ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6383-0605
Current Organisations
University of Queensland
,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Nanomaterials | Materials engineering | Functional Materials | Nanotechnology | Powder and Particle Technology | Materials Engineering | Biomedical Engineering not elsewhere classified | Nanomaterials | Nanobiotechnology | Functional materials | Nanobiotechnology
Expanding Knowledge in the Chemical Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in Technology | Expanding Knowledge in the Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences |
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-08-2018
Abstract: Innovations in nanofabrication have expedited advances in hollow-structured nanomaterials with increasing complexity, which, at the same time, set challenges for the precise determination of their intriguing and complicated 3D configurations. Conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis typically yields 2D projections of 3D objects, which in some cases is insufficient to reflect the genuine architectures of these 3D nano-objects, providing misleading information. Advanced analytical approaches such as focused ion beam (FIB) and ultramicrotomy enable the real slicing of nanomaterials, realizing the direct observation of inner structures but with limited spatial discrimination. Electron tomography (ET) is a technique that retrieves spatial information from a series of 2D electron projections at different tilt angles. As a unique and powerful tool kit, this technique has experienced great advances in its application in materials science, resolving the intricate 3D nanostructures. Here, the exceptional capability of the ET technique in the structural, chemical, and quantitative analysis of hollow-structured nanomaterials is discussed in detail. The distinct information derived from ET analysis is highlighted and compared with conventional analysis methods. Along with the advances in microscopy technologies, the state-of-the-art ET technique offers great opportunities and promise in the development of hollow nanomaterials.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 18-02-2015
DOI: 10.1021/LA504474Z
Abstract: In this work, a new approach based on electron tomography (ET) has been developed to measure the pore size, through which new insight into cage-type ordered mesostructures and their pore size determination has been obtained. It is demonstrated that the accurate pore diameter, especially for cage-type cubic mesoporous materials, can be determined only through our ET approach by considering that the pore geometry is a real 3D space. We use the established ET method to revisit the applicability of different models for the pore size calculation in nitrogen adsorption analysis. Different from the overwhelming understanding that the nonlocal density functional theory (NLDFT) and Derjaguin-Broekhoff-de Boer (BdB) model are recommended to calculate the pore size of cage-type cubic mesoporous materials while the Barret-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) model should not be used, a new understanding is gained through this study. The choice of a suitable model for pore size determination depends on the precise pore structure. For a cage-type cubic mesoporous material with fcc symmetry and a large entrance connecting the cages, the BJH model is more accurate while the other two methods overestimate the pore size (by up to 40%). The DFT model is more appropriate when the pore shape is a perfect sphere than the BJH model, which underestimates the pore size, and the BdB model, which overestimates the pore size. It is our opinion that the unique ET approach should be used to revisit a vast number of large-pore cubic mesoporous materials to provide genuine structural information.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 04-2019
DOI: 10.1021/JACS.8B10904
Abstract: Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) have emerging anticancer applications via polarizing tumor-associated macrophages from tumor-promoting phenotype (M2) to tumor-suppressing phenotype (M1). However, the underlying mechanism and structure-function relationship remain unclear. We report magnetite IONPs are more effective compared to hematite in M1 polarization and tumor suppression. Moreover, magnetite IONPs specifically rely on interferon regulatory factor 5 signaling pathway for M1 polarization and down-regulate M2-assoicated arginase-1. This study provides new understandings and paves the way for designing advanced iron-based anticancer technologies.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 02-05-2017
DOI: 10.1021/JACS.6B12622
Abstract: Asymmetric mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) with controllable head-tail structures have been successfully synthesized. The head particle type is tunable (solid or porous), and the tail has dendritic large pores. The tail length and tail coverage on head particles are adjustable. Compared to spherical silica nanoparticles with a solid structure (Stöber spheres) or large-pore symmetrical MSNs with fully covered tails, asymmetrical head-tail MSNs (HTMSNs) show superior hemocompatibility due to reduced membrane deformation of red blood cells and decreased level of reactive oxygen species. Moreover, compared to Stöber spheres, asymmetrical HTMSNs exhibit a higher level of uptake and in vitro maturation of immune cells including dendritic cells and macrophage. This study has provided a new family of nanocarriers with potential applications in vaccine development and immunotherapy.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 12-2017
DOI: 10.1021/JACS.7B08974
Abstract: Plasmid DNA molecules with unique loop structures have widespread bioapplications, in many cases relying heavily on delivery vehicles to introduce them into cells and achieve their functions. Herein, we demonstrate that control over delicate nanotopography of silica nanoparticles as plasmid DNA vectors has significant impact on the transfection efficacy. For silica nanoparticles with rambutan-, raspberry-, and flower-like morphologies composed of spike-, hemisphere-, and bowl-type subunit nanotopographies, respectively, the rambutan-like nanoparticles with spiky surfaces demonstrate the highest plasmid DNA binding capability and transfection efficacy of 88%, higher than those reported for silica-based nanovectors. Moreover, it is shown that the surface spikes of rambutan nanoparticles provide a continuous open space to bind DNA chains via multivalent interactions and protect the gene molecules sheltered in the spiky layer against nuclease degradation, exhibiting no significant transfection decay. This unique protection feature is in great contrast to a commercial transfection agent with similar transfection performance but poor protection capability against enzymatic cleavage. Our study provides new understandings in the rational design of nonviral vectors for efficient gene delivery.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 03-05-2021
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2014
DOI: 10.1039/C3TA14884J
Abstract: A new method to prepare ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) hollow fiber membranes through a confined soft templating route is developed. The gas permeance results indicate that the OMC hollow fiber membranes exhibit Knudsen diffusion behavior confirming their good quality.
