Researcher

Professor Guangzhao Mao

My Expertise

Nanotechnology
Targeted drug delivery & nanomedicine
Nanosensor
Integrating nanotechnology into education

Biography

Professor Guangzhao Mao received her BSc degree in chemistry from Nanjing University, Nanjing, China and her PhD degree in chemical engineering from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA. She holds the position of Professor and Head of School, School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Australia. Prior to joining UNSW, Professor Mao was a professor at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA. She served as the Chair of...view more

Professor Guangzhao Mao received her BSc degree in chemistry from Nanjing University, Nanjing, China and her PhD degree in chemical engineering from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA. She holds the position of Professor and Head of School, School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Australia. Prior to joining UNSW, Professor Mao was a professor at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA. She served as the Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University from 2015 to 2020. Professor Mao's research group develops a wide range of nanomaterials including charge-transfer salt nanowires for electrochemical sensing, gold nanoparticle conjugates for targeted drug delivery in spinal cord injury and cancer therapies, and bio-reducible polymer coatings for programmable gene delivery. Professor Mao’s research has been mostly funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Professor Mao has received several awards and honours including a Faculty CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, a Fulbright Senior Fellowship from the U.S. Department of State, a visiting professorship at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces Germany, and an ELATE Fellowship from the International Center for Executive Leadership in Academics. Professor Mao is a member of Australian Centre for NanoMedicine.

My Grants

National Institutes of Health

US Air Force

My Qualifications

Nanjing University, China Chemistry B.Sc. 1988

University of Minnesota, USA Chemical Engineering Ph.D. 1994

University of Minnesota, USA Materials Science 09/94‒07/95

My Awards

ELATE Fellow, Drexel University

Fulbright Senior Scholar, Fulbright Program

Visiting Professor, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces

Faculty CAREER Award, National Science Foundation

My Research Activities

Research Area 1: Targeted Drug Delivery for Spinal Cord Injury Using Retrograde Transport of Nanoconjugates

This project develops a novel approach that combines nanotechnology with proven neurobiological principles to selectively target neurons responsible for respiratory recovery post spinal cord injury (SCI). Our nanotherapeutic design consists of a targeting transporter protein chemically conjugated to a gold nanoparticle, which in turn is chemically conjugated to an SCI drug. Our targeted drug administration induces recovery of the hemidiaphragm in a validated SCI model using a small fraction of the systemic dose necessary to induce the same recovery. In addition, the nanoconjugate induces persistent recovery after only one-time injection. The aim is to translate basic nanoscience discoveries into nanotherapeutic products for the treatment of breathing problems associated with SCI.

Research Area 2: Substrate-directed Crystallization and Its Application for Making Nanowire Sensors

We apply substrate-mediated crystallization principles towards scalable manufacturing of nanowire sensors. We explore a simple, low-cost electrocrystallization method to deposit charge-transfer salt nanowires from a solution droplet at room temperature directly on electronic substrates. The nanowires are grown by substrate-mediated electrocrystallization using lithographic metal patterns as nucleation points. The nanowire assembly is capable of detecting gases of interest to civilian and defence industries by electrochemical impedance. We aim to provide fundamental understanding of seed-mediated crystallization, a widely used industrial separation and purification process, and contribute a solution-based method to incorporate nanowires into MEMS devices.