Research Area

Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, Tissue Engineering, Theranostics, Stem Cells, Chinese Medicine

Dr. Jun Wu joined the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST GZ) as a Tenured Associate Professor in Bioscience and Biomedical Engineering (BSBE) Thrust in July 2022. He also holds an affiliated Associate Professor position at the Division of Life Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Before that, Dr, Wu was a Full Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) from December 2015 to June 2022. Dr. Wu finished his BS and MS degree in Chemistry at Nanjing University and SUNY at Stony Brook. Then he finished his PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. During 2010-2015, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher collaborated with Professors Robert Langer and Omid Farokhzad to study the polymeric nanomedicine at Harvard Medical School(HMS), MIT and BWH. In 2015, he was promoted to Instructor at HMS. Dr. Wu’s main research interests are developing novel biomaterials (polymers and small molecules) and formulating them into drug carriers/tissue engineering scaffolds to treat important diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, bone regeneration and skin repairing. His research areas include biomaterials, drug delivery, tissue engineering, nanomedicine, theranostics. stem cells and Chinese medicine. Till now, Dr. Wu has authored or co-authored more than 200 articles with a total citation>14000 in high-profile journals, including Angew. Chem., PNAS, Adv Func. Mater., ACS Nano, Nano Letters, Adv. Sci. and Adv. Drug Delivery Reviews. Dr. Wu has also applied than 40 patent with >20 applications granted. He is the PI or co-PI of more than 10 grants. He also serves as the associate editors or is on the editorial board of Chinese Chemical Letters, MedComm–Biomaterials and Applications and four other scientific journals.

Research Summary

In past 6 years, the Wu lab has been developing several functional and bioactive biomaterial platforms for a variety of biomedical or clinical applications. Here are summary of these platforms:

1. Bioactive Polyesters from Herb Medicines as robust drug carriers
   For the 1^st time, Dr. Wu proposed the concept of therapeutic polyester and has successfully developed a series of novel bioactive polyesters with therapeutic effects from the hydroxy acids derived from Chinese medicine or herb medicine. The drug-free nanomedicine based on these bioactive polyestes have shown very encouraging effects on tumors, cardiovascular diseases, bone diseases and other important diseases.
2. Bioactive Poly(ester amides) or poly (amides) from amnio acids as robust drug carrier and tissue engineering scaffolds
   To effectively deliver drugs, Dr. Wu has developed a series of novel bioactive poly(ester amides) or poly(amides) with therapeutic effects from amino acids, including arginine, cysteine, leucine and phenylalanine. The nanomedicine based on these polymers have shown robust encapsulation and delivery capability for proteins/peptides, nucleic acids and small molecule drugs. Meanwhile, these biodegradable and biocompatible materials themselves are able to treat tumors, bone diseases, wounds and other important diseases.
3. Bioactive small molecules directly treat diseases
   Dr. Wu has developed many bioactive small molecules (not drug) to directly treat diseases.
4. Food based Low-Carbon and Economic Biomaterials
   For the 1^st time, Dr. Wu proposed the concept of using food as biomaterials and has developed a variety of food based biomaterials, including egg(egg white, egg shell), tofu, soybean milk, and flour. These biomaterials are low cost and low carbon, providing new options for wound healing and many other diseases.

Representative Publications

Ten selected publications in the recent 4 years (2019-2022)

1. Zhuang Y^#, Han S^#, Fang Y, Huang H*, Wu J*, Multidimensional transitional metal-actuated nanoplatforms for cancer chemodynamic modulation. Coord. Chem. Rev., 2022 Mar 15;455:214360.
2. Li C^#, You X^#, Xu X^#, Wu B, Liu Y, Tong T, Chen J, Li Y, Dai C, Ye Z, Tian X, Wei Y, Hao Z, Jiang L*, Wu J*, Zhao M*, A Metabolic Reprogramming Amino Acid Polymer as an Immunosurveillance Activator and Leukemia Targeting Drug Carrier for T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Sci., 2022 Jan 26;9:2104134.
3. Chen X^#, Han S^#, Wu W, Wu Z, Yuan Y*, Wu J*, Liu C, Harnessing 4D Printing Bioscaffolds for Advanced Orthopedics. Small, 2022, Jan 20;18:2106824.
4. Xian C, Zhang Z, You X, Fang Y, and Wu J*, Nanosized Fat Emulsion Injection Modulating Local Microenvironment Promotes Angiogenesis in Chronic Wound Healing. Adv. Funct. Mater., 2022 May 26;32:2202410.
5. You X^#, Wang L^#, Wang L and Wu J*, Rebirth of Aspirin Synthesis By-Product: Prickly Poly(salicylic acid) Nanoparticles as Self-Anticancer Drug Carrier. Adv. Funct. Mater., 2021 Jun 12;31:2100805.
6. Zhang H^#, You X^#, Wang X, Cui L, Wang Z, Xu F, Li M, Yang Z, Liu J, Huang P, Kang Y, Wu J*, Xia X*, Delivery of mRNA vaccine with a lipid-like material potentiates antitumor efficacy through Toll-like receptor 4 signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2021 Jan 4;118 (6): e2005191118.
7. Er-Saw P^#, Xu X^#, Zhang M, Cao S, Farokhzad O*, Wu J*, Engineering of novel nanostructures by simple tuning of lipid combinations. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2020, Feb 3;59:6249.
8. Ou K^#, Xu X^#, Guan S^#, Zhang R, Zhang X, Kang Y*, and Wu J*, Nanodrug Carrier Based on Poly(Ursolic Acid) with Self-Anticancer Activity against Colorectal Adv. Funct. Mater., 2019 Dec 27;30:1907857.
9. Xiong F^#, Ling X^#, Chen X, Chen J, Tan J, Cao W, Ge L*, Ma M*, Wu J*, Pursuing Specific Chemotherapy of Orthotopic Breast Cancer with Lung Metastasis from Docking Nanoparticles Driven by Bioinspired Exosomes. Nano Lett., 2019 Apr 9;19(5):3256−3266.
10. Zheng Y^#, You X^#, Guan S^#, Huang J, Wang L, Zhang J, Wu J*. Poly(Ferulic Acid) with an Anticancer Effect as a Drug Nanocarrier for Enhanced Colon Cancer Therapy. Adv. Funct. Mater., 2019 Feb 20;29:1808646.