Research

    Phage display is a powerful approach for identifying and selecting novel peptides or proteins that bind to almost limitless protein targets. There are a number of successful examples of this approach, such as the identification of tumor-specific ligands, antimicrobial peptides, inorganic material-binding peptides, and in the selection of unique peptides against any other targets.  Small binding affinity peptides can be created synthetically in a reliable and cost-effective manner.  Thus, they can be used in a wider variety of sensing paradigms including peptide-based electrochemical sensors for high-throughput capture and detection of biomarkers in a miniaturized device format. Therefore, we are studying for developing peptide-based sensor for detection of various targets.

  Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), often referred to as synthetic antibodies, have been used as alternative molecular or biomolecular recognition ligands for various applications including bioanalytical systems and active targeting tools in medicine. The typical process of polymerization of monomers based on the size, shape, and charge distribution of the template molecule make them an efficient antibody-like affinity reagent which has high affinity and specificity to their corresponding targets. MIPs have tremendous advantages such as reproducibility, low cost, increased physical and chemical stability, and they have been widely used to detect various molecules. Therefore, we are interesting in the creation of small molecule, protein, peptide imprinting polymer for detection of various disease biomarkers.

figure source: Anal Bioanal Chem, 2021

  MXenes, which is the class of 2D materials that newly emerged, has drawn a lot of research interests in energy storage, biomedical, and biosensing due to their features, including high surface area, good hydrophilicity, eco-friendly and high conductivities. MXenes are typically synthesized by etching out A-layer from MAX phases; where M represents early transition metal, A is an element from group A, and X indicates C and or N. To date, different compositions of MXenes were reported such as Ti3C2, Ti2C, Ta4C3, and Nb2C. Among these, the Ti3C2Tx-MXene has been successfully applied to increase the performance of electrochemical biosensors due to their unique characters, including high electrical conductivity, and variable elemental compositions. Therefore, we are trying to synthesize new MXene nanocomposites for developing electrochemical sensor.

figure source: Chem. Soc. Rev., 2020

      We are interesting in the design and production of effective targeted theranostic nanoparticles or microsystem for various disease therapy, including cancer, allergy, diabetics and others. For this purpose, the identification of a reasonable biomarker which express highly and relatively rich in cells is of key importance. It is also necessary that specific receptor could bind to desired targets with high affinity. Theranostics is a rapidly developing field that combines the unique opportunities offered by nanotechnology and material science with personalized medicine to provide significantly improved treatment efficacy through the specific delivery of therapy to targeted cells, tissues or organs. To date, rapid developments in nanotechnology and material engineering give rise to several good nanomaterilas such as magnetic nanoparticels, carbon materials, graphene, quantum dots and gold nanoparticles.

figure source: Theranostics, 2021