(15l) Taking the Temperature of the Interiors of Magnetically Heated Nanoparticles and Optical Biomolecular Chemical Sensing Using Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Research Interests:

My research has been focusing on using nanomaterials for controlled drug delivery and for optical biomolecular sensing. For my Ph. D work, I applied surface modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles for anti-cancer drug delivery, and studied the particle interior magnetic heating effect using temperature-dependent luminescence of nanocrystals. The knowledge on the physical and chemical properties of silica nanoparticles facilitated their biomedical use for in vitro and in vivo studies. During my postdoctoral training, I investigated on using near IR fluorescent carbon nanotubes to detect protein content as well as to examine their binding kinetics. I have developed a miniature microarray platform based on optical signals for label-free multiple protein molecule sensing.

Postdoctoral Project:  â??Multiplexed protein detection using single wall carbon nanotube microarrayâ?

PI: Michael S. Strano, Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT

PhD Dissertation: â??Physical Properties of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Stimuli-Responsive Drug Deliveryâ?

PI: Jeffrey I. Zink, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA

Research Experience:

• Label-free Single Wall Carbon Nanotube Microarray for Protein Profiling
• Surface modification of single wall carbon nanotubes with antibody and dsDNA
• Protein binding kinetic analysis and batch processing
• Carbon nanotube near IR fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopic imaging
• Near IR microarray detector construction

• In Situ Optical Measurement of Nanoparticle Interior Temperature
  • Synthesis of thermally sensitive upconversion lanthanide nanocrystals and dual core nanoparticle
  • In situ interior temperature study of magnetically heated silica nanoparticles
  • Mechanism investment of nanomachine operation in response to continuous near-IR irradiation
  • Simultaneous spectral detection of nanoparticle interior temperatures and the corresponding cargo release

• Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Controlled Drug Delivery
  • Synthesis of polymer coated silica particles with nanovalves for enhanced biomedical properties
  • Construction of Gd incorporated nanomachines for a multi-functional delivery vehicle
  • Synthesis of functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticle for in vivo and in vitro drug delivery studies

Teaching Experience:

• Teaching certificate, MIT Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program
• Chemistry content expert, MIT BLOSSOMS (outreach program)
• Teaching assistance for general chemistry discussion sessions, UCLA (five quarters)
• Teaching assistance for chemical laboratory sessions, UCLA (two quarters)
• Mentor for two graduate students and one undergraduate student

Teaching Interests:

I believe the goal of a college education is not only to teach the knowledge and skill sets that are needed for work but also to prepare students with the curiosity and methods to continue the learning throughout their lives, for career and personal development. To meet this goal, I will try to improve the learning efficiency by integrating more critical thinking, active learning and connection-building components into our teaching process. Especially for upper level classes, I will introduce advanced projects, in which students are asked to pick research papers that they are interested in, orally present the work to the class and articulate their own opinions about it in the format of a short study report.

Future Direction: 

I aim at using carbon nanotube sensing platform to perform early cancer diagnosis by detecting the trace amount of circulating tumor biomarkers. Compared to current immunoassays, nanotube molecular sensors are highly sensitive (down to single molecule detection sensitivity), require no fluorescent labeling and could quantify multiple protein components for correlation studies. Hence, they are especially advantageous in examining the small amount of signature biomolecules for early tumor diagnosis.

In addition, I want to develop a controlled therapeutic delivery platform based on biofunctional molecules. With my experience in using antibody as the recognition site for biomolecular sensing, I am planning on integrating the antibodies with the mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Antibodies offer the flexibility of targeting the receptors of tumor tissues, and hence improve the nanoparticle localization and uptake. In addition, antibody could potentially be the substrate for enzymatic activities and therefore, introduce a new series of nanomachine triggering mechanism. Besides antibody, other biofunctional molecules, such as DNA aptamars and proteins could also be integrated with the silica particles as the next generation of functional delivery vehicles.

Selected Publications:

• J. Dong and J. I. Zink. "Simultaneous Spectroscopic Measurements of the Interior Temperature and Induced Cargo Release from Pore-restricted Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles." Nanoscale 8, 10558-10563 (2016).
• J. Dong and J. I. Zink. "Light or Heat? The Origin of Cargo Release from Nanoimpeller Particles Containing Upconversion Nanocrystals under IR Irradiation." Small 11, 4165-4172 (2015).
• J. Dong and J. I. Zink. "Taking the Temperature of the Interiors of Magnetically Heated Nanoparticles." ACS Nano 8, 5199-5207 (2014). Highlighted in Nature Physics.
• J. Dong, M. Xue and J. I. Zink. "Functioning of Nanovalves on Polymer Coated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles." Nanoscale 5, 10300-10306 (2013).