Dr Changkui Fu

NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
changkui.fu@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 63864

Overview

Dr Changkui Fu is currently an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow in the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland (UQ).

Dr Fu obtained his bachelor and PhD degrees in Chemistry from Tsinghua University China in 2010 and 2015 respectively. After that, he moved to the Centre of Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD) in the UNSW as a postdoctoral researcher working with Prof Cyrille Boyer to explore photo-induced polymerization technologies. In 2016, he relocated to AIBN, UQ as a postdoctoral research fellow in Prof Andrew Whittaker's group on developing advanced imaging agents. In 2018, He was awarded a UQ Development Fellowship to work on novel bioactive polymers. Following this, he was awarded an NHMRC Emerging Investigator Grant on studying Bio-Nano interaction.

Dr Fu's research focuses on the design and synthesis of novel polymers with well-defined molecular structures and sophisticated functionalities. These polymers are suitable for a range of advanced applications including controlled drug delivery and bioimaging. He has published a number of peer-reviewed articles in leading scientific journals including Macromolecules, ACS Macro Letter, Polymer Chemistry, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Chemical Communications, JACS, Angewandte Chemie and others, and been granted a patent. To date, these publications have received nearly 4000 citations in total with an h-index of 36.

Dr Fu is looking for HDRs to join his group with a focus on Polymer Science and Biomaterials.

Research Interests

  • Synthetic polymer chemistry
  • Biomedical polymers
  • Protein conjugation
  • Bio-Nano interactions

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Tsinghua University
  • Bachelor, Tsinghua University

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • This project focuses on developing advanced polymers capable of inherent imaging property for high-resolution and highly sensitive imaging applications. In particular, we are interested in exploring synthetic polymers that can be used as high performance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. Despite the popular use of metal-based MRI contrast agents such as gadolinium-chelates or iron oxide nanoparticles, safety concerns have been raised associated with the use of these metal-based contrast agents. The polymers developed in this project will provide outstanding candidates as metal-free MRI contrast agents, which would enable a variety of biomedical applications such as targeted imaging and therapy of many diseases. For more details, please read our recent papers (Polym. Chem., 2017, 8, 4585-4595; Macromolecules 2018, 51, 5875-5882; Angew.Chem. Int.Ed. 2020, 59, 4729 –4735).

  • Proteins are an important class of pharmaceuticals. There are 6 protein therapeutics out 10 best-selling drugs of 2018. Overcoming the limitations of many protein therapeutics such as low aqueous solubility and biological stability as well as possible immunogenicity to improve their bioavailability is a key to use them to treat human diseases. This project aims to developing new approaches for efficient and effective delivery of proteins by utilising advanced synthetic chemistry and biocompatible polymer materials. We pay particular attention to the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the proteins formulated using our advanced approaches. For more details, please read our recent papers (ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 799–805; Angew.Chem. Int.Ed. 2020, 59, 4729 –4735).

  • Antifouling polymers play very important roles in many biomedical applications such as medical implants, drug delivery systems and targeted imaging and sensing. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) has been the most successful and popular antifouling polymer. Despite this, a number of limitations associated with use of PEG have emerged, with the apparent immunogenicity of PEG being the most striking and important as revealed by recent animal and clinical studies. The exact biological mechanism underpinning the immunogenicity of PEG is still not very clear. However, it is believed that the partial amphiphilic nature of PEG is largely responsible. Thus, this project aims to understand the origin of PEG immunogenicity, particularly from a perspective of the chemical nature of polymers, and correlate the antifouling performance of polymers to their structures to develop next-generation of antifouling polymers. For more details, please read our recent papers (Adv. Sci, 2020, 2000406; ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 799–805; Angew.Chem. Int.Ed. 2020, 59, 4729 –4735).

View all Available Projects

Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

  • Wei, Yen, Cao, Yingze, Zhai, Wentao, Zhang, Xiang, Fu, Changkui, Tao, Lei, Feng, Lin, Yuan, Jinying and Li, Shuxi (2012). Immobilization of enzymes and cells in novel nanomaterials for biofuel technology. 11th International Biorelated Polymer Symposium / 243rd National Spring Meeting of the American-Chemical-Society (ACS), San Diego Ca, Mar 25-29, 2012. AMER CHEMICAL SOC.

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • This project focuses on developing advanced polymers capable of inherent imaging property for high-resolution and highly sensitive imaging applications. In particular, we are interested in exploring synthetic polymers that can be used as high performance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. Despite the popular use of metal-based MRI contrast agents such as gadolinium-chelates or iron oxide nanoparticles, safety concerns have been raised associated with the use of these metal-based contrast agents. The polymers developed in this project will provide outstanding candidates as metal-free MRI contrast agents, which would enable a variety of biomedical applications such as targeted imaging and therapy of many diseases. For more details, please read our recent papers (Polym. Chem., 2017, 8, 4585-4595; Macromolecules 2018, 51, 5875-5882; Angew.Chem. Int.Ed. 2020, 59, 4729 –4735).

  • Proteins are an important class of pharmaceuticals. There are 6 protein therapeutics out 10 best-selling drugs of 2018. Overcoming the limitations of many protein therapeutics such as low aqueous solubility and biological stability as well as possible immunogenicity to improve their bioavailability is a key to use them to treat human diseases. This project aims to developing new approaches for efficient and effective delivery of proteins by utilising advanced synthetic chemistry and biocompatible polymer materials. We pay particular attention to the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the proteins formulated using our advanced approaches. For more details, please read our recent papers (ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 799–805; Angew.Chem. Int.Ed. 2020, 59, 4729 –4735).

  • Antifouling polymers play very important roles in many biomedical applications such as medical implants, drug delivery systems and targeted imaging and sensing. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) has been the most successful and popular antifouling polymer. Despite this, a number of limitations associated with use of PEG have emerged, with the apparent immunogenicity of PEG being the most striking and important as revealed by recent animal and clinical studies. The exact biological mechanism underpinning the immunogenicity of PEG is still not very clear. However, it is believed that the partial amphiphilic nature of PEG is largely responsible. Thus, this project aims to understand the origin of PEG immunogenicity, particularly from a perspective of the chemical nature of polymers, and correlate the antifouling performance of polymers to their structures to develop next-generation of antifouling polymers. For more details, please read our recent papers (Adv. Sci, 2020, 2000406; ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 799–805; Angew.Chem. Int.Ed. 2020, 59, 4729 –4735).