Biography: Dr. Dai-Wen Pang, a distinguished professor of chemistry at Nankai University and the Head of SAC/TC279/WG10, focuses on biomedical quantum dots (BioQDs, fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals) for biolabeling and dynamic bioimaging. He has proposed the principle of “multi-hierarchical equilibration of QDs”, and first broken through the stability dilemma that limits their application on a large scale for 42 years (1980-2022), making the large-scale applications possible in biolabeling and optoelectronic display. Their QD light diffusion plate technology has been applied to >2 million QD TV. For his outstanding contributions to the development of QD-based methodologies for single-virus tracking, he was elected as a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2021.

      Abstract: Quantum dots (QDs) are promising candidates of fluorophores for a wide variety of applications in biomedical imaging, and optoelectronic devices, etc. They can be regarded as a multi-hierarchical assembly, consisting of an inorganic semiconductor nanocrystal core, a ligand layer, and sometimes a confinement shell. Each single hierarchy of QDs has been systematically studied and now it is not difficult to achieve a single one of properties of QDs to the extreme. However, it is very difficult that their comprehensive properties are perfectly good. In practical application scenarios or environments, the intrinsic linkage and balance among single hierarchical structures must be comprehensively considered. Therefore, multi-hierarchical equilibration tuning of QDs is highly required. To this end, we propose that only by comprehensive equilibration of multi-hierarchical structures of QDs including the inorganic semiconductor nanocrystal core, confinement shell and surface ligands, especially together with potential application scenarios (microenvironment), we can fabricate QDs with excellent properties. In this presentation, we will discuss in detail our insights into developing and exploiting the excellent optical properties of QDs.

      Biography: Mao Lanqun, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University dedicated to the research of analytical chemistry, has made remarkable progress in in vivo brain chemistry measurement, regulation and functional simulation. Based on his discovery how interface electron transfer regulates the selectivity of in vivo sensing, the primary battery-type redox potential analysis method was proposed, which enabled the simulation of neurochemical signals and electrical signals and promoted the development of in vivo analytical chemistry. In 2006, he was selected as a Leading Talent in Scientific and Technological Innovation of “Outstanding Youth” and "Ten-thousand Talent Plan", and in 2013, under his leadership, his team was selected as an innovative research group of "the Basic Research of Analytical Chemistry for Living Organisms". He’s published 350 papers on Science, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem., Sci. Adv., Nature Commun. and other journals and the analysis method created by him has been used by multiple entities. He also won the second prize of National Natural Science Award in 2015 as the First Accomplisher.

      Abstract:  Since it allows the study of dynamics of molecular changes in the process of life while the integrity of the structure and molecular network of living organisms (plants and animals) are better maintained, in vivo analysis has essential significance in the research of chemistry and its interdisciplinary research with life. Different from the existing chemical measurement research, in vivo analysis takes living plants or animals as the research object and therefore faces scientific and technical challenges new to the existing ones. Together with my research group, we conduct researches on the selectivity and biocompatibility of in vivo analysis research by the principles of electrochemistry, aiming to develop new principles and methods of in vivo sensing analysis, and realize the application of some sensing methods in vivo chemistry (especially in vivo brain chemistry) research.

      Biography: Wang Hao, Humboldt Scholar, National Distinguished Young Scholars. He is currently director of the Nanobiology Effects and Safety Laboratory at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology.He received his Doctor of Science degree from Nankai University in 2005. He then worked at the University of Wurzburg in Germany and in 2007 at the UCLA on nanotechnology in cancer diagnosis and treatment. In 2011, he joined the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology.His current research interest is medical polymer materials. A new concept of in vivo assembly was proposed to achieve the targeting, enrichment and retention of materials at focal sites, and a new medical polymer material system was developed, which opened up a new way for the diagnosis and treatment of serious diseases. In Nat. Commun., Angew.Chem. Int.Ed., JACS, Adv. Mater. More than 200 papers have been published in such journals. 

