Guojun Chen

Devices & Sensors Molecules & Materials Living Systems Engineering Research Overview: Our laboratory focuses on engineering intelligent biomaterials for drug delivery, with the ultimate goal towards precision medicine. We are also interested in understanding and exploiting the interactions between biomaterials and biological systems for therapeutic applications. Our research is being conducted in a multidisciplinary and collaborative environment, bridging engineering with materials science, chemistry, biology, and health sciences. Specific research directions are: 1. Cold atmospheric plasma-mediated cancer immunotherapy: Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), an ionized gas composed of charged species, radicals, and photons, generates at atmospheric pressure/room temperature and has demonstrated great promise for many biomedical applications, including cancer treatment. Our research in this line will focus on developing strategies for CAP delivery and synergizing CAP therapy with cancer immunotherapy. We will also discover the underlying fundamental knowledge of CAP on immune systems. 2. Biomaterials-mediated cancer immunotherapy: Biomaterials-mediated modulation of immune systems has emerged as a promising solution for treating immune-dysfunction-related diseases. We focus on design and leverage biomaterials to reprogram the immune environments for treating diseases such as cancer. 3. Non-viral genome editing: Genome editing offers promising solutions to treat many genetic disorders by correcting DNA sequences or regulating gene expression. However, the delivery of active genome-editing machineries, such as CRISPR/Cas9 components, into target cells/tissues in vivo remains a challenge. We aim to design delivery systems to achieve precise and efficient genome editing for disease treatment.