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1039/C6TB00053C
Abstract: Small-sized silica nanoparticles with large dendritic mesopores demonstrate a superior antimicrobial enzyme delivery efficacy with long-term bacterial inhibition.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-11-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-11-2016
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 25-01-2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.CHEMOSPHERE.2016.09.083
Abstract: Rattle-type magnetic mesoporous hollow carbon (RMMHC) materials have shown great promise as adsorbents for water treatment. In this work, we report a surfactant-free synthesis of RMMHC nanoparticles (NPs) using magnetite NPs as the core, tetrapropyl orthosilicate, resorcinol and formaldehyde to form the shell followed by carbonization and selective silica etching. The pore size, specific surface area and pore volume of RMMHC NPs can be tuned by varying the carbonization temperature (500, 700 and 900 °C). At the optimized temperature of 700 °C, the RMMHC NPs possess the highest specific surface area of 579 m
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-11-2017
Abstract: Resoles are resins obtained by base-catalyzed phenol-formaldehyde condensation with a three-dimensional cross-linked framework. They are considered as highly chemical-resistant, and calcination is thus generally used in the treatment of resole-type resins, which significantly limits the ersity of nanostructured materials that can be derived from resole-type resins. Herein, we report that selected metal nitrate solutions can be used to dissolve various types of nanostructured resoles through an oxidative dissolution process. This strategy not only enables the controlled dissolution of resoles, but more importantly provides a new approach to selectively etch resole-based nanocomposites to give rise to a variety of nanostructured materials with unprecedented architectures and great potential in bioapplications.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 22-07-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2019
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 19-10-2021
Abstract: Asymmetric mesoporous silica nanoparticles (AMSNs) with one side featuring a spiky nanotopography, while the other side is smooth and solid, were synthesized via an ethylenediamine (EDA)-directed silica-polymer cooperative assembly approach. By simply varying the EDA amount (
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-01-2020
Abstract: Effective messenger RNA (mRNA) transfection in hard-to-transfect cells delivered by vectors is a long-standing challenge. Now it is hypothesized that the high intracellular glutathione level is associated with suppressed mRNA translation. This theory leads to a new design principle of next-generation mRNA vectors: nanoparticles with glutathione depletion chemistry upregulate mRNA translation and enhance transfection, which is beneficial for mRNA delivery in hard-to-transfect cells in vitro and in vivo.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-05-2020
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 25-08-2021
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1039/C8TA06268D
Abstract: Superhydrophobic dendritic mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles with ultrahigh content of gradient organic moieties for superior pyrene decontamination.