      Abstract: In order to reduce the recurrence rate and improve the postoperative quality of life of patients, imaging-guided accurate resection of tumors becomes very important. The development of imaging probes with high specificity and sensitivity is an important scientific issue in the field of biomedical materials. We developed the "in vivo self-assembly" strategy to construct nanoprobes in situ in tumors, which can not only overcome multiple biological barriers during in vivo transmission, making precise customization according to the heterogeneous pathological characteristics of tumors, but also improve the specificity and sensitivity of nanoprobes by taking advantage of the unique biological effects of efficient enrichment and long-term retention. Performance imaging has been obtained on a variety of tumor models.

      Biography: Prof. Dan Ding received his PhD degree in Polymer Chemistry and Physics from Nanjing University in 2010. After a postdoctoral training in the National University of Singapore, he joined Nankai University in March 2013, where he is currently a professor in the College of Life Sciences and State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology. His current research interest focuses on the design and preparation of nanomedicines and new molecular imaging probes as well as exploration of their biomedical applications. So far, he has published more than 100 papers in the journals such as Nat. Commun., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater. and so on. His h-Index is 65.

      Abstract: Development of efficient fluorescent probes with intense far-red/near-infrared (FR/NIR) emission (> 650 nm) is of great importance in biosensing and bioimaging research. To date, a large variety of materials, including organic dyes, fluorescent proteins and inorganic quantum dots (QDs), has been extensively studied for the purpose of FR/NIR fluorescence imaging. Organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, however, suffer from limited molar absorptivity and low photobleaching thresholds, while inorganic QDs are highly cytotoxic in an oxidative environment: this has greatly limited the scope of their in vitro and in vivo applications. Exploration of novel FR/NIR fluorescent probes with a high biological compatibility, strong photobleaching resistance, and efficient light emission is highly desirable for biosensing and bioimaging. Herein, we designed and synthesized new FR/NIR fluorescent probes based on semiconducting polymers or fluorophores with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics. We then explored the biomedical applications of these new fluorescent probes, which were demonstrated as very promising probes for in vitro and in vivo biosensing and bioimaging applications.

      Biography: Dr. Guangcun Chen is a full Professor in Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics (SINANO), Chinese Academy of Sciences. He got his Ph.D from Zhejiang University in 2011. After that, He joined SINANO as an Assistant Professor in October 2011. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015, then Full Professor in 2021. So far, he has published 52 journal papers on the academic journals, such as Adv. Mater., JACS, Adv. Funct. Mater., Adv. Sci. and so on. He was selected by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Based on his research achievements, he was recognized by several awards and honors including High-level Talents of "Six Talent Peaks in Jiangsu Province", the “333” talent project of Jiangsu Province, the first prize of 2017 Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Award.

      Abstract:Stem cell-based regenerative medicine holds great promise in clinical practices. However, the fate of stem cell after transplantation, including the distribution, viability, and differentiation capability, is not fully understood, which is critical to understand the process and the underlying mechanism of regeneration for better therapeutic effects. My research focuses on cell fate monitoring and regulation in regenerative medicine. By using multidisciplinary technologies, I established a novel method for efficient and safe labeling of stem cells with NIR-II fluorescent Ag₂S quantum dots and established a novel imaging platform for in vivo stem cell tracking with deep tissue penetration and high spatiotemporal resolution. With the novel imaging platform, I systematically revealed the function and fate of transplanted stem cells and the molecular mechanisms involved in tissue regeneration. Moreover, under the guidance of accurate NIR-II imaging, I developed new technologies for cell paracrine, differentiation regulation and neural regeneration for Alzheimer’s disease treatment. These studies provide new approaches for the application of multidisciplinary technology in regenerative medicine.

      Biography: • President of First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Level-2 professor, doctoral supervisor, postdoctoral co-supervisor

• Selected as leading talent of the national Ten-thousand Talents Program, candidate of the national 100 Million Talents Project, national outstanding professional and technical talent, State Council Special Allowance Expert, young and middle-aged expert with outstanding contributions to national hygiene and health

• Expert of the 1^st and 2^nd review for National Natural Science Foundation of China, Director of the Key Laboratory of Shanxi Province

• Director of Engineering Technology Research Center of Shanxi Province, Director of Engineering Research Center of Shanxi Province

• Leader of a team recognized as Key Team for S&T Innovation of Shanxi Province

• 5 key projects and general projects of the National Natural Science Foundation, published more than 80 papers on SCI journals as the first and corresponding author, published more than 60 papers in SCI journals in Zone 1, some of which were published on internal top-notch journals such as Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, PNAS, JACS, etc.

