Biography
Dr. Xuanjun Zhang
Dr. Xuanjun Zhang
University of Macau, China
Title: Energy-transfer Nanocomposite for Bioimaging and Sensing
Abstract: 
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), self-assembled from metal ions and organic ligands, are considered as a novel family of materials with diverse and designable structures. They get great attractions owing to their potential applications in energy storage, gas adsorption, catalysis, separation and so on. Here, we use nanoscale MOF (NMOF) as a novel platform to prepare energy-transfer nanoprobes. We have developed a simple yet useful surface functionalization to construct ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobes for the monitoring of microenvironment such as detection of Reactive oxygen species (ROSs), local pH values, temperature changes, and disease related molecules, etc. Poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA) is chosen to effectively organize energy donor (NMOF) and acceptor (molecular probes). The new nanosensors showed fast response and high selectivity with dual colour switching. The MOF based nanoprobes can also combine with thermoresponsive polymer to measure temperature change via energy transfer in live cell. This approach is general and should be easily extended to the design of other NMOF based chemical sensors and biosensors.
Biography: 
Dr. Xuanjun Zhang is an Assistant Professor at Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau. He received his Ph.D from University of Science and Technology of China. After he worked as postdoc and visiting scientist at Shantou University, National University of Singapore, Linköping University (Sweden), and University of Washington, he started his Assistant Professor position at Linköping University in 2011 and promoted to Docent in 2014.05. He joined University of Macau in 2015. His research focuses multifunctional probes for biomedical imaging and sensing. Dr. Zhang has published more than 80 articles in international recognized journals including J. Am. Chem. Soc.; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.; ACS Nano; Coord. Chem. Rev.; etc. and as reviewer for more than 30 journals. Dr. Zhang has served technical program committees and organizing committees for several international conferences.