Liu TW, MacDonald TD, Shi J, Wilson BC & Zheng G Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2012 PET friendly: Labels for PET imaging are incorporated into completely organic porphysomes by using a fast (30 min), one-pot, high-yielding (>95 %) procedure to produce highly stable (>48 h) radiolabeled nanoparticles that show the highest specific activityContinue Reading
Jin H, Chen J, Lovell JF, Zhang Z, Zheng G Israel Journal of Chemistry, 2012 DOI: 10.1002/ijch.201100054 The design and synthesis of new light‐activated contrast agents for theranostics (therapy/diagnosis) has the potential to facilitate multifunctional and improved personalized medicine. The use of light as a remote activation strategy provides spatialContinue Reading
Tam N, McVeigh P, MacDonald TD, Farhadi A, Wilson BC & Zheng G Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2012 A porphyrin–phospholipid conjugate with quenched fluorescence was utilized to serve as both the Raman dye and a stabilizing, biocompatible surface coating agent on gold nanoparticles. Through simple synthesis and validation with spectroscopy and confocalContinue Reading
Roxin A & Zheng G Future Medicinal Chemistry, 2012 Peptides can serve as versatile cancer-targeting ligands and have been used for clinically relevant applications such as cancer imaging and therapy. A current and long-standing focus within peptide research is the creation of structurally constrained peptides generated through cyclization. Cyclization isContinue Reading
Huynh E, Lovell JF, Helfield BL, Jeon M, Kim C, Goertz DE, Wilson BC, & Zheng G Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012 Porphyrin–phospholipid conjugates were used to create photonic microbubbles (MBs) having a porphyrin shell (“porshe”), and their acoustic and photoacoustic properties were investigated. The inclusion of porphyrin–lipidContinue Reading
Roxin A, Chen J, Scully CC, Rotstein BH, Yudin AK & Zheng G Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2012 Here, we demonstrate a conjugation strategy whereby cyclic RGD-containing macrocycles are prepared using aziridine aldehydes, isocyanides, and linear peptides, followed by conjugation to a cysteamine linker. Our method involves site-selective aziridine ring-opening with theContinue Reading
Lovell JF, Jin CS, Huynh E, MacDonald TD, Cao W & Zheng G Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2012 A select few: An enzyme screen is used to identify two enzymes that selectively cleave porphyrin–lipid regioisomers (see picture). Either of the isomerically pure conjugates assembles into physically similar porphysome nanovesicles. AlthoughContinue Reading
Jin H, Lovell JF, Chen J, Lin Q, Ding L, Ng K, Pandey R, Manoharan M, Zhang Z & Zheng G Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2011 Although small interfering RNA (siRNA) can silence the expression of disease-related genes, delivery of these highly charged molecules is challenging. Delivery approaches for siRNAs are activelyContinue Reading
Mawn TM, Popov AV, Beardsley NJ, Milkevitch M, Stefflova K, Zheng G & Delikatny EJ Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2011 In this article, the characterization of the first near-infrared (NIR) phospholipase-activated molecular beacon is reported, and its utility for in vivo cancer imaging is demonstrated. The probe consists of three elements: aContinue Reading
Lovell JF, Chan MW, Qi Q, Chen J & Zheng G Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2011 Photodynamic therapy (PDT) stands to benefit from improved approaches to real-time treatment monitoring. One method is to use activatable photosensitizers that can both induce cell death (via singlet oxygen) and monitor itContinue Reading
