Professor Zhang Yong receives IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards 2020

Professor Zhang Yong from the Department of Biomedical Engineering led the development of upconversion nanomaterials and implantable devices that deliver light to deep regions of the human body when wirelessly activated, to trigger specific biological processes deep within the human body, such as to activate special drugs targeting cancer cells.

Current phototherapy is limited to treating diseases near the body surface due to the low penetration of light through biological tissues. Professor Zhang Yong and his team has developed a way to wirelessly deliver light into deep regions of the body to activate light-sensitive proteins/drugs for optogenetics and photodynamic therapy. This approach provides significant advantages for treating diseases using light in previously inaccessible regions of the body, which may lead to more effective ways to treat cancer and other diseases.