Polymer Chemistry, Drug delivery, and Nanomedicine

We are actively recruit graduate students, undergraduate students, and Visiting scholar in the areas of polymer chemistry, drug delivery, and nanomedicine. If you are interested in join our group, please email Dr. Zhang directly for more information (fxz174@miami.edu) with your CV/resume.

About us

Our research interests lie broadly in organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, materials chemistry, chemical biology, drug delivery, and nanomedicine, with emphasis on the translation of organic and polymer chemistry to functional nanomaterials designed for advanced disease treatment. Many therapeutic agents including small molecular drugs, nucleic acids, and proteins have limited efficacy and may cause serious side effects due to unsatisfactory physicochemical properties. We exploit cutting-edge organic and polymer syntheses to create functional nanomaterials to deliver these therapeutic agents to their targeted tissues, aiming to improve the current disease treatments. These efforts rely on fundamental synthetic methodology development to afford molecular and macromolecular substrates, each designed with unique compositions, structures, and properties to exhibit function. Students in the Zhang Research Group will receive multidisciplinary training in chemistry, materials science, engineering, and nanomedicine, and learn basic and advanced skills in organic and polymer synthesis, materials characterization, physical and biological performance testing, and develop innovative polymeric materials to address unmet needs in human health and sustainability. We aim to educate the next generation of scientists to meet unprecedented challenges in the ever-evolving society.

Group News

2023 NSF CAREER AWARD FOR THE GROUP! Congratulations!

January 15, 2023

We had a great time together to kick off the start of a new semester!

December 23, 2022

Dr. Zhang received prestigious NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award. Congratulations!

December 15, 2022

We performed the "Polymer Magic Show" at Archimedean Academy! Students and teachers really enjoyed the show and fun experiments.

December 14, 2022

Prof. Zhang was interviewed by Executive Editor of BioIntegration Prof. Phei Er Saw. Click here for more details.

https://bio-integration.org/10-15212-bioi-2022-0021/

May 3, 2022

Shiwei received Outstanding TA Award for Excellence as a Chemistry Lab Instructor! Congratulations!


Recent Publications

Synergistic therapies: A two‐in‐one heterodimeric multifunctional prodrug (HDMP) was developed to have exceptionally high loading efficiency (97 %) and capacity (59 %) into polymer‐based nanocarriers. The HDMP enables intrinsic radiolabeling and straightforward PET pharmacoimaging in vivo, and synergistic cancer therapy is realized.

Zhang, F.;† Ni, Q.;† Jacobson, O.; Cheng, S.; Liao, A.; Wang, Z.; He, Z.; Yu, G.; Song, J.; Ma, Y.; Niu, G.; Zhang, L.;* Zhu, G.;* Chen, X.* Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2018, 57, 7066. († Equal contribution)

Transformative nanomedicine: We report a camptothecin (CPT) prodrug that was well formulated in solution and rapidly transformed into long-circulating nanocomplexes in vivo for highly efficient drug delivery and effective cancer therapy.

Zhang, F.; Zhu, G.;* Jacobson, O.; Liu, Y.; Chen, K.; Yu, G.; Ni, Q.; Fan, J.; Yang, Z.; Xu. F.; Fu, X.; Wang, Z.; Ma, Y.; Niu, G.; Zhao, X.; Chen, X.* ACS Nano, 2017, 11, 8838

Synergistic nanovaccines: we report self-assembled intertwining DNA-RNA nanocapsules (iDR-NCs) that efficiently delivered synergistic DNA CpG and short hairpin RNA (shRNA) adjuvants, as well as tumor-specific peptide neoantigens into antigen presenting cells (APCs) in lymph nodes for cancer immunotherapy .

Zhu, G.; Mei, L.;Vishwasrao, H.; Jacobson, O.; Liu, Y.; Wang, Z.; Yung, B.; Fu, X.; Jin, A.; Niu, G.; Wang, Q.; Zhang, F.;* Shroff, H.; Chen, X.* Nature Communications 2017, 8, 1482. (*Corresponding author)