• Won as the 1^st Accomplisher the 1^st prize (2 items) of Shanxi Natural Science and Technology and 2^nd prize of China Anti Cancer Association, etc.

• Chief Editor of Nano Biomedicine and Engineering and Associate Editor of Radiology Science 

      Abstract: In recent years, the rapid advancement of nanomedicine has provided new opportunities for tumor diagnosis and treatment, and real-time monitoring of tumor locations with the help of a variety of molecular imaging methods is of great significance for improving the accuracy of tumor diagnosis and improving prognosis. However, the toxicity, degradability and biocompatibility of nanomaterials hamper their further clinical applications. As an endogenous natural substance in organisms, melanin features good biosafety and clinical transformation prospects. Besides, due to easier chelation between the natural melanin nanoparticles and metal ions, as well as desired near-infrared light absorption and strong photothermal conversion efficiency, they can play a role in a variety of biological imaging and tumor treatment fields. The construction of multifunctional diagnostic and therapeutic nanoprobes by modifying natural melanin nanoparticles has high clinical transformation application value for achieving safer and more efficient tumor diagnosis and treatment integration.

Jinghong Li 

      Biography: Zhimou Yang, born 1978 in Guangdong Province, China. Dr. Yang received his BS from Nanjing University in 2001. He obtained his PhD in 2006 from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology under the supervision of Professor Bing Xu. Before starting his independent research at Nankai University in March 2009, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Matthew Bogyo at Stanford Medical School. His research interests focus on biomedical applications of peptide-based hydrogels including hydrogels of drug-peptide amphiphiles for drug delivery, hydrogels of bioactive peptides for tissue engineering, and hydrogels as vaccine adjuvants, etc. He has published around 100 corresponding authored papers in the field of peptide self-assembly. He obtained the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars from National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2018.

      Abstract:Most of peptide segments in proteins are constrained into certain conformations, especially for bioactive peptides. However, when these peptides are separated from proteins, they failed to fold into their inherent conformations and therefore lost their functionalities.The generation of α-helical peptide and α-helix mimetic is very important to achieve biological functions of peptides or inhibit protein-protein interactions. Several strategies have been developed to induce α-helix conformation of short peptides including constrained peptides and foldamers. We recently found that enzyme instructed self-assembly (EISA) provided a unique pathway to trigger the formation of α-helix of short peptides, which was unable to be achieved by other conventional methods. The nanomaterials formed by EISA held several advantages including more stable nanostructures, better stability against enzyme digestion, enhanced cellular uptake, bigger fluorescence signal to noise ratio, and higher efficiency to inhibit cancer cells and tumors. Using different pathways to trigger peptide self-assembly, we could fold bioactive peptides into α-helix and b-sheet and we developed a self-assembling peptides with superior bioactivity to the growth factor of IGF-1. We envisioned that EISA, in combine with kinetic control of enzymatic reaction, would lead to nanomaterials with well controlled nanostructures and biofunctions.

      Biography: Professor at Hunan University, Deputy Director of HNU Academic Committee, Dean of the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Deputy Director of State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan University, Distinguished Professor of "Yangtze River scholars Award Program", winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Leading Talent of Science and Technology Innovation of the National Ten Thousand Plan, Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, FRSC. He was admitted by College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University in 1989, where he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree of Organic Chemical Industry, Master’s Degree of Organic Chemistry and Doctor’s Degree of Analytical Chemistry. After graduation, he joined the faculty of Hunan University. Between 2003 and 2005, he went to Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENS Lyon) and Stockholm University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology for his post-doctoral researches. When he returned to China in 2005, he focused on the research of the building of innovated fluorescent probe and application of biological imaging and became a professor in 2006. He was winner of the 2^nd Prize of National Natural Science Award 2020 as the First Accomplisher, the 1^st Prize of National Science Award of the Ministry of Education and the 1^st Prize of National Science Award of Hunan Province in 2018. He was recognized as Highly Cited Chinese Researchers 2017-2021. Since 2010, he’s lead over 10 projects including key national R&D projects and key research subjects of the natural science program of national fund, and published more than 170 papers on SCI journals as corresponding author, incl. more than 30 on PNAS, Nature Commun. J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. He’s now Associate Editor of Chemosensors and National Science Open and on the editorial committee of Science China Chemistry and Chinese Journal of Chemistry.

