Research

The Yang Group specializes in the synthetic design, chemical characterization, biological study, and medical applications of NanoBiomaterials.

Drug/gene/vaccine delivery system

The goal of this project is to design useful NanoBiomaterials (including polymer-based, graphene oxide-based, metal-based, protein-based, hydrogel-based, and virus-like particle-based materials) that can be used for specific drug/gene delivery in serious diseases (i.e. cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic diseases, and infectious diseases), also can be used to deliver vaccines, antibodies, and immune cells for disease prevention and immunotherapy. This delivery system can significantly increase the efficacy of therapeutics and decrease the side effects. This project is more chemistry-based and focuses largely on NanoBiomaterials synthesis. 

Microneedles delivery system

Our group is advancing microneedles from device design and fabrication through pharmaceutical formulation and pre-clinical animal studies through studies in human subjects. In addition to developing self-administered vaccines or drugs using microneedles, is translating microneedles technology especially to make vaccination in developing countries more effective. We have also developed microneedle-based biosensors for disease rapid tests (i.e., cancers, infection diseases, and chronic diseases).  

Biosensor for cancer and virus diagnosis

The goal of biosensor projects is combining nanomaterials and biomolecules to construct biosensors. The biosensors can be used to rapidly and simultaneously detect target biomarkers with minimum volume of specimens. The development of a point-of-care system will significantly enhance the accuracy of disease diagnosis and shorten the operation and detection time.