Title and Affiliation:

Wei Lun Professor of Chemistry

Lecture title:

Stem cell differentiation promoted with stress generated by thermally sensitive microgels

Short autobiography:

Graduated from the Department of Chemical Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1982. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1987 followed by two-year postdoctoral experience, under the supervision of Professor Benjamin Chu in the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he moved to BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany) in 1989; first as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow for one year with Dr. Dieter Horn and then was hired as the supervisor of  laser light-scattering laboratory. In 1992, he left BASF and joined the Department of Chemistry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as a Lecturer. He underwent a double promotion to Reader in 1996; became a Chair Professor of Chemistry and Honorary Professor of Physics in 1999; and appointed as a Wei Lun Chair Professor of Chemistry in 2010.

Research Interests:

By combining synthetic chemistry, polymer physics and molecular biology, we design and execute decisive experiments to address certain important questions in biology, macromolecules and colloids, including

1. -Development of non-viral vectors for gene and molecular medicines;
   

2. -Nucleation/oligomerization in neuron-degenerative diseases related proteins;
   

3. -Stress-induced stem cell differentiation and its biomedical applications;
   

4. -Design, synthesis and self-assembly of functional macromolecules;
   

5. -Structure and dynamics of polymer solutions and gel networks;
   

6. -Molecular characteristic properties of intractable and special polymers.