About Our Research

The Tseng Research Group focuses particularly on the following areas:

 

• Supramolecular Nanoparticles
• Photothermal Treatment
• Gene Delivery
• Circulating Tumor Cells

 

 

Supramolecular Nanoparticles

Nanoparticles have been receiving more and more attention from the biomedical community and some have even progressed to the stage of clinical trials and commercial products. What’s needed next is greater control over their characteristics: size, toxicity, stability in the body, and more. Additional functions can be added to them, too, like reporters for PET and MRI scans, or targeting and controlled release of drugs and therapeutic genes.

The Tseng Lab, using supramolecular chemistry, is making progress on this front. This breed of chemistry relies on two concepts—self-assembly and molecular recognition—to create nano-sized materials with the desired properties from molecular building blocks.

The Tseng team’s three-component approach has allowed them to create particles with precise, flexible control over size, water solubility and more. Characterization of these nanoparticles, ranging in size from 30 to 450nm, showed their stability at different temperatures and pH levels, and demonstrated that the size of the particle has a significant impact on its in vivo properties, like distribution in the body and lymph node drainage.

 

For more information about all the lab's projects, visit: http://tseng.eng.uci.edu/