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1039/C8TB00544C
Abstract: Dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles with a small diameter (∼50 nm) and a large pore size ( nm) are synthesized at room temperature for intracellular mRNA delivery.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-09-2016
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2015
DOI: 10.1039/C5NR02769A
Abstract: Fluorescent mesoporous hollow silica–fullerene nanoparticles with particle sizes of ∼50 nm have been successfully prepared, showing excellent performance in combined chemo-photodynamic therapy.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2015
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 06-10-2023
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 13-05-2016
DOI: 10.1021/JACS.6B00243
Abstract: Nature's creations with spiky topological features typically exhibit intriguing surface adhesive properties. From micrometer-sized pollen grains that can easily stick to hairy insects for pollination to nanoscale virus particles that are highly infectious toward host cells, multivalent interactions are formed taking advantage of rough surfaces. Herein, this nature-inspired concept is employed to develop novel drug delivery nanocarriers for antimicrobial applications. A facile new approach is developed to fabricate silica nanopollens (mesoporous silica nanospheres with rough surfaces), which show enhanced adhesion toward bacteria surfaces compared to their counterparts with smooth surfaces. Lysozyme, a natural antimicrobial enzyme, is loaded into silica nanopollens and shows sustained release behavior, potent antimicrobial activity, and long-term total bacterial inhibition up to 3 days toward Escherichia coli. The potent antibacterial activity of lysozyme-loaded silica nanopollens is further demonstrated ex vivo by using a small-intestine infection model. Our strategy provides a novel pathway in the rational design of nanocarriers for efficient drug delivery.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 31-08-2015
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-08-2016
Abstract: Intracellular delivery of proteins is a promising strategy of intervention in disease, which relies heavily on the development of efficient delivery platforms due to the cell membrane impermeability of native proteins, particularly for negatively charged large proteins. This work reports a vesicle supra-assembly approach to synthesize novel amine-functionalized hollow dendritic mesoporous silica nanospheres (A-HDMSN). An amine silica source is introduced into a water-oil reaction solution prior to the addition of conventional silica source tetraethylorthosilicate. This strategy favors the formation of composite vesicles as the building blocks which further assemble into the final product. The obtained A-HDMSN have a cavity core of ≈170 nm, large dendritic mesopores of 20.7 nm in the shell and high pore volume of 2.67 cm
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 11-09-2017
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 23-06-2022
Abstract: Nitric oxide (NO) has many important biological functions however, it has been a long-standing challenge to utilize the exogenous NO donor itself in the activation of macrophages for cancer immunotherapy. Herein, we report the synthesis of a nanoparticle-based NO delivery platform with a rational design for effective NO delivery and macrophage activation.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 06-2022
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 21-01-2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2022
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOMATERIALS.2018.05.025
Abstract: Silica based nanoparticles have emerged as a promising vaccine delivery system for cancer immunotherapy, but their bio-degradability, adjuvanticity and the resultant antitumor activity remain to be largely improved. In this study, we report biodegradable glutathione-depletion dendritic mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles (GDMON) with a tetrasulfide-incorporated framework as a novel co-delivery platform in cancer immunotherapy. Functionalized GDMON are capable of co-delivering an antigen protein (ovalbumin) and a toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist into antigen presenting cells (APCs) and inducing endosome escape. Moreover, decreasing the intracellular glutathione (GSH) level through the -S-S-/GSH redox chemistry increases the ROS generation level both in vitro and in vivo, facilitating cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) proliferation and reducing tumour growth in an aggressive B16-OVA melanoma tumour model. Our results have shown the potential of GDMON as a novel self-adjuvant and co-delivery nanocarrier for cancer vaccine.
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1039/C6TA02265K
Abstract: An in situ Stöber templating approach is used to prepare hollow mesoporous carbon spheres demonstrating the in-cavity adsorption of a pollutant di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 15-07-2020
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 23-10-2017
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2019
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 22-07-2019
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 03-08-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-02-2019
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.JCIS.2013.10.061
Abstract: N-doped carbon material constitutes abundant of micropores and basic nitrogen species that have potential implementation for CO2 capture. In this paper, porous carbon material with high nitrogen content was simply fabricated by carbonizing low cost and widely available urea formaldehyde resin, and then followed by KOH activation. CO2 capture experiment showed high adsorption capacity of 3.21 mmol g(-1) at 25 °C under 1 atm for UFCA-2-600. XRD, SEM, XPS and FT-IR analysis confirmed that a graphitic-like structure was retained even after high temperature carbonization and strong base activation. Textural property analysis revealed that narrow micropores, especially below 0.8 nm, were effective for CO2 adsorption by physical adsorption mechanism. Chemical evolved investigation revealed that graphitic-like embedded basic nitrogen groups are generated from bridged and terminal amines of urea formaldehyde resin from thermal carbonization and KOH activation treatment, which is responsible for the enrichment of CO2 capacity by chemical adsorption mechanism. The relationship between CO2 adsorption capacity and pore size or basic N species was also studied, which turned out that both of them played crucial role by physical and chemical adsorption mechanism, respectively.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2015
Abstract: A new type of monodispersed mesoporous silica nanoparticles with a core-cone structure (MSN-CC) has been synthesized. The large cone-shaped pores are formed by silica lamellae closely packed encircling a spherical core, showing a structure similar to the flower dahlia. MSN-CC has a large pore size of 45 nm and a high pore volume of 2.59 cm(3) g(-1). MSN-CC demonstrates a high loading capacity of large proteins and successfully delivers active β-galactosidase into cells, showing their potential as efficient nanocarriers for the cellular delivery of proteins with large molecular weights.
