Profile: Chun-Xia Zhao, a Professor and an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering at University of Adelaide, the Deputy Director of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence, and an Honorary Professor at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland. Her research group focusing on bioinspired engineering, biomimetic nanomaterials and microfluidics for drug delivery and controlled release. Prof. Zhao has published more than 120 referred articles, seven patents.

 

Abstract: Nanotechnology holds great promise for cancer diagnosis and treatment. A wide range of nanoparticles have been developed ranging from polymer particles to lipids, proteins and other synthetic compounds for cancer drug delivery. However, only a handful cancer nanomedicines have been approved by the FDA (such as Doxil, and Abraxane). This demonstrates the huge gap between laboratory research and clinical translation of cancer nanomedicines, mainly due to several key barriers: (1) challenges in large-scale production of nanomedicine with good reproducibility and well-controlled properties; (2) incomplete understanding of the interactions between nanoparticles and biological systems; (3) targeted delivery. To address these fundamental issues, my group has been focusing on the development of platform technologies for producing nanoparticle libraries with reproducible and systematically varied properties (liposomes, polymer nanoparticles and nanocapsules) with high drug loading. We also developed different strategies for improving targeted delivery. Particularly, we developed a bioinspired nanotechnology integrating naturally derived cell membranes for enhanced biointerfacing capabilities and nanoparticles for incorporation of various payloads for targeted delivery, which provides a revolutionising strategy for fabricating nanoscale artificial cells. We have also developed biomimicking chips (Tumor-on-a-Chip, Tumor-Vasculature-on-a-Chip) to fundamentally understand nanoparticle extravasation and their tumor accumulation.