Research Projects
Photoresponsive Drug Delivery for the treatment of cancer and eye diseases

Stimuli-triggered drug delivery systems can both increase the therapeutic efficacy and lower toxicity by selectively delivering drugs at target sites. Light is a convenient and powerful stimulus for use in such drug delivery systems because it is readily available and noninvasive and offers excellent spatiotemporal control. The power and wavelength of light can be finely tuned for different photoresponsive systems to achieve efficient targeting at the tissue, cellular, or subcellular levels. However, the restricted tissue penetration of light greatly limits the application of the systems. We are solving the problem through the following strategies:

1. developing long-wavelength light-activatable drug delivery systems
2. engineering optical fibres for light delivery in vivo
3. applying photoresponsive drug delivery systems for the treatment of eye diseases

Dr WP Wang, Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy

Dr Weiping Wang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy and the Dr Li Dak-Sum Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He is also a Principal Investigator at the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at HKU. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2011 from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. During 2012-2016, he conducted postdoctoral research under Prof Daniel Kohane at Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Prof Robert Langer at Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests include molecular self-assembly, photopharmacology, stimuli-responsive drug delivery, and ocular drug delivery.

Biography
Lab Homepage
ORCID
wangwp@hku.hk

For more information or to express interest for this project, please email the supervisor or the specified contact point in the project description.  Interested candidates are advised to enclose with your email:

1. your CV,
2. a brief description of your research interest and experience, and
3. two reference letters (not required for HKUMed UG students seeking MRes[Med]/URIS projects).

Information on the research programme, funding support and admission documentations could be referenced online at the Research Postgraduate Admissions website. General admission enquiries should be directed to rpgmed@hku.hk.

HKUMed MBBS students interested in the Master of Research in Medicine (MRes[Med]) programme may visit the programme website for more information.  

HKUMed UG students interested in the Undergraduate Research Internship Scheme (URIS) may visit the scheme’s website for more information.