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1039/D2TB01737G
Abstract: Asymmetric silica nanoparticles featuring a unique head–tail morphology are engineered for efficient gene transfection with the impact of particle tail length on DNA delivery studied, guiding rational design of asymmetric non-viral gene vectors.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-01-2021
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1039/D0SC02803G
Abstract: The nano-enabled post-translational modification assisted strategy for effective cancer immunotherapy.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2023
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2017
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 28-10-2019
DOI: 10.1021/ACS.NANOLETT.9B02691
Abstract: Inhibiting the formation of new tumor blood vessels (so-called antiangiogenesis) and obstructing the established ones are two primary strategies in tumor vasculature targeted therapy. However, the therapeutic outcome of conventional methodologies relying on only one mechanism is rather limited. Herein, the first ex le of ultrasmall responsively aggregatable nanochelators that can intrinsically fulfill both antivasculature functions as well as high renal clearable efficiency is introduced. The nanochelators with sub-6 nm sizes exhibit not only systemic copper depletion activity for tumor antiangiogenesis but also, more surprisingly, the capability to transform from a "dispersed" state to an "aggregated" state to form large secondary particles in response to tumor microenvironment with elevated copper and phosphate levels for blood vessel obstruction. Compared to a benchmark antiangiogenic agent that can only inhibit the formation of tumor blood vessels, the nanochelators with unprecedented synergistic functions demonstrate significantly enhanced tumor inhibition activity in both breast cancer and colon cancer tumor models. Moreover, these ultrasmall nanochelators are noncytotoxic and renal clearable, ensuring superior biocompatibility. It is envisaged that the design of nanomaterials with ground-breaking properties and the synergistic antivasculature functions would offer a substantial conceptual advance for tumor vasculature targeted therapy and may provide vast opportunities for developing advanced nanomedicines.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 18-05-2022
DOI: 10.3390/ANTIBIOTICS11050685
Abstract: Infectious diseases caused by bacteria have led to a great threat to public health. With the significant advances in nanotechnology in recent decades, nanomaterials have emerged as a powerful tool to boost antibacterial performance due to either intrinsic bactericidal properties or by enhancing the delivery efficiency of antibiotics for effective pathogen killing. Vancomycin, as one of the most widely employed antimicrobial peptides, has a potent bactericidal activity, but at the same time shows a limited bioavailability. Silver nanoparticles have also been extensively explored and were found to have a well-recognized antibacterial activity and limited resistance potential however, how to prevent nanosized Ag particles from aggregation in biological conditions is challenging. In this study, we aimed to combine the advantages of both vancomycin and nano-Ag for enhanced bacterial killing, where both antibacterial agents were successfully loaded onto a silica nanoparticle with a pollen-like morphology. The morphology of nano-Ag-decorated silica nanopollens was characterized using transmission electron microscopy and elemental mapping through energy dispersive spectroscopy. Silver nanoparticles with a size of 10–25 nm were observed as well-distributed on the surface of silica nanoparticles of around 200 nm. The unique design of a spiky morphology of silica nano-carriers promoted the adhesion of nanoparticles towards bacterial surfaces to promote localized drug release for bacterial killing, where the bacterial damage was visualized through scanning electron microscopy. Enhanced bactericidal activity was demonstrated through this co-delivery of vancomycin and nano-Ag, decreasing the minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) towards E. coli and S. epidermidis down to 15 and 10 µg/mL. This study provides an efficient antimicrobial nano-strategy to address potential bacterial infections.
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1039/D1SC05319A
Abstract: Na- IV Al-DMSN acts as both antigen carriers and modulators to “hyperactivate” dendritic cells (DCs) via potassium (K + ) efflux dependent pyroptosis, eventually leading to enhanced adaptive and innate immunity.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-01-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-12-2017
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 10-12-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-08-2018
Abstract: Immunosuppressive tumors generally exhibit poor response to immune checkpoint blockade based cancer immunotherapy. Rationally designed hybrid nanoreactors are now presented that have integrated functions as Fenton catalysts and glutathione depletion agents for lifying the immunogenic cell death and activating immune cells. A simple physical mixture of nanoreactors and chemodrugs in combination with immune checkpoint blockades show synergistically and concurrently enhanced chemo-immunotherapy efficacy, inhibiting the growth of both treated primary immunosuppressive tumors and untreated distant tumors. The off-the-shelf strategy uses tumor antigens generated in situ and avoids cargo loading, and is thus a substantial advance in personalized nanomedicine for clinical translation.
Location: United States of America
Location: China
Start Date: 05-2021
End Date: 05-2024
Amount: $395,588.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 10-2023
End Date: 10-2026
Amount: $402,115.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 08-2021
End Date: 01-2025
Amount: $383,808.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity