报告题目：Nanoparticle Science: from Self-assembly to Artificial Cellular Machinery

报 告 人 ：Y. Charles Cao

Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

cao@chem.ufl.edu

报告地点：唐敖庆楼A408报告厅

报告时间：2017年6月12日（星期一）下午2：00

报告简介：Abstract: The surface of nanoparticles plays a major role on their physical, chemical and biological properties, which is of great importance to their use in applications from energy conversion to medicine.  This talk primarily focuses on the science of organic ligands in the control of nanoparticle self-assembly and in creation of artificial cellular machinery.First, we will discuss the formation of superparticles with supercrystalline structures.  We will show that the self-assembly of nanospheres, nanorods, and nanocubes, mediated by shape and structural anisotropy, producesmesoscopiccolloidal superparticles havingsingle or multiplewell-defined supercrystalline domains.  We will show the use of single-domain superparticles in preparation ofemitting-light polarizers, which can overcome the theoretical upper limit of conventional absorption based light polarizers use in the current LED displays.  Second, we will discuss the synthesis of nanoparticles with ligands displaying a cooperative behavior, called nanozymes, which can effectively mimic the function of RNA-induced silencing complex—a cellular machine for innate immunity. We have observed a 99.6% decrease in RNA levels of hepatitis C virus in mice treated with the nanozyme.  These results show that this nanozyme approach has the potential to become a useful tool for functional genomics, as well as for combating protein expression-related diseases such as viral infections and cancers.

报告人简介：Dr. Charles Cao is a full professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florida.  He received his BSc (1990), MSc (1993), and PhD degrees (1996) from Jilin University in Changchun.  He then worked as a postdoctorial fellow in the Institute of Photographic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Northwestern University at Evanston, before he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florida in 2003.  His research interests focus on the science of nanomaterials.  His work seeks to develop methodologies for controlling the surface and interior structures of materials at the nanometer scale, for better understanding the thermodynamic and quantum mechanical properties of these materials and for using them in technology applications.  Currently, his research focuses on (1) developing methods for making high quality nanoparticles at the industrial scale at low cost; (2) developing synthetic approaches for making nanoparticles with complex structures such as nanoparticle oligomers or nanoparticles with position-controlled dopants; (3) developing novel approaches for creating superparticles—nanoparticle assemblies in the formation of colloidal particles, and evaluating their use in energy conversion, catalysis, and drug delivery; and (4) developing a new surface functionalization concept for creating a new class of nanoparticle-based intracellular machineries such as nanozymes, which can be used as powerful tools for functional genomics, as well as for combating protein expression-related diseases such as viral infections and cancers.

Dr. Cao has published over 60 papers in highly regarded research journals, including Nature, Science, the Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences,the Journal of the American Chemical Society, and AngewandteChemie.  His accomplishments have been recognized with an NSF Career Award and covered in several highlight articles in Chemical Engineering News, Science, and many popular magazines, newspapers and trade journals.  His research program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, and Department of Energy.