AIBN researchers receive $3M to target deadly breast cancer
Published on: 24 March 2025
Yu Group
Advanced functional materials
Professor Chengzhong (Michael) Yu is an internationally recognised expert in materials science.
His group has focused on the synthesis of functional nanomaterials specifically nanoporous materials and their applications in drug delivery, diagnostics and energy storage.
Professor Yu has over 420 publications, which have been cited over 36,800 times and resulted in an H-index of 104 (Google Scholar).
He has received the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership L3 (2025), and the Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship (2009). He is the recipient of the 2015 Le Févre Memorial Prize for Chemistry (The Australian Academy of Science), 2015 UQ Vice-Chancellor’s Research Focused Fellowship, and 2004 the second prize of the National Science Award of China 2004. He is currently an Associate Editor of J. Mater. Chem. B and Materials Advances (Royal Society of Chemistry).
Research Areas
- Functional nanomaterials, nanoporous materials, and biomaterials
- Drug delivery applications
- Cancer therapy and immunotherapy
- Energy storage and aluminium ion battery
- Green nanotechnology for animal healthcare
- Sustainable catalysis
Research Highlights
Collaborations
N4 Pharma
N4 Pharma is a drug reformulation company focused on developing and out licensing new versions of existing and novel high value drugs with an unmet commercial or medical need
Research Projects
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Sensitive Detection of Biomolecules
January 2013–June 2024 -
Nanomaterials for Energy Storage
January 2015–January 2024 -
Designer Nanoparticles Enable mRNA Protein Factories
January 2023–December 2026 -
Pesticide Formulation Technology
January 2022–December 2023 -
Nanotechnology for Sustainability
January 2015–January 2021 -
Cancer therapy and immunotherapy
January 2018–January 2021
PhD opportunities
Publications
Click here to view Yu group publications
Funding
- ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2024) Next Generation Mass Spectrometry for Single-Cell Metabolomics
- UQ Foundation Research Excellence Awards (2023) Bio-inspired Nanoparticles for Next-generation Shelf-stable mRNA Vaccines
- Australia's Economic Accelerator Seed Grants (2023) Market-relevant Rechargeable Aluminium Battery Prototyping
- ARC Linkage Projects (2023) Designer Nanoparticles Enable mRNA Protein Factories
- Enserv Australia Pty Ltd (2023) Physical characterisation and Electrochemical testing of NGC materials
- Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH4) (2023) Nanotechnology enabled long-acting antiretroviral therapy for improved HIV treatment adherence (ACH4 grant administered by the Westmead Institute for Medical Research)
- ARC Discovery Projects (2021) Development of Unprecedented Aluminosilicate Adjuvants
- ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2021) Engineering nanoparticles with enhanced adhesion at the nano-bio interfaces
- NHMRC Investigator Grants (2021) A Long-Lasting Oral Drug Delivery System Using Spiky Silica Nanoparticles
- UQ Knowledge Exchange & Translation Fund (2021) Developing a thermal-stable nanoparticle-based oral vaccine: towards commercial reality
- ARC Linkage Projects (2021) Development of a market relevant DNA nano-vaccine platform
- UniQuest Pty Ltd (2020) COVID-19 DNA vaccine in vivo study using NUVEC nanoparticles
- ARC Discovery Projects (2020) Next-Generation Multifunctional Nanoparticles for mRNA Transfection
- Australian Dental Research Fund Inc (2020) Novel bioactive nanoparticles induced fast growth of nano-hydroxyapatite for dentin hypersensitivity treatment
- ARC Linkage Projects (2020) Enabling Next-generation Rechargeable Aluminium-ion Batteries
- Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowships (2019) High capacity and low cost rechargeable multivalent metal ion batteries
- UQ Early Career Researcher (2019) Multi-Scale Engineered Nano-Adjuvants for DNA Vaccine
- UQ Amplify Women's Academic Research Equity (2019) UQ AWARE - Dr Chang Lei
- UniQuest Pty Ltd (2019) PEI Modification of CPI-NPs - compare PEI suppliers
- UniQuest Pty Ltd (2019) N4 Pharma - repeat and extension of in vivo DNA vaccine study
- Advance Queensland Women's Research Assistance Program (2019) Dr Chang Lei - AQ WRAP
