecular nanomaterials—nanoscale metal-organic frameworks (nMOFs) and nanoscale coordination polymers (NCPs)—for the treatment of advanced tumors. In particular, we discovered that nMOFs and NCPs can not only enable radiotherapy-radiodynamic therapy and synergistic chemotherapies but also activate tumor microenvironments to enhance cancer immunotherapies. My two startup companies—RiMO Therapeutics and Coordination Pharmaceuticals—have successfully translated the nMOF and NCP technologies into the clinic and currently have three drug candidates in clinical trials (NCT03444714, NCT03781362, and NCT03953742) for treating patients with advanced tumors.
I have published over 340 peer-reviewed articles and have been among the most cited chemists several years in a row and was selected to be one of the top 10 chemists in the 1999-2009 decade based on per article citations. For my contributions to functional molecular materials, I have received numerous professional honors, including Arnold and Mabel Beckman Young Investigator Award, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Ludwig Center at the University of Chicago
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