Dr Changkui Fu
Dr

Changkui Fu

Email: 
Phone: 
+61 7 334 63864

Background

Dr Changkui Fu is currently an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow in the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland (UQ).

Dr Fu obtained his bachelor and PhD degrees in Chemistry from Tsinghua University China in 2010 and 2015 respectively. After that, he moved to the Centre of Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD) in the UNSW as a postdoctoral researcher working with Prof Cyrille Boyer to explore photo-induced polymerization technologies. In 2016, he relocated to AIBN, UQ as a postdoctoral research fellow in Prof Andrew Whittaker's group on developing advanced imaging agents. In 2018, He was awarded a UQ Development Fellowship to work on novel bioactive polymers. Following this, he was awarded an NHMRC Emerging Investigator Grant on studying Bio-Nano interaction.

Dr Fu's research focuses on the design and synthesis of novel polymers with well-defined molecular structures and sophisticated functionalities. These polymers are suitable for a range of advanced applications including controlled drug delivery and bioimaging. He has published a number of peer-reviewed articles in leading scientific journals including Macromolecules, ACS Macro Letter, Polymer Chemistry, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Chemical Communications, JACS, Angewandte Chemie and others, and been granted a patent. To date, these publications have received nearly 4000 citations in total with an h-index of 36.

Dr Fu is looking for HDRs to join his group with a focus on Polymer Science and Biomaterials.

Availability

Dr Changkui Fu is:
Available for supervision

Qualifications

  • Bachelor, Tsinghua University
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Tsinghua University

Research interests

  • Synthetic polymer chemistry

  • Biomedical polymers

  • Protein conjugation

  • Bio-Nano interactions

  • mRNA delivery

Search Professor Changkui Fu’s works on UQ eSpace

101 works between 2010 and 2026
All (101) Journal Article (99) Conference Publication (1) Book Chapter (1)

101 - 101 of 101 works

2010

Journal Article

Electroactive conducting polymers for biomedical applications

Wei, Yen, Li, Baosong, Fu Changkui and Qi, Hongxu (2010). Electroactive conducting polymers for biomedical applications. Acta Polymerica Sinica, 00 (12), 1399-1405. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1105.2010.10194

Electroactive conducting polymers for biomedical applications

Current funding

  • 2027 - 2031
    Advancing Cancer Immunotherapy Through Next-Generation Lipid Nanoparticles with Reduced PEG Immunogenicity and Enhanced Spleen- Targeted Delivery
    NHMRC Investigator Grants
    Open grant
  • 2026 - 2027
    Developing Degradable Cationic Polymers as a Non-LNP Approach for Efficient mRNA Delivery
    UQ - Sanofi Translational Science Hub Partnership Scheme
    Open grant
  • 2021 - 2026
    Improving the Delivery Efficiency of Nanomedicines to Tumour Tissue
    NHMRC Investigator Grants
    Open grant

Past funding

  • 2025 - 2026
    Development of Translatable Immunologically Safe PEGylated Lipid Nanoparticles for mRNAVaccine Delivery
    UQ - Sanofi Translational Science Hub Partnership Scheme
    Open grant
  • 2024
    Synthetic joint bio-lubricants for mitigating osteoarthritis and associated chronic pain
    Arthritis Foundation of Australia
    Open grant
  • 2021 - 2025
    Sulfoxide Polymers - A New Paradigm in Polymer Design
    ARC Discovery Projects
    Open grant
  • 2018 - 2020
    Novel cyclic glycopolymers for improved inhibition of bacterial AB5 toxins
    UQ Development Fellowships
    Open grant

Availability

Dr Changkui Fu is:
Available for supervision

Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.

Available projects

  • Design and synthesis of next-generation of antifouling polymers

    Antifouling polymers play very important roles in many biomedical applications such as medical implants, drug delivery systems and targeted imaging and sensing. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) has been the most successful and popular antifouling polymer. Despite this, a number of limitations associated with use of PEG have emerged, with the apparent immunogenicity of PEG being the most striking and important as revealed by recent animal and clinical studies. The exact biological mechanism underpinning the immunogenicity of PEG is still not very clear. However, it is believed that the partial amphiphilic nature of PEG is largely responsible. Thus, this project aims to understand the origin of PEG immunogenicity, particularly from a perspective of the chemical nature of polymers, and correlate the antifouling performance of polymers to their structures to develop next-generation of antifouling polymers. For more details, please read our recent papers (Adv. Sci, 2020, 2000406; ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 799–805; Angew.Chem. Int.Ed. 2020, 59, 4729 –4735).

  • Develop advanced lipid nanoparticles and polymers for mRNA delivery

    Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology is transforming modern medicine by offering a powerful platform for the prevention, treatment, and management of a wide array of challenging diseases, including infectious illnesses, cancer, and genetic disorders. This project focuses on the development of next-generation mRNA delivery systems based on advanced lipid nanoparticles and/or synthetic polymers. By enhancing intracellular delivery and protein expression, the project seeks to overcome current limitations and unlock the full therapeutic potential of mRNA-based treatments.

  • Develop new approaches for the delivery of protein therapeutics

    Proteins are an important class of pharmaceuticals. There are 6 protein therapeutics out 10 best-selling drugs of 2018. Overcoming the limitations of many protein therapeutics such as low aqueous solubility and biological stability as well as possible immunogenicity to improve their bioavailability is a key to use them to treat human diseases. This project aims to developing new approaches for efficient and effective delivery of proteins by utilising advanced synthetic chemistry and biocompatible polymer materials. We pay particular attention to the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the proteins formulated using our advanced approaches. For more details, please read our recent papers (ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 799–805; Angew.Chem. Int.Ed. 2020, 59, 4729 –4735).

  • Synthesis and application of advanced polymeric imaging agents

    This project focuses on developing advanced polymers capable of inherent imaging property for high-resolution and highly sensitive imaging applications. In particular, we are interested in exploring synthetic polymers that can be used as high performance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. Despite the popular use of metal-based MRI contrast agents such as gadolinium-chelates or iron oxide nanoparticles, safety concerns have been raised associated with the use of these metal-based contrast agents. The polymers developed in this project will provide outstanding candidates as metal-free MRI contrast agents, which would enable a variety of biomedical applications such as targeted imaging and therapy of many diseases. For more details, please read our recent papers (Polym. Chem., 2017, 8, 4585-4595; Macromolecules 2018, 51, 5875-5882; Angew.Chem. Int.Ed. 2020, 59, 4729 –4735).

  • We welcome motivated students with background on synthetic chemistry, polymer science, biomaterials, and pharmacy to join our research programs.

Supervision history

Current supervision

Completed supervision

Enquiries

For media enquiries about Dr Changkui Fu's areas of expertise, story ideas and help finding experts, contact our Media team:

communications@uq.edu.au