Assistant Professor

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Biography

Dr. Qiang Cheng is an Assistant Professor in College of Future Technology, Peking University, China. His research interest is on development of novel Lipid Nanoparticles (LNPs) for mRNA therapy. He has published over 40 scientific journal papers on peer-reviewed journals including Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, PNAS, etc., and submitted around 10 international patents. To date, his research work has already helped bio companies raise over $160 million for mRNA clinical translation.

Education

n B.S. 2011 Biotechnology, Nanchang University

n Ph. D.  2016 Biology, Peking University (Supervisor: Prof. Zicai Liang)

Experience

n 2021.9 – now  Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, Peking University

n 2017.2 – 2021.8  Postdoc Researcher, Department of Biochemistry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, TX, USA. (Advisor: Prof. Daniel J. Siegwart)  

Projects:

2022.1-2024.12，National Natural Science Fund for Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program (Overseas)

Representative publications:

1. Dilliard SA, Cheng Q*, Siegwart DJ*. On the mechanism of tissue-specific mRNA delivery by selective organ targeting nanoparticles. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021;118(52):e2109256118.

2. Liu S¹, Cheng Q¹, Wei T, Yu X, Johnson LT, Farbiak L, Siegwart DJ. Membrane destabilizing ionizable phospholipids for organ selective mRNA delivery and CRISPR/Cas gene editing. Nature Materials. 2021; 20(5):701-710.

a) Highly cited paper;

b) Highlighted in Nature Materials. Overcoming delivery barriers with LNPs. Nature Materials. 2021;20(5):575-577.

3. Cheng Q¹, Wei T¹, Farbiak L, Johnson LT, Dilliard SA, Siegwart DJ. Selective ORgan Targeting (SORT) nanoparticles for tissue specific mRNA delivery and CRISPR/Cas gene editing. Nature Nanotechnology. 2020;15(4):313-320.

a) Hot & highly cited paper;

b) Highlighted in Nature Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology for organ-tunable gene editing. Nature Nanotechnology. 2020;15(4):253-255;

c) ReCode Therapeutics raised $160 million in financing under the help of SORT technology.

4. Wei T¹, Cheng Q¹, Min YL, Olson EN, Siegwart DJ. Systemic nanoparticle delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoproteins for effective tissue-specific genome editing. Nature Communications. 2020;11(1):3232. (Highly cited paper)

5. Cheng Q, Wei T, Jia Y, Farbiak L, Zhou K, Zhang S, Wei Y, Zhu H, Siegwart DJ. Dendrimer-Based Lipid Nanoparticles Deliver Therapeutic FAH mRNA to Normalize Liver Function and Extend Survival in a Mouse Model of Hepatorenal Tyrosinemia Type I. Advanced Materials. 2018:30(52):e1805308.

6. Du L, Zhou J, Meng L, Wang X, Wang C, Huang Y, Zheng S, Deng L, Cao H, Liang Z, Dong A*, Cheng Q*. The pH-Triggered Triblock Nanocarrier Enabled Highly Efficient siRNA Delivery for Cancer Therapy. Theranostics. 2017;7(14):3432-3445.

7. Zhou J, Song X, Han S, Wei T, Wang X, Cao H, Liang X-J, Liang Z, Cheng Q*, Deng L*, Dong A*. Balancing Biocompatibility, Internalization and Pharmacokinetics of Polycations/siRNA by Structuring the Weak Negative Charged Ternary Complexes with Hyaluronic Acid. Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology. 2017;13(11): 1533–1544.

8. Cheng Q¹*, Du L¹, Meng L, Han S, Wei T, Wang X, Wu Y, Zhou J, Zheng S, Huang Y, Liang X-J, Cao H, Dong A, Liang Z. The promising nanocarrier for doxorubicin and siRNA co-delivery by PDMAEMA based amphiphilic nanomicelles. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 2016;8(7):4347-56.

9. Han S¹, Cheng Q¹, Wu Y, Zhou J, Long X, Wei T, Huang Y, Zheng S, Zhang J, Deng L, Wang X, Liang X-J, Cao H, Liang Z, Dong A. Effects of hydrophobic core components in amphiphilic PDMAEMA nanoparticles on siRNA delivery. Biomaterials. 2015;48:45-55.

10. Cheng Q¹, Huang Y¹, Zheng H, Wei T, Zheng S, Huo S, Wang X, Du Q, Zhang X, Zhang HY, Liang X-J, Wang C, Tang R, Liang Z. The effect of guanidinylation of PEGylated poly (2-aminoethyl methacrylate) on the systemic delivery of siRNA. Biomaterials. 2013;34(12):3120-31.