Yuhao specialises in antifouling polymers for biological applications
Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is the most widely used antifouling polymer in biomedical field. However, there is increasing concern on the hypersensitivity due to inherent immunogenicity of PEG. The research will focus on developing a novel sulfoxide-based class of antifouling polymers as an alternative to PEG used in multiple biological applications such as Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) devices and 19F MRI.
Yuhao commenced his PhD in 2022 at Whittaker group after completing his Bachelor of Biotechnology (Honours I) in 2021 at the University of Queensland.
Key Publications
Wang, Y., Tan, X., Usman, A., Zhang, Y., Sawczyk, M., Král, P., Zhang, C. and Whittaker, A.K., 2022. Elucidating the Impact of Hydrophilic Segments on 19F MRI Sensitivity of Fluorinated Block Copolymers. ACS Macro Letters, 11(10), pp.1195-1201.
Zhang, Y., Zhang, M., Xu, X., Chan, C.H., Peng, H., Hill, D.J., Fu, C., Fraser, J. and Whittaker, A.K., 2022. Anti-Fouling Surfaces for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation by Surface Grafting of Hydrophilic Sulfoxide Polymers. Biomacromolecules, 23(10), pp.4318-4326.
Xu, X., Wang, Q., Chang, Y., Zhang, Y., Peng, H., Whittaker, A.K. and Fu, C., 2022. Antifouling and Antibacterial Surfaces Grafted with Sulfur-Containing Copolymers. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 14(36), pp.41400-41411.