      Abstract: The efficient acquisition of biochemical information of organisms, which is essential for human beings to explore the nature of life and provides new methods for early diagnosis of diseases and navigation in tumor surgery, has become a research hotspot in modern analytical chemistry as well as a challenge. Due to its advantages such as faster response, smaller damage to samples, and real-time dynamic monitoring, etc., fluorescence imaging technology based on molecular probes has become a powerful research tool for obtaining biochemical information at the cellular and organismal level. However, with conventional fluorescence probes, it is difficult to achieve accurate imaging of cells and targets in vivo due to the challenges such as signal diffusion, limited response to specificity and background signal interference for in vivo imaging. In response to these critical issues, the team has carried out a series of researches: 1) In order to achieve accurate in situ measurement of target molecules in cells and in vivo, the team has developed a series of new in situ imaging molecular probes based on the orderly assembly mechanism of small molecular probes driven by hydrogen bonds, and established a new method for fluorescence in situ imaging analysis of small molecular probes; 2) In order to achieve highly specific acquisition of biochemical information in complex biological systems, based on the systematic study of the "structure-activity" relationship of fluorescent imaging probes, the team has proposed the strategy of developing highly selective fluorescent probes through molecular structural regulation, and developed new methods for highly selective biological imaging analysis; 3) In order to reduce the interference of background signals in biological tissues and enhance the depth of tissue imaging of traditional optical probes, the team has brought forward an innovated highly bright long-lasting luminescent material based on the electron-rich anthracene derivatives, developed a precision imaging analysis method based on long-afterglow resonance energy transfer and realized the long-lasting luminescence imaging of conscious, freely moving animals for the first time.

      Biography: Dr. Yan is a full professor at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He won the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2020, was selected as a young and middle-aged scientific and technological innovation leader of the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2018, and is the deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering and the director of the Department of Biological Formulations and Biomaterials. His research interest is mainly focused on biomolecular self-assembly and engineering, including peptide and protein materials, assembly drugs, assembly mechanism, and new technologies for anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and anti-tumor therapy. He has published 180 peer reviewed papers with citation of more than 14000 times, and has been successively selected into the list of highly cited researchers of Clarivate and highly cited scholars of Elsevier China. He serves as deputy editor of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces and GEE as well as advisory editorial members of ChemBioChem, ACS Appl Bio Mater. and ChemSystemsChem etc.

      Abstract: Oligopeptides (small molecular peptides) have the primary structure same to proteins, both of which are composed of amino acids. They have the advantages of programmable design of molecular sequence, flexible and controllable assembled structures, etc. Oligopeptides have been developed into a class of important building blocks, providing a new opportunity for creating and developing new biomedical materials. It was found that "liquid-liquid phase separation" is the "promoter" of self-assembly of small biological molecules including peptides, which plays a decisive role in the nucleation and growth of the assembly. The formation of solute-rich droplets driven by hydrophobic interaction is an entropy driven process, while the transition from droplets to more thermodynamic stable assemblies (such as nanofibers, nanoparticles and nanocrystals) is an enthalpy driven process and is dominated by hydrogen bonding. Based on this finding, a new mechanism of LLPS-mediated nucleation and growth was proposed, which makes sense for understanding the supramolecular self-assembly process and precisely controlling the structure and function of the assembly. Based on the insight into the mechanism of peptide self-assembly, a series of photodynamic/photothermal functional assemblies were further accurately constructed to achieve tumor imaging and effective treatment at the level of living mice. Furthermore, the functions of tumor targeting and immune response can be achieved by designing the peptide sequence. This study may provides a toolbox for construction of assembled nanodrugs with potential of clinical translation.