Nan Zhang's Biography

Nan Zhang, Associate Professor, University College Dublin

Dr Nan Zhang is an Associate Professor in Manufacturing and Design at the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering of University College Dublin (UCD) in Ireland. His research covers polymer micro/nano manufacturing, precision manufacturing of plastic microfluidic chips, microfluidic systems for synthesising genetic nanomedicine and molecular diagnostics, manufacturing functional micro/nano structured surfaces, and atomic and close-to-atomic-scale manufacturing. He has been founded by H2020 MSCA ITN Grant as a consortium coordinator, Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland-Commercialization Funding, Irish Research Council etc. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal papers in Materials Today, Nano Letters and the International Journal of Machine Tool and Manufacture. He was the chair of the 6th and 8th international conferences on polymer replication on the nanoscale (PRN2019, PRN2022). He is the associate editor of the journal “Frontier-Lab on Chip Technology” and a Council member of the Microfluidic Association. His research has generated several patents which have been commercialized or are in the process of being commercialized. He has received the University Research Impact award in 2022, the Year of Invention Award 2024, and has been highlighted as a Rising Star Fellow by UCD.

Screening and Scale-Up Lipid Nanoparticles Using a High-Throughput Microfluidic System

Tuesday, 14 November 2023 at 10:00

Add to Calendar ▼2023-11-14 10:00:002023-11-14 11:00:00Europe/LondonScreening and Scale-Up Lipid Nanoparticles Using a High-Throughput Microfluidic SystemExtracellular Vesicles and Nanoparticle-based Therapeutics Europe 2023 in Rotterdam, The NetherlandsRotterdam, The NetherlandsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Drug delivery systems in forms of nanoparticles have a broad spectrum of applications in area of gene therapy, cell therapy, and vaccine development. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) or liposomes that consist of a lipid bilayer and have a hollow structure are the most widely used drug carriers for nanomedicines. It is possible to encapsulate a variety of low molecular compounds (e.g., drugs, peptides, antibody, plasmid-DNA, mRNA, siRNA etc.) in the lipid bilayer membrane or to encapsulate them into the hollow structure. However, significant concerns remain on efficacy, safety, consistency, scale-up of manufacturing and stability when translating LNPs from formulation into clinical application. LNPs’ properties, e.g., size, size distribution, charge, drug encapsulation, transfection efficiency etc., can significantly affect the bio-distribution and pharmacokinetics of the drug to be delivered. In order to obtain LNPs with expected characteristics, microfluidics that exploit fluidic control to synthesize LNPs have grown in acceptability and applications in laboratory and larger scales due to offering a reproducible and robust manufacturing through the precise control of flowing conditions. In the present talk, the author will share the newly developed high throughput microfluidic system for laboratory screening and formulation of nanoparticles based on a novel aerofoil microfluidic mixing system. The formulation based on low, medium and high flow rates will be demonstrated. The automation of the system will be introduced for industrial scale formulation. The device has demonstrate the strong potential for low volume screening, medium volume scale up and high volume GMP production for nanoparticle development.

Add to Calendar ▼2023-11-13 00:00:002023-11-14 00:00:00Europe/LondonExtracellular Vesicles and Nanoparticle-based Therapeutics Europe 2023Extracellular Vesicles and Nanoparticle-based Therapeutics Europe 2023 in Rotterdam, The NetherlandsRotterdam, The NetherlandsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

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