Home / About / People / Publications / News / Media Downloads / Media Contacts
Nanosponge News
2020 News Releases
10 Jacobs School Faculty Named in 2020 List of Highly Cited Researchers
December 8, 2020
Ten professors at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering are among the world’s most influential researchers in their fields, according to a new research citation report from the Web of Science Group. The professors, Ludmil Alexandrov, Trey Ideker, Rob Knight, Nathan E. Lewis, Prashant Mali, Ying Shirley Meng, Bernhard O. Palsson, Joseph Wang, Kun Zhang and Liangfang Zhang, are amone 52 professors and researchers at UC San Diego named in the prestigious list of Highly Cited Researchers in 2020. Full Story
UC San Diego nanoengineer Liangfang Zhang inducted into National Academy of Inventors
December 8, 2020
Liangfang Zhang, professor of nanoengineering and director of the chemical engineering program at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, has been named a 2020 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Zhang is recognized for his revolutionary work in the field of nanomedicine, which focuses on nanomaterials for medical applications. He invented a way to make nanoparticles perform therapeutic tasks in the body without being rejected by the immune system. Full Story
UC San Diego Launches Institute for Materials Discovery and Design
October 9, 2020
Climate change, public health and equal access to food and water are some of the biggest challenges facing humanity--and materials science can help provide solutions for them all. That was the message researchers shared during the launch of the Institute for Materials Discovery and Design (IMDD) at the University of California San Diego, held virtually Sept. 29. Full Story
Nanosponges Could Intercept Coronavirus Infection
June 17, 2020
Nanoparticles cloaked in human lung cell membranes and human immune cell membranes can attract and neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell culture, causing the virus to lose its ability to hijack host cells and reproduce. Instead of targeting the virus itself, these nanosponges, developed by engineers at UC San Diego, are designed to protect the healthy cells the virus invades. Full Story
Nano-scale sponges for COVID-19 are already a win for San Diego
June 17, 2020
A team of nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego is taking a unique approach to COVID-19 drug discovery. Their strategy is to intercept virus particles and neutralize them with nano-scale sponges before the virus can enter healthy human cells and replicate. These nanosponges did not appear out of thin air back in January when troubling reports started coming in. Professor Liangfang Zhang leveraged a platform technology his team has been developing and methodically maturing for a decade. Full Story
I'm gonna contribute to the revolution of the pharmaceutical world
May 20, 2020
When Qiangzhe “Oliver” Zhang was still a high school student in China applying to colleges in the United States, UC San Diego’s chemical engineering program at Jacobs School of Engineering was at the top of his list. “I knew they had this very new, very innovative nanoengineering program,” he said. “It’s one of a kind, and that got me really excited.” Now, almost eight years later, Zhang is working at the leading edge of biomedical research under Liangfang Zhang in the Nanomaterials and Nanomedicine Laboratory, developing new technologies that could completely change how scientists combat viruses like HIV and SARS-CoV-2 Full Story
'Decoy' nanoparticles can block HIV and prevent infection
April 20, 2020
Flipping the standard viral drug targeting approach on its head, engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a promising new “nanosponge” method for preventing HIV from proliferating in the body: coating polymer nanoparticles with the membranes of T helper cells and turning them into decoys to intercept viral particles and block them from binding and infiltrating the body’s actual immune cells